Under the direct supervision of Big Water Consulting staff, the intern will assist in transforming complex data sets into clear, engaging written narratives and designing visually compelling materials that accurately reflect analytical findings.

Big Water Staff traveled to the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Eastern Montana at the beginning of May to present initial survey results to tribal leaders, staff, and members of the community. While on-site, Big Water also hosted listening sessions in three different locations on the reservation with representation from community members living in all 5 districts to dig deeper into the particular needs community members have spanning across the various community clusters. 

At the Native American Development Center’s 2025 TribalEcon Summit, Big Water Consulting’s Owner and Managing Director, Kevin Klingbeil, led a compelling session on Strengthening Tribal Data Sovereignty to Produce Better Economic Data and Outcomes.

We're proud to share that our own Kevin Klingbeil moderated a powerful session at the 2024 Center for Indian Country Development Data Summit: "Telling Your Own Story with Data: The Rewards and Challenges of Conducting a Tribal Census."

Research Associate, Chloe Adler, presented the findings of the Native Women's Leadership Report, a NAN initiative completed in March 2024 aimed at fostering Native women's leadership in the state of Washington by gathering information and insight from hundreds of Native women about their leadership goals, current barriers, and programming wants and needs.

From August 19th - 21st, Big Water staff visited the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in eastern Montana to facilitate listening sessions and conduct a 2-day field staff training to launch the data collection phase of the Northern Cheyenne Health and Housing Needs Assessment.

Big Water feels privileged to have been able to join fabulous experts within the tribal housing community for a week filled with insightful conversations, the exchange of ideas, and discussions about the future of housing in Indian Country.

Big Water team members visited Bayfield, Wisconsin on the week of April 28th to present the results of the Red Cliff 2023 Tribal Census to Red Cliff's Tribal Council and community members.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe hosted an Initial Consultation for their Health and Housing Needs Assessment on April 2nd and 3rd, 2024, in Lame Deer, Montana. This planning session is a crucial step towards understanding and addressing the most pressing needs of the residents of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.

March 18th to 20th, 2024 marked the Field Staff Training for Warm Springs Housing Study and Needs Assessment.  Nestled in Central Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are dedicated to uplifting their communities and preserving their heritage.

Big Water is honored to have been a part of Native Action Network (NAN)'s inspiring International Women's Day Luncheon on March 8th, 2024. The event was a celebration of Native women's accomplishments and leadership.

The Indigenous Economic Development Community of Practice is a dedicated space for tribal and Native economic development practitioners to share knowledge, build capacity, and identify best practices.

In the heart of Cleveland, Ohio, the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Annual Training Conference 2023 served as the ideal platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and fostering connections.

Big Water Managing Director, Kevin Klingbeil traveled to Denver to present at the Collaborating, Innovating, Transforming: 2023 Economic Development Conference for the EDA Denver Region, an event hosted by the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO).

Kevin Klingbeil of Big Water Consulting provided HUD-funded training and technical assistance to the members Great Lakes Indian Housing Association at their quarterly meeting in Red Wing, MN addressing the mechanics of the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) formula.  The presentation was entitled “A Peek Behind the Funding Curtain: The Mechanics of the IHBG Formula.” This training covered formula basics, data source considerations and requirements for challenging the data supporting certain elements of the formula. The audience included housing program directors and staff members as well as agency staff members and other professionals serving and supporting tribal housing programs in the Great Lakes region.

Last month, in partnership with Katie Symons and Suenary Philavanh of Beaux Simone Consulting, Kevin Klingbeil of Big Water Consulting conducted a webinar on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Native American Programs and the Native American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) on Housing Needs Assessment and Effective Community Engagement. The audience included staff members from a variety of different tribes, regions, and programs interested in learning best practices and strategies for engaging community members as well as the primary components of conducting housing and community needs assessments.

Big Water Consulting had the honor of giving three presentations during the 2021 NAIHC Legal Symposium, held in person in Las Vegas.

Rachel Kramer and Kevin Klingbiel had the opportunity to present findings from recent work regarding research surrounding thirdhand methamphetamine exposure. This project was funded by an NAIHC T&TA grant to the Salish and Kootenai Housing Authority.

In January 2021 we released a report documenting 2020 Census Outreach work completed by the We’re Here We Count campaign, a coalition of partners that was funded by the Washington State Office of Financial Management and included United Way of King County, King County, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Pyramid Communications, Washington Census Alliance, Na’ah Illahee Fund, and Big Water Consulting.