In early 2003, the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota took a huge step toward energy independence for Native tribes by installing a commercial-scale 750mW wind turbine. This turbine was the first wholly-Native American owned wind power installation in the lower 48 states.

Using renewable energy fits well with Native philosophies of caring for the earth and protecting the environment for future generations. And especially for Native communities in the American west, abundant sunlight and wind resources offer huge potential for clean energy. In the Great Plains alone, an estimated wind resource of over 500 billion kilowatt hours a year* could be harvested—about 14% of the United States' total electricity production.

TWP has joined with other Native energy groups, including the Rosebud Tribal Utilities Commission, the Intertribal Council on Utility Policies (ICOUP), and Honor the Earth, to help reservation communities and grassroots Native groups who want the economic and environmental benefits renewable energy offers. The goal is to make the potential of renewable energy a reality, providing clean, lower-cost power and providing jobs and training to thousands across Indian Country.

The challenges are many, including working with an entrenched system of coal- and hydropower-based utilities to put renewable energy into the "grid" and finding the needed capital investment. "The export of rural tribal wind power can provide the basis for a sustainable reservation economy that brings revenues and employment to impoverished rural tribal communities," according to ICOUP, "without diminishing the quality of the air, water or land resources of the reservation in the ways that other extractive and consumptive energy development has done in the past."

Through our Tribal Lands Renewable Energy program, TWP is providing capital, knowledge, and technology to bring renewable energy to families and community groups on Native American reservations. In May 2007 we also partnered with the Rosebud Tribal Utility Commission to put on the Clean Energy Education Partnership renewable energy conference, which included the installation of a solar photovoltaic system and wind turbine at the Little Thunder home.

The possibility of energy independence and commitment to caring for the earth drives the Native energy movement, and we're happy to be a part of making renewable energy a reality on Native American reservations.

* From the Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory