Jael Kampfe
Be a good relative
Jael strives to listen deeply, uplift inherent wisdom, and create space for collective solutions. She recognizes her responsibility to actively engage in systems change, to work on an ecosystem level, and to practice shared leadership, knowing that solutions with the most promise are already happening within Native communities.
Jael Kampfe, of Scottish and German descent, grew up in Red Lodge MT, part of an extensive 4th generation ranching family. She currently resides in Bearcreek, MT on the traditional homelands of the Oceti Sakowin, Cheyenne, and Apsaalooke peoples with her husband, and soulmate Gerald Sherman (Blue Star Man).
Jael attended Yale University, where she developed her ability to listen, write, and communicate. She used this skillset to provide project and editorial support to Lakota traditional chief and sun dance leader, Albert White Hat Sr. as he wrote and published “Reading and Writing the Lakota Language”, the first Lakota language curriculum written by a fluent speaker. Together, they, with other national leaders, co-founded Four Times Foundation, of which Jael became the founding Executive Director. A national, place-based foundation, Four Times Foundation innovated equity investments into reservation based Native entrepreneurs while strengthening the ecosystem necessary to support their success. Four Times Foundation had a business success rate that surpassed the national average despite serving the poorest counties in the US. Jael was later hired to adapt the model as a statewide effort for rural entrepreneurial development throughout South Dakota, co-creating the Dakota Rising fellowship program at Dakota Resources. The Montana Indian Equity Fund is influenced by Four Times Foundations’ success.
Jael went on to become the first woman to manage and later lease the Lazy EL Ranch, a 12,000 acre cattle operation and guest business founded in 1901 by Jael's great grandfather. Working with the land and its stewards, Jael forwarded progressive land and livestock management practices while deepening her love for both. She was a national livestock advisor to Defenders of Wildlife as they innovated techniques to prevent predator depredation of livestock and systems to address compensation, which ultimately influenced Montana’s wolf management policies.
In 2007, Jael co-created Bar K Management Co. which provided management services to her agricultural businesses and seeded a consulting practice that is now Indigenous Impact Co. Through this work, Bar K Management Co. was the lead consultant to shepherd a national conversation at the Kennedy Center between National Congress of American Indians and Define American about immigration from a Native perspective. Since 2001, Jael and Bar K Management Co. have provided strategic support, executive coaching, and capacity building for First Peoples Fund, a national leader in Native arts, culture, and philanthropy who recently celebrated their 25th anniversary on the main stage at the Kennedy Center. In addition to supporting Native innovators and Native-led organizations, Bar K Management Co. also has long term relationships within philanthropy and impact investing as a result of providing evaluative services and facilitating strategic conversations and gatherings largely focused on increasing access to capital for Native led organizations.
Jael is the President of Indigenous Impact Co. Their current largest client is the Mountain | Plains Regional Native CDFI Coalition, a regional coalition led primarily by Native women that is fortifying a regional Indigenous Finance Industry. One of 21 awardee of the Economic Development Administration's Build Back Better Regional Challenge, with a $45 million dollar investment, the Coalition just received the single largest investment into the Native CDFI industry since its founding in 1985. With this seed capital, they are launching a holistic, five-year strategy to reimagine and actualize capital systems that center relationship, reciprocity, and resilience.
As Granny to 14 Lakota grandchildren, she takes seriously her responsibility to connect grandchildren with access to cultural knowledge that comes through their Lakota tiospaye (extended family). Land, its food, and the animals it supports restores Jael’s spirit when grandchildren and Gerald aren’t within hugging distance.
Turquoise over diamonds. Red over beige. Create over dismantle. Boots over heels. Questions over answers. Grandchildren over all else.