Father and Son Discuss Red Cloud Renewable’s Grassroots Approach to Tribal Energy Development
Chief Henry Red Cloud and his son John Red Cloud.
Chief Henry Red Cloud and his son John visited DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and spoke with our Communications team at the laboratory’s Research Support Facility.
Chief Henry Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Nation got involved in solar energy in 2002 and founded the nonprofit Red Cloud Renewable (RCR) to assist tribal members and communities in moving toward energy independence through energy deployment and sustainable living projects that emphasize workforce development and training.
RCR’s success today is founded on its partnerships with over 70 federally recognized tribes. They have trained more than 1,100 Indigenous people as solar installers.
We were honored to have the chance to sit down with the Lakota father-son team in a real-time conversation about their latest Native-focused passion projects and what Native engagement in energy sovereignty looks like from their perspective.
Read on and listen to them speak about their impactful work at RCR, the importance of partnering, and why they are hopeful about the future of energy in Indian Country.
Chief Red Cloud, why did you decide to focus on energy as a way to improve quality of life in your community?
INDIAN ENERGY CHAMPIONS
Names: Chief Henry Red Cloud, Executive Director; John Red Cloud, Managing Director
Affiliation: Oglala Lakota Nation, Pine Ridge, South Dakota
Organization: Red Cloud Renewable
Chief Red Cloud: After being born and raised [on Pine Ridge] and then having to leave there because of work, I found myself working construction, mostly, and always had the calling to go back home. And returning home and then finding that it was in dire straits. There was no work. It was pretty bleak.
A couple good friends of mine—Pat Spears, he’s a member of the Lower Brule [Sioux] Tribe, as well as Bob Goff, non-Native—were spearheading this wind energy program. And in the spring of ’97 I met with them. They said, “Where you been? How you doing? What are you up to?”
So I told them, “Well, I’m kind of at the crossroads in my life, wanting to go back to work but wanting to stay here.” Because I had the calling for the people as well as the Earth. So they said, “You know, you ought to get into clean energy. Get into solar.” So I did everything I could to understand components, layout, design, installation of solar.
I started back in 2002. I did some research around the 1970s concept of solar hot-air heating and was able to come up with this crude design that really worked. I was astonished by it. And then I built up partnerships with various organizations. And then we started manufacturing in 2003. We can save families 25% to 30% on their heating costs with one of our units.
I did everything I could in 2003 to understand solar electric. And within those times of training, conferences, I was always looking for Indigenous tribal members but never saw any. And that spurred the idea of creating a training facility within Pine Ridge. Today we have over 1,100 Indigenous people trained.
We hope others can look at what we’re doing and they can emulate it, or at least know that it’s possible, wherever they may be. The opportunity is there. Just have a little bit of faith sometimes and be willing to have the hard conversations and to go through some of the ups and downs.
Original source can be found here.
