National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

A National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Finding a Path Forward

ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER

NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS THEME STUDY

Edited by Franklin Odo
ii AAPI National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Use of ISBN

This is the official U.S. Government edition of this publication and is herein identified to 

certify its authenticity. Use of 978-0-692-92584-3 is for the U.S. Government Publishing 

Office editions only. The Superintendent of Documents of the U.S. Government Publishing Office requests 

that any reprinted edition clearly be labeled a copy of the authentic work with a new ISBN.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Odo, Franklin, editor. | National Historic Landmarks Program (U.S.),

issuing body. | United States. National Park Service.

Title: Finding a Path Forward, Asian American and Pacific Islander National

Historic Landmarks theme study / edited by Franklin Odo.

Other titles: Asian American and Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks

theme study | National historic landmark theme study.

Description: Washington, D.C. : National Historic Landmarks Program, National

Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2017. | Series: A National

Historic Landmarks theme study | Includes bibliographical references and

index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017045212| ISBN 9780692925843 | ISBN 0692925848

Subjects: LCSH: National Historic Landmarks Program (U.S.) | Asian

Americans--History. | Pacific Islander Americans--History. | United

States--History.

Classification: LCC E184.A75 F46 2017 | DDC 973/.0495--dc23 | SUDOC I

29.117:AS 4

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045212

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office

Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800

Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001

ISBN 978-0-692-92584-3
Sources of Information about AAPI Cultural Resources

A number of NPS programs are concerned with 

AAPI history and cultural resources. Other 

groups are also useful sources of information, including the Asian and Pacific Islander 

Americans in Historic Preservation, which is 

dedicated to the preservation of AAPI cultural 

resources nationwide. The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders 

was a staunch supporter of the development of 

the AAPI theme study. A brief description of 

the programs and groups who contributed to 

this publication is provided below.

ASIAN AMERICAN PACIFIC ISLANDER 

HERITAGE INITIATIVE (NPS)

A link to the NPS AAPI Heritage Initiative 

can be found on the NPS website “Telling All 

Americans’ Stories.” The website includes 

links to NPS programs, such as Teaching with 

Historic Places and Heritage Travel Itineraries. It also provides links to the national parks 

and historic sites related to AAPI cultures. The 

website generally serves as a clearinghouse for 

AAPI publications, activities, conferences, and 

accomplishments, inside and outside of NPS. 

Please see www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/index.htm.

UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUNITY 

GRANTS (NPS)

The NPS website for Underrepresented 

Community Grants describes AAPI projects 

funded through the grant program. When 

complete, many of the funded projects will be 

a rich source of identified AAPI sites in specific 

locations. Please see www.nps.gov/preservation-grants/community-grants.

Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation. The Little Manila Dance Collective and 2016 

honorees for historic preservation efforts are shown in Stockton, California, the site of the 2016 annual 

meeting. The APIAHiP was formed in 2007 to protect historic places and cultural resources significant to 

Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. It focuses on information sharing, educational programs to raise 

public awareness and impact historic preservation policy, and increasing public and private resources for 

building historic preservation capacity. Photo by Aldrich Sabac; courtesy of the Little Manila Foundation.

Appendix 3

Appendix 3 391

392 AAPI National Historic Landmarks Theme Study

Projects funded with FY14 grants included two related 

to AAPI groups:

• The Utah State Historic Preservation Office was provided funds to complete a nomination of the Iosepa 

Polynesian Archeological District and to conduct an 

archeological survey of railroad sites associated with 

Chinese labor.

• The City of Boston was provided funding to develop 

a National Register historic context statement for the 

city’s Chinese community in the late 19th and early 

20th centuries.

The FY15 grants provided additional funding for 

projects associated with AAPI culture. 

• The City of Los Angeles Asian American Historic 

Context Project was funded to develop historic 

contexts and survey materials associated with the 

city’s Japanese, Filipino, Thai, Korean, and Chinese 

American populations.

• The City of San Francisco Civil Rights Project involved 

the preparation of three National Register nominations 

and a citywide inventory of properties associated with 

the advancement of civil rights for African American, 

Asian American, Latino American, LGBTQ populations, 

and women. The grant application mentioned two completed efforts of interest to the AAPI theme study. One 

was the San Francisco Filipino Heritage Addendum 

to the South of Market Area Historic Context Statements (Page & Turnbull, Inc., 2013); the other was the 

San Francisco Japantown Historic Context Statement 

(Donna Graves and Page & Turnbull, Inc., 2011).

• The Fort Snelling (Minnesota) Historic District 

National Historic Landmark Update Project was 

funded to update documentation to reflect the fort’s 

role as a WWII Japanese language school.

• The Butte, Montana, Ethnic Atlas and National Register Nomination Project was funded to re-survey the 

Butte-Anaconda NHL Historic District to identify 

Chinese ethnic sites, as well as important enclaves of 

African American and Arabic-speaking (Lebanese) 

peoples, and develop two new National Register 

nominations.

NPS JAPANESE AMERICAN CONFINEMENT SITES 

(JACS) GRANT PROGRAM

Congress established the JACS grant program (P.L. 109-

441, 120 Stat. 3288) to encourage the preservation and 

interpretation of sites where Japanese Americans were 

detained during World War II. Projects funded through 

the program are intended to identify, research, evaluate, 

interpret, protect, restore, repair, and acquire historic 

confinement sites, so present and future populations 

can learn from the failure in judgment of the nation's 

leaders. Projects have yielded a great deal of information 

about the confinement period and the facilities, including their material culture. Oral histories made through 

the program have profoundly increased our understanding of life at the sites and the toll it took on those confined. NHL nominations are a potential outcome of the 

program. Please see www.nps.gov/JACS/index.html.

WHITE HOUSE INITIATIVE ON ASIAN AMERICANS 

AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS 

The White House Initiative did not contribute site 

specific information to development of the AAPI theme 

study or the property lists, but it was a constant supporter of the theme study effort. The web site includes 

current information of interest to the AAPI community, 

including political and social developments related to 

AAPI. Please see www.whitehouse.gov/aapi.

ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS 

IN HISTORIC PRESERVATION 

Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation (APIAHiP), formed in 2007, is a national network 

of preservationists, historians, planners, and advocates 

who are interested in historic and cultural preservation 

in Asian and Pacific Islander American communities.

It provides forums for discussing AAPI preservation 

issues of mutual interest and is active in advocacy and 

policy issues. The group has sponsored two projects of 

particular relevance to the AAPI theme study, “East at 

Main Street,” a national APIA history mapping project, 

and the APIA Endangered Sites list. Please see 

www.apiahip.org/.