The White House today presented a public library on the Hoopa Reservation in northern California with a 2007 National Medal for Museum and Library Services award.
First Lady Laura Bush honored the Kim Yerton Branch of the Humboldt County Library with $10,000.
The library was the only one in California, and the only one in Indian Country, selected to receive the award.
"We come from an area where a lot of our kids never saw books and have never handled a pen or pencil until they got to school," Hoopa Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall told The Sacramento Bee. "If we didn't have the library, we wouldn't have much. We wouldn't have any place to do any type of research or study."
The tribe spends $60,000 a year to keep the library up and running. The county pays for the books.
Get the Story:Humble library is life-changing for the Hoopa Indian reservation (The Sacramento Bee 1/14)
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First Lady Honors Museums, Libraries (AP 1/14) $rl Hoopa Valley Tribe - http://www.hoopa-nsn.gov
Humboldt County Library -- Hoopa Branch - http://www.humlib.org/branches/hoopa
Institute of Museum and Library Services - http://www.imls.gov
