Project Collaboration

The Amache Alliance engages and supports a wide range of Amache preservation and educational projects.

For more real-time updates, join our new Facebook group: All Things Amache facebook.com/groups/809799359625587/

2023 Annual Amache Pilgrimage - May 20

Volunteer Set Up and Clean Up Day - May 19

The annual Amache Pilgrimage takes place on the Saturday before Memorial Day weekend, May 20, 2023, this year. Nikkeijin Kai of Colorado will provide details. Check Amache.org for pilgrimage details.

On Friday May 19th, join volunteers from the Amache Preservation Society, Amache Alliance, NPCA, CPI, DU Amache Project and Sand Creek Massacre NHS at Amache and in Granada.

Friday May 19th:

3:00pm Meet at Amache entrance Archaeology Tour

6:00pm Meet at Granada Community Center for Amache presentations

If interested in volunteering and spending extra time on the Amache site, please contact us at amachealliance@gmail.com

Amache Preservation Society

Education, on site projects, tours, and maintenance

The Amache Preservation Society (APS) maintains the physical site of Amache, manages the Amache museum in Granada, and is instrumental in its preservation.

The Granada High School society, established by Mr. John Hopper, consists of volunteer students. With the help of supporting organizations, the APS has renovated the cemetery, established the Amache Museum and research center, restored key Amache landmarks, including the water tower, a guard tower, honor roll kiosk, and barrack.

APS reaches out to the local communities and educates about Amache. The Amache Alliance helps maintain the Amache.org website, support on-site projects, and provides community support for their programs.

National Park Service

Amache National Historic Site Transition

On March 18, 2022, the Amache National Historic Site Act was signed into law by President Joseph R. Biden, designating Amache National Historic Site as a new park in the National Park System.

The Amache National Historic Site Act (H.R.2497) authorizes the park to be established, and requires the NPS to meet certain conditions, including land acquisition, in order to be established. The National Park Service will work with the Town of Granada to acquire the lands intended in the law. The Amache Alliance has been supporting the NPS team with historical information supporting the lands transition process and involved in the foundation document public feedback.

Parkplanning - Amache Special Resource Study (nps.gov)

We have quarterly meetings with the Park Service and special topic meetings supporting the transition process to establish the Amache National Historic Site.

Dept. of Interior Sec. Deb Haaland, Sen. Bennet, Rep. Neguse, NPS staff, and Tracy Coppola from the NPCA visiting during the 2022 Day of Rememberance.

National Parks Conservation Association

Amache National Historic Site Act (H.R. 2497 / S.1284)

NPCA and partners are committed to creating a national park site that preserves the Amache incarceration camp, interprets the history under which it operated, and honors the people who were once imprisoned there based solely on their ethnicity.

The Alliance collaborated with the NPCA and Senior Colorado National Parks Program Manager, Tracy Coppola, in support of the legislative bills. The bipartisan legislation by Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.) overwhelmingly passed the House by 416-2 in July 2021. In the Senate, with leadership from Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and John Hickenlooper, (D-Colo.), the bill passed by unanimous consent on Monday February 14, and re-passed the House of Representatives via unanimous consent on Friday February 18.

Amache National Historic Site Act (H.R. 2497) was signed into law by President Biden on March 18, 2022. This authorizes the park to be established once the land has been transferred to the government. In the meantime, the site will still be managed by the Amache Preservation Society. The Alliance is supporting the NPS teams working to establish the historic site.

Preserve the History of Amache

Sonoma State University
Anthropological Studies Center

Amache Interpretation Master Plan

The Amache Alliance is working with Sonoma State providing stakeholder and Amache community input. Sonoma State University received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to revise and update the Amache Interpretation Master Plan. An updated plan for the site and museum will more fully integrate the needs, perspectives, and voices of a stakeholder community that has substantially grown since the last plan was completed in 2007.

Dana Ogo-Shew gathering public input at JANM in Los Angeles

Colorado Preservation Inc.

Barrack and Rec. Hall Interior Exhibits

Colorado Preservation, Inc. has received a NPS JACS grant to develop public exhibits for the reconstructed 12H barrack and 11F recreation hall. CPI Preservation Services Director Jane Daniels is working with Amache community groups for project input. The project team, including Amache Alliance Directors Dana Ogo Shew and April Kamp-Whittaker, will draft a conceptual framework and plans in early 2022.

CPI supports volunteer projects at Amache including an upcoming Aug 26, 2023, workshop in Granada, CO to begin making furniture for the barrack.

Katie Arntzen Colorado - State Historical Fund
Dr. Bonnie Clark - Univ. of Denver
April Kamp-Whittaker and Dana Ogo Shew

North Shore Productions and
Colorado Preservation Inc.

Amache Documentary Film & Educational Curriculum Project

Colorado Preservation, Inc., in a partnership with North Shore Productions in Portland, Oregon, will make a documentary film about Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in Amache during World War II. A 2021 National Park Service Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant provides the initial funding. The Amache Alliance is providing access to historical expertise and stakeholder community engagement.

Community Outreach and Education

The Amache Alliance works to educate all Americans about the forced evacuation, relocation, and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Amache Alliance works collaboratively with other organizations to highlight the lessons of Japanese American confinement and its relevance to the preservation of liberty and civil rights for all Americans today.

Partnership and collaboration included the following projects:

JANM - USC Shinso Ito Center:

Irei - National Monument for the WWII Japanese American Incarceration
For Every Generation: Recovering and Sharing Family Histories
Community advisor for Bible and Sutra project

JANM: Sutra and Bible exhibit and book
NJAHS: WRA Incarceree Farm Labor Teacher Education Project

USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture