{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-uncovers-national-park-services-150000-grant-study-alaskan-natives-beliefs/", "Sen. Rand Paul Uncovers National Park Service\u2019s $150,000 Grant to Study Alaskan Native\u2019s Beliefs of the Supernatural", "2016-03-29", "2016", "2016-03", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released latest edition of \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 which is an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.\n\nIn the latest edition of \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 Sen. Paul uncovers the National Park Service (NPS) funding a $150,000 grant to conduct a three-year study where the primary objective is to investigate Alaska\u2019s Bering Strait Inuit tribe\u2019s experiences with the supernatural in Alaska. According to NPS, the supernatural occurrences the study explores will be unexplained lights, sea monsters, invisible sea birds, animals with transformative powers, a variety of other non-human persons, and so on.\n\n\u2018The Waste Report\u2019 can be found HERE or below.\n\nHonestly, we did not make this up and we did not find this one in the Onion; but someone must have been really excited about Fox\u2019s reboot of the X-Files because the National Park Service is spending $150,000 of taxpayer money to investigate supernatural events in Alaska.[1]\n\nYes, you read that right. Last month, the National Park Service announced a $150,000 grant to Kawerak, Inc., who has no cost-sharing obligation, to conduct a three-year study under the title, \u201cKnowledge, Experience and Beliefs of the Supernatural Environment.\u201d By the way, this is the same Park Service that reports it has an almost $12 billion maintenance backlog.[2]\n\nYou might think this is simply cataloging historical and traditional beliefs of indigenous peoples of Alaska. To be sure, part of the project is to conduct archival research, but there is more. According to the announcement, \u201cThe primary objective of this project is to investigate Bering Strait Inuit residents\u2019 beliefs and knowledge about (and experiences with) the supernatural environment\u2026\u201d\n\nExperiences with the supernatural? Yes. In fact, according to the announcement, Kawerak is expected to, \u201c[d]ocument community members\u2019 personal experience with the supernatural\u2026\u201d[3] This will include community meetings where all ages are expected to participate, children are especially known for their insight and experience with supernatural events. In pre-award advertising for these meetings Kawerak noted this is meant to be a \u201cserious and meaningful\u201d collaboration on the supernatural. Serious, indeed, the advertisement also promises participants an honorarium.[4]\n\nSo, what constitutes supernatural? Well, \u201celements in and aspects of the environment such as little people, unexplained lights, sea monsters, invisible sea birds, animals with transformative powers, a variety of other non-human persons, landscape features with special powers, and other similar phenomena as defined by participants.\u201d\n\nIn addition to direct funding, the National Park Service has committed to help with logistical support including to, \u201cassist making agreements on using government housing,\u201d promoting the project on Facebook, and to \u201chave the project products translated into Russian.\u201d[5] Back in the natural world, we know this project translates into more than 20 average taxpayers\u2019 total one-year tax liability.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:47:03Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-sen-rand-paul-uncovers-national-park-services-150000-grant-study-alaskan-natives-beliefs/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.12656008079648, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}