Native American Congressional Internship Program Celebrates 30 Years Connecting Indian Country to the Federal Government

Originally launched in 1996, the Native American Congressional Internship (NACI) program seeks to identify future leaders in Indian Country and place them in Congressional and Federal agency offices in Washington, D.C., so they can learn firsthand how the Federal government works with and impacts Tribes and Tribal communities.

The NACI is co-managed by the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy at the University of Arizona, through its Native Nations Institute for Leadership, Management, and Policy (NNI), and the Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation (Udall Foundation), an independent executive branch agency in the Federal government. Now recruiting for its 30th annual cohort, the NACI has served more than 340 Native American and Alaska Native interns representing more than 130 Tribal Nations and Alaska Native Villages and hailing from more than 110 colleges and universities. 

Applications are currently open for the 2026 program and are due on January 15, 2026.

Once selected from a competitive pool of applicants, interns are placed by Udall Foundation staff in the offices of Senators, Representatives, Congressional committees, and Federal agencies for a summer to gain real-world experience working in the Federal government and with the legislative process. 

The program runs for ten consecutive weeks, during which interns live and work full-time in the nation’s capital. Interns also participate in Native Nation Building programming delivered by the Tribal and Direct Services team at NNI as well as other professional development and networking opportunities.  

Though at least two similar programs used to exist to provide professional policy experience to up-and-coming Native leaders (the Washington Internships for Native Students or “WINS” program at American University and the Native American Political Leadership Program at George Washington University), the Udall Foundation’s NACI is the last remaining Federal internship program dedicated to connecting Native American and Alaska Native students with lawmakers and agency officials in Washington, D.C.

A door opens

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Growing up on the Northern Michigan reservation of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Rose Nimkiins Petoskey had an inside look at the workings of Tribal governance from an early age. 

Both of Petoskey’s parents worked for the Tribe – her mother as Vice Chair for the Tribal Council and her father as general counsel – during a time of legal change for the Native nation. Petoskey was born not long after the restoration of Federal recognition for her Tribe. That time period also saw the passage of the Indian Gaming and Regulatory Act and the Tribal Self-Governance Act.

“My parents, along with many others in our community, worked hard to help shape everything that came after we were restored to Federal recognition in terms of gaming and economic development for our Tribe,” Petoskey said. “I saw then how you can serve and protect your community by having a legal education and being a lawyer.” 

After graduating high school, Petoskey moved from the rural area of under 1000 people where she had lived her entire life to a city with a population of about 49,000 to study political theory at a state university. 

Petoskey knew she wanted to pursue her education in law but, as an underclassman, her next step was unclear. Then, in her junior year, a friend and mentor suggested Petoskey apply for the NACI.

More than an internship

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Alicia Harris is the Director of Education Programs at the Udall Foundation. She says that the Udall Foundation makes efforts to place interns with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs and with elected officials from their home states, though interns have also served in the Departments of Justice and Education, at the Council for Environmental Quality, and in dozens of other Congressional and agency offices.

But, “the experience is more than just the office placement,” Harris says. “It's also about being with the cohort, the enrichment activities we provide and the professional development opportunities.”

In addition to hands-on experience in the capital, interns also gain access to a growing alumni network. “Former interns have shared the importance of our program and the impact it has had on their career trajectory,” said Harris. “And, moreover, they’ve discussed the value of being able to meet other Native American and Alaska Natives who are interested in issues related to Indian Country.”

Petoskey says the network has helped her find community throughout her career. “The experience you have building this community with other young Native people from across the country is just as important as the experience you have within the Federal agencies or within Congress,” she says. “We had 12 people in my Udall class and many of them are my close friends still to this day.”

‘A pipeline for the Native community in D.C.’

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Not only has the NACI helped hundreds of Native leaders start careers in politics and policy, but it has also helped many of its participants find employment in Washington. Petoskey calls the internship “a pipeline for the Native community in D.C.”

“Of the Native legal community out here, many are former Udall interns,” says Petoskey, who still lives in D.C. and today works as an attorney for the Native American law and policy arm of an international law firm.

NNI Executive Director Joan Timeche (Hopi) has worked with every cohort of NACI interns since 2009. She says she’s seen interns make their way into a variety of “powerful positions” after graduating from the program, including working as staffers on the Hill and serving as legislators in their home communities. 

But in addition to the benefits provided to individual interns, Timeche says that having Native American voices in these offices also benefits the officials running them and Indian Country in general.

“You might be the only Native American that will be in that office, or that they may have had in that office for a number of years,” Timeche says, “And, with everything you get to work on during your time there, you have the opportunity to think about what the impact will be on Indian Country.”

Rose’s road to the White House

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Petoskey’s professional journey demonstrates how the NACI program continues to impact the careers of Native American and Alaska Native students even after they’ve completed the program.

Remember that friend who recommended she apply for the internship in the first place? That was Bryan Newland, a former Native American Congressional Intern himself who eventually rose to the position of Tribal president of the Bay Mills Indian Community and, later, assistant secretary of Indian affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior. 

In fact, Newland was stationed at Interior as a senior policy advisor when Petoskey came to the department for her internship, meaning Petoskey had a familiar face on her Washington team from the jump thanks to the NACI.

After her internship, Petoskey completed her undergraduate degree and went on to law school at an ivy league university before returning to D.C. to work first as a law clerk and then as an associate with her current employer. Newland served as a reference for Petoskey during the application process and helped her to land her first position after law school.

Newland returned to the Department of the Interior as assistant secretary for Indian affairs in 2021 and called Petoskey with an invitation to apply to join his staff later that year. After another two years working for the Federal government, Petoskey’s skill was noticed by White House officials, and she was subsequently appointed senior advisor and director of Tribal affairs for the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs in 2023.

At the White House, she joined another former member of her NACI cohort, Elizabeth Hidalgo Reese (Pueblo of Nambe), who was working as a senior policy advisor for Native affairs at the White House Domestic Policy Council. 

Petosky points out that both she and Reese were still college students when they met in D.C. the first time. “And then,” she says, “years later, we worked at the White House together helping to lead Tribal policy…So that was a full-circle moment for us and the NACI program.” Today, Reese is an associate professor of law at one of the top universities in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report rankings.

“It's had a huge impact on my career and what I've done with my life,” Petoskey says of her internship experience. “I think that's true for many people who've participated in the program, and it's true for representation across D.C. of Native folks who are in really high-level positions today, many of whom got their start as former Udall Interns.”

When asked about what it means to have such an opportunity available to youth in Indian Country, Petoskey offered this summary: “It's really creating this life-changing experience for the 18-year-old kid on the reservation who starts to think, ‘I could be the assistant secretary.’ You know? ‘One day I could be a cabinet member; one day I could be president.’”