The Mineta-Simpson Institute, dedicated to preserving the ideals of Secretary Norman Mineta and Senator Alan Simpson, will open this weekend during the annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage.
The Pilgrimage opens Thursday, July 25, with tours of the interpretive center and other facilities at the site of the incarceration camp that held 14,000 Japanese Americans between August 1942 and November 1945.
A panel featuring Shelly Lowe, chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities; Anthea Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History; Debra Kawahara, president-elect of the American Psychological Association; and Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum, will open the Institute’s new conference center at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, July 27.
Speakers will include former Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., and Lowe, Hartig and Burroughs. Actor Tamlyn Tomita, a Heart Mountain descendant, will lead a performance of the play Question 27, Question 28 during the Pilgrimage’s session on Friday morning.
Journalists interested in attending the Pilgrimage can register and pick up their credentials starting at 9 a.m. in the Taggart Room 1 in the Cody Holiday Inn, 1701 Sheridan Ave, Cody, WY 82414, starting Thursday, July 25.
The Pilgrimage schedule can be found on the Pilgrimage page.