We Are Building a Native Legacy

Scott and Pam Evans and Cal and Beverly Medhaug have been long time friends and relatives through Native American pow wow circles. Throughout their friendship, they have traveled together to rodeos, pow wows, and even vacationed all across the Northern Plains. During their times together, the couples often found their conversations leading back to one topic – how sad it was to watch young Native people from great families choose the wrong path in life because they didn’t have the tools or resources to know there was another direction.

Late one night, while visiting Yellowstone National Park at the Old Faithful Inn, that same conversation came up, but this time the group decided to change their narrative. They brainstormed the idea that summer internships for Native college students would open doors for different paths, and perhaps new beginnings. That night, the group agreed to act by trying to help a few Native college students earn summer internships and Native American Jump Start was born.

The founders believed that creating stronger relationships through the cultural exchange between the interns and their employers, colleagues, and customers would be one of the greatest strengths of the program. During that first year, they used their personal contacts to secure internships for four interns from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Now, twenty-five-plus years later, Native American Jump Start has placed hundreds of students, interns and employees, and provided over $750,000 in funding to support young Native people.