Prairie Bighorn grew up on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in eastern Montana and is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Sioux Tribe. She graduated from Rocky Mountain College with a bachelor’s degree in Business, and from the University of Montana with a master’s degree in Business Administration. While she was in college, she was an active American Indian Business Leader (AIBL) chapter member and she also worked for the National AIBL office during her graduate studies. Before joining the AIBL team, she worked in Washington DC, providing accounting and contract management services to help support economic development within American Indian communities. She has also served as the comptroller for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana and worked for an auditing firm specializing in governmental compliance.