The sun — its heat and fire — plays a central role in Lakota spirituality. TWP's Tribal Lands Renewable Energy Program uses the power of the sun to heat homes of Native American families struggling to make ends meet.

The bitter Western winters take a terrible toll on many reservations families living in inadequate housing. Where over 60% live below the Federal poverty level, electric heat and propane may be financially out of reach. Families may spend up to 70% of their total income to heat their homes. Temperatures can plunge to 40 below zero and ice can form on the inside of people's homes. Some of the consequences:

• Severe health impacts, especially for young children and tribal elders.
• Families forced to make choices between heating their homes and buying food or medicine.
• Loss of income, when craftspeople have to move in with other family members and lose their work space.

TWP's supplemental solar heating units are an inexpensive, simple to use, and environmentally sound way to bring comfort to reservation families suffering from winter cold. The units are built on South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation by Native-owned and operated Lakota Solar Enterprises (LSE), providing a source of employment and pride. The heaters will save families money on their utility bills for decades to come.

The heaters themselves are technologically straightforward: sunlight falling on the glass panels is routed into the home via ductwork and a fan; inside the house a thermostat controls the fan and another duct carries cold air out of the house and into the back of the solar panel where it is warmed and blown into the house. The fan is the only moving part. The panels and support structures are manufactured at LSE and installed by the LSE crew.

Since the program began in 2003, over 100 supplemental solar heaters have been installed on the Pine Ridge reservation. In 2005, a demonstration unit was installed on the Wind River reservation in Wyoming. In 2006 the program was expanded to the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota, and a demonstration unit was installed on the White Earth reservation in Minnesota. In 2007 a demonstration unit was installed at the home of Goshute elder Margene Bullcreek, on the Skull Valley Goshute reservation in Utah, and at the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. 2007 also saw the ground breaking for the new Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, where tribal representatives will be able to learn how to install the solar heaters in their own communities. In January 2008, a demonstration unit was installed on the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.