The bulk of Legacy Amendment money, raised by a three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax increase, will be spent on the outdoors. Another slice of the money, more than $90 million over 2010 and 2011, supports arts and culture.

And a slice of that slice, about $6.75 million, is being passed out by the Minnesota Historical Society in grants to museums, schools and other nonprofit organizations.

That money is being used to help out old buildings, old trains and old boats.

There's also $7,000 to start the inventory of Will Steger's manuscript collection for the Will Steger Foundation, $5,250 for the Rose Ensemble to hire a professional historian to research temperance music and $3,793 for the Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict to repair, clean and create storage mounts for three Ojibwe bandolier bags.

Then there are the oral histories. Such as $7,000 for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design to conduct 15 interviews to document the state's cartoonists community.

The Minnesota Medical Association Foundation is getting a $2,914 grant to help retired psychiatrist Deane Manolis transcribe interviews on the history of psychiatry in the state.

"The Legacy opportunity is fabulous for us," said oral historian Kate Cavett.

Her St. Paul nonprofit, HAND in HAND Productions, got a $7,000 grant to do 11 oral history interviews documenting the history and culture of women in the St. Paul Police Department.

Here are some of the other oral histories being funded through the grant:

• Advocates for Human Rights, $7,000, for 10 interviews on the history of Liberian immigrants in Minnesota.
• Asian Media Access, $7,000, for 12 interviews on the history of Asian American-Pacific Island immigrants to Minnesota.
• Bakken Museum, $6,950, for 12 interviews on Minnesota's medical device industry.
• Birthing Ways-Doula Connection, $4,095, for five to seven interviews on maternity care in Duluth before 1941.
• Chinese American Academic and Professional Association in Minnesota, $7,000, for eight interviews on the Chinese experience in Minnesota after 1970.
• College of Saint Benedict, $6,962, for 30 interviews on the history of the college.
• Commission of Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans, $64,100, for oral and visual histories of deaf, deaf/blind and hard of hearing Minnesotans.
• Concordia University Department of History, $21,825, for oral histories on the social and cultural history of Minnesota during the 1970s.
• Friends of the History Museum of East Otter Tail County, $6,831, for 20 interviews related to the Cold War in eastern Otter Tail County.
• Friends of the Immigration History Research Center, $13,123, for oral histories on congregations and houses of worship in nine neighborhoods in the Twin Cities near the Mississippi River between 1849 and 1924.
• Grassroots Culture, $5,870, for 11 interviews on bluegrass music in Minnesota.
• Gunflint Trail Historical Society, $5,200, for three to five interviews and to transcribe 10 additional interviews on the Gunflint Trail.
• Hamline University Center for Global Environmental Education, $29,926, for oral and video interviews on environmental education in Minnesota.
• India Association of Minnesota, $7,000, for seven interviews on subcontinental Indian music in Minnesota.
• Isanti County Historical Society, $7,000, for 20 interviews on the businesses in Isanti County.
• Islamic Resource Group, $36,610, for oral interviews and photos on the Muslim experience in Minnesota.
• Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest, $6,998, for 18 interviews about Jewish migration to St. Louis Park from 1950 to 1970.
• Kittson County Historical Society, $6,995, for seven to 10 interviews on the military experience of county citizens from 1941 to 2010.
• Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota, $7,000, for 10 interviews on the historical experience of Lao people in war, refugee camps and immigrating to Minnesota.
• Minnesota Administrators of Special Education, $6,998, for seven interviews on the development of special education in Minnesota.
• Minnesota Women's Consortium, $6,900, for six interviews on the story of women in politics in Minnesota.
• Regents of the University of Minnesota, $6,983, for eight interviews on landscape design in 20th century Minnesota.
• Rochester Somali Sports and Youth Organization, $7,000, 20 interviews on the Somali experience.
• Saint Stephen's Human Services Inc., $6,700, for nine interviews on the Minnesota homeless experience outside of the metropolitan area.
• Talmud Torah of Minneapolis, $7,000, for 10 interviews about Holocaust survivors in Minnesota.
• Twin Cities Media Alliance, $7,000, for 20 interviews on the history of Minnesota journalism from 1950 to 2000.
• Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, $6,540, to record 15 interviews about the establishment of the sanitary district and subsequent pollution abatement.

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560.

See the online article from the Pioneer Press website - Jan. 18, 2011