The National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE)’s Internship Program is a partnership with the National Park Service and other Federal agencies with cultural resource protection and public land management responsibilities. The purpose is to accomplish needed and important work on federally protected lands while providing program participants with professional experience in their chosen fields. Interns work under the guidance of agency staff who are subject area experts to carry out the mission of the park.

To be eligible, applicants must be between 18 and 30 years old (or 35 if a veteran) when starting the internship, a post-secondary student (certificate program, 2-year, 4-year, or graduate level), or a recent graduate (within the past 12 months at the time of application), and a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.  

This position will provide library support for the Bent’s Old Fort NHS and Sand Creek Massacre NHS library collections under the supervision of the Sand Creek Massacre NHS Archivist. This position is in-person, stationed at Bent’s Old Fort NHS in La Junta, CO. A housing allowance is available to help defray the cost of living.

The project will include inventorying the Bent’s Old Fort staff library, culling outdated and unused materials, identifying weak spots in the collection, and making recommendations for new acquisitions to the library. The intern will collaborate on drafting a library Scope of Collections Statement update for the Bent’s Old Fort staff library. Project work at Sand Creek will include an inventory of its research library and assisting the Archivist in drafting consistent language for library policy. For the majority of the time, the intern will report to the Bent’s Old Fort Headquarters. Time at Sand Creek will be limited to 20% or less of the total internship. A government vehicle will be available for the intern’s use for trips to Sand Creek, near Eads, Colorado.

Located along the Arkansas River, Bent’s Fort was an 1840s adobe trading post on the Santa Fe Trail and in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States, where traders, trappers, travelers, and the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes came together in peaceful terms for trade. Today, a reconstructed fort allows visitors to explore the front line of Westward Expansion.

Sand Creek Massacre NHS was authorized in 2000 and established in 2007 to commemorate a massacre of Cheyenne and Arapahoe women, children, and elders that occurred in Southeastern Colorado on November 29, 1864. The park strives to educate the public about the massacre so that another tragedy like this does not happen again.

Both parks belong to the High Plains Group, a network of four NPS units across Southeastern Colorado and Northern New Mexico.

The position is provisional; the internship can begin when funding has been secured.  A background security investigation may be required before the start date. All NCPE internships accrue 4 hours of PTO for every 80 hours worked.

Qualified NCPE interns who complete their internships may count their position towards earning a Public Land Corps (PLC) Non-Competitive Hiring Authority certificate.  Once earned, the PLC certificate can be used to apply for eligible Federal permanent, temporary, or term positions. Visit https://preservenet.org/ncpe-internships/ for details about this benefit. Successful completion of the internship does not guarantee Federal employment.