Blog: Henry Red Cloud spreads solar power to Indian Country

Solar energy is quickly becoming a viable alternative -- both as an energy source and as a job creator -- in a region dominated by coal, Red Cloud tells me. (He had no trouble, for example, finding jobs installing solar panels for two trainees who had driven in from Montana and needed work.) A direct descendant of Chief Red Cloud (who fought white soldiers in the 1860s and negotiated a treaty securing 60 million acres of the Black Hills and surrounding land for the Great Sioux Nation), Henry Red Cloud says he was working construction jobs when he first started thinking about energy issues. "I helped build a power plant in Wyoming, but I didn't like it," says Red Cloud. "But it helped me start asking where our energy comes from."

He moved back to the Pine Ridge reservation in the late 1990s and took training courses in solar energy. With financial assistance from Trees, Water & People, Red Cloud founded Lakota Solar in 2006. And over the past decade, he has installed hundreds of solar air heaters, which help reduce heating costs for homes and businesses, across Pine Ridge and other reservations.

Throughout the week of training, Red Cloud refers to himself and those he works with as "solar warriors" who are providing sustenance for their tribe. "A couple hundred years ago we brought an elk or deer back for the community. That's all we're doing here."