August 28, 2026, 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
1912 Center, Moscow, Idaho
Roots of a Nation from Idaho Humanities Councils brings together a film festival and a folklife festival to consider how history is remembered, told, challenged, and carried forward. The program is connected to the 250th, while intentionally avoiding a triumphalist or simplified story of the American past.
This is not a pageant of easy patriotism. It is an invitation to gather with care, engage the past honestly, and recognize that this anniversary holds different meanings for different communities, especially Indigenous peoples whose histories, cultures, and partnership are vital to this event.
As we reflect during the 250th, this program makes room for complexity. American and Idaho history includes creativity, community, conflict, dispossession, endurance, and change. We aim to create a thoughtful public space shaped by respect, curiosity, and dialogue. At the folklife festival, hands-on history activities, storytelling, and music will help connect families with American and Idaho history through participation, listening, and shared experience.
This program is part of By the People: Conversations Beyond 250, a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils in collaboration with local partners. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
