A $60,580 project, half of it federal, will update Kodiak's history book

A new edition of the Kodiak History Museum's history book will reach local schools and libraries in print and ebook form under a $30,290 federal grant. The federal share is half the cost. The award record puts the whole project at $60,580, with the other half coming from non-federal sources.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the money to the Kodiak Historical Society, according to the federal award record posted to USAspending.gov. The award was signed Aug. 11 and goes through Feb. 28, 2029. The full federal amount was obligated in a single action, and nothing has been paid out.

The money will pay to revise, publish and distribute an updated edition of "A Legacy Built to Last." The book tells Kodiak's history through the Russian-American Magazin, which the award description calls the oldest standing building in Alaska. The updated edition covers the Russian era of the 1700s to the present day.

The Magazin, also known as the Erskine House, was built between 1804 and 1808 and is the oldest of only four surviving Russian structures in the United States, according to the National Park Service. The Secretary of the Interior designated it a National Historic Landmark in 1962. The City of Kodiak bought the building in 1972 and leases it to the Historical Society, which runs the museum.

How that era gets told is contested. The Park Service's Russian America theme study states that the Russian American Company "subjected Native populations to harsh working conditions" and that interpreting Russian-era landmarks "requires acknowledging the colonial context and its impact on Native communities, not simply commemorating Russian expansion." The award record does not state how the revision will treat that history, and the historical society is not quoted anywhere in this account.