In the nation's poorest communities — Indian reservations of the American West — bitter winters force many families to spend up to 70% of their total income to heat their homes. Choices are few: expensive electricity, polluting propane, or firewood from the few trees that remain.

Energy costs on these reservations create hardship for almost every family. The harsh cold can be deadly for tribal elders living in homes that aren't adequately heated. The high cost of heating often puts other necessities, such as health care and medicine, out of reach. The result is more suffering for a people that has already suffered much.

Trees, Water & People's Tribal Renewable Energy Program puts the power of nature — the warmth of the sun, the power of the wind, the shelter of trees — to work for Native Americans. Working with reservation communities, TWP builds and installs supplemental solar heaters for families in need, provides green job training to tribes around the country, and plants windbreak and shade trees around homes. These solutions are sustainable, economically beneficial, environmentally friendly, and celebrate the Native Americans' respect for Mother Earth.

Since the program began in 2003, more than 850 supplemental solar heating systems have been installed at Pine Ridge, Rosebud and other Great Plains reservation communities. In 2006-2007, TWP expanded the Tribal Lands program to include a pilot installation of a household-scale wind turbine and solar electricity (photovoltaic or PV) system at the Little Thunder home on the Rosebud Sioux reservation in South Dakota. The home had previously been outfitted with a supplemental solar heater and windbreak and shade trees. Working with our partners in the Rosebud Housing Authority and Tribal Utility Commission, we're testing the viability of this multi-modal approach to helping Native families.

In 2007, TWP and our Pine Ridge partner, Lakota Solar Enterprises, established the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, where tribes from around the country can receive hands-on training in renewable energy applications from Native American trainers. Visiting tribal members are currently being trained in the theory and practice of solar heating. These newly-certified solar technicians then return to assemble and install heating systems for families in their own communities.

The program is currently working on the Pine Ridge, Rosebud and Cheyenne River Reservations in South Dakota, Spirit Lake and Standing Rock Reservations in North Dakota, and with Winona LaDuke and the Honor the Earth organization on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations in Minnesota.