About Us

In 1965, Congress passed legislation that established the National Endowment for the Humanities as a Federal Agency. The Amerika Samoa Humanities Council (ASHC) is neither a state nor a federal agency but, instead, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. We are the 56th state in 1994, and are continuing to receive the bulk of our annual budget from NEH. We are an independent non-profit organization that is governed by a Board. The public nominates 75% of the Board members and 25% is appointed by the Governor. Much care is taken to ensure the equal numbers of academic and public members make up the Board. Two of our major functions are: 1) Award grants to support community initiated projects, and 2) Promote or conduct projects of our own design. The work of the Council is carried out in support of community programs that promotes understanding and appreciation of these various disciplines as mandated by Congress: history; philosophy; languages; linguistics; literature; archaeology; jurisprudence; the history; theory; and criticism of the arts; ethics; comparative religion; and those aspects of the social sciences that employ historical or philosophical approaches.

Our office is located in the heart of downtown Fagatogo. On the second floor of the popular Lumana’i Bldg., we have the most beautiful view of the Pago Bay and the main wharf. On the mountain side we have the view of the Sogelau hill where the first US Flag was raised on April 17, 1900.