While this keeps getting reported all over the web, I have gone through the National Park Service budget line by line (600+ pages) and I cannot find any reference to this claim.
Does anyone know anything about this?
The Washington Free Beacon recently revealed that the National Park Service had authorized nearly $150,000 in grant money in 2016 to an Alaska-based non-profit group to fund research into such things as Bigfoot, sea monsters, unexplained lights in the sky and other paranormal activities.
The recipient of the grant money was a group known as Kawerak, Inc., which serves the various native peoples of the Bering Strait region, whether they be of Aleut, Eskimo, Native American or Russian descent.
Kawerak described the project as a study of the “knowledge, beliefs and experiences” residents of the Bering Strait region have of their “supernatural environment.”
This “supernatural environment” included, but was not limited to, such things as “sea monsters, little people, wild babies, unexplained lights, animals that can change into other things and invisible sea birds.”
The stated objective of the project was to “document, in a serious and meaningful way, Bering Strait residents’ knowledge about, experiences with, and beliefs about supernatural phenomena. We think that this information is important to understanding how people relate to their environment and that there are culturally specific understandings of these phenomena which have not been previously documented.”
In March of 2016, without having gone through the normal competitive process, the Department of Interior deemed the research project worthy of $150,000 in grant money, with an initial disbursement of $50,000 in June, 2016, according to USA Spending. The rest of the funds were expected to be disbursed before the scheduled conclusion of the study in 2019.
A spokesman for the Park Service, John Quinley, explained to the Free Beacon that the grant was really just part of a broader program known as the Shared Beringian Heritage Program, which operates on a budget of $650,000 annually to support “(O)ngoing natural and cultural resource research conducted by a diverse group of partners including non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, tribal governments, and indigenous groups from the region.”
Michael L
The Government has wasted a hell of a lot more money than this on other totally useless projects just to funnel kickback money to their Democratic friends and supporters. This sounds like a much better way to spend it than giving it to corrupt buddies in Government..
Michael1lion
Glen K
I second that! Although I’m a Republican, the fact is that both parties friends and supporters receive kickbacks. See Halliburton. Uh oh, I swore not to discuss politics here. Anyway, make the grant at least a million. Still a drop in the bucket.
Michael L
Republican, Democrat- As for me. I am All American…
Michael1lion
Glen K
I Second That!!
Tracy A
https://www.nps.gov/akso/beringia/
Tracy A
Since its creation in 1991, the Beringia Program has sponsored over 135 projects, with more than $9 million in direct funding going to support bonds between scientists, researchers, and indigenous peoples in both countries.
https://www.institutenorth.org/programs/past-programs-and-initiatives/top-of-the-world-telegraph/op-ed-archive/our-home-our-responsibility/an-overview-of-the-shared-beringian-heritage-program/
Danny G
They hiring? ???
Mary W
Well Gov. Loves to spend money on the sex lives of fruit flies and over priced toilet seats . Business as usual .
Dave T
Sounds like pork to me. $150k doesn’t do much these days anyway other than throw a couple of big parties at a made up convention in Vegas.
MIGUEL V
Dave hit it right on the head!
Amy H
Awe heck why not?! I remember a friend telling me the US government lost 8 million dollars during the early Bush Jr years. Apparently, the money was on a plane that landed in the Middle East. Then poof! After it landed, the 8 million was gone like a fart! Not a soul could say where it went. Why not give a measly 150k to some non-profit who might actually use it instead of lose it, or give it away by paying 400.00 for a toilet seat…. Heck those paranormal investigators might find something… Maybe the 8 million lost long ago…
JAMES B
I’d love a $400 toilet seat!!!!
But it better do more than keep my ass from getting rings around it!
Charles R
Now that is some funny comments by the above posters. I will just throw in one for fun. Maybe they can channel those 30 to 40k lost Mrs. C emails. Or maybe they can find the real boogyman and he ain’t Russian.