The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is home to the poorest counties in the nation, largely due to its unemployment rate of 80 to 85 percent.  Simply put, there are very few jobs within Pine Ridge.  As Chief Henry Red Cloud explains, “We’re just out in the middle of nowhere.  We don’t have any industry here, manufacturing facilities, we’re not a casino tribe . . . nothing here.  So here we are in the 21st century, [and for] the people of the Oglala Lakota, it’s a struggle here every day.  A struggle to find income, struggle to, you know, have money to buy food, medicine, groceries, gas, all of this.”

Chief Henry Red Cloud and Son

In 2008, Henry and his son founded Red Cloud Renewable (“RCR”), a nonprofit with a primary purpose of providing job training to members of all tribes in the United States.  Men and women (dubbed “Solar Warriors”) who complete the training at RCR in Pine Ridge are employable in the field of solar installation, a green and growing industry.

Solar Installation Training

RCR also undertakes weatherization projects for existing homes that are poorly insulated, thus helping Pine Ridge residents lower their heating bills (easily $500 per month in South Dakota’s harsh winters).  Finally, RCR is working to improve the ecology of Pine Ridge, having planted well over 260,000 trees.  Good stewardship and regeneration of the land is consistent with the Lakota value of doing what’s best for the next seven generations.

TOS-USA is honored to help support this home-grown solution that arose from within the Oglala Lakota tribe.  Of note, Chief Henry Red Cloud is the great-great-grandson of the original Chief Red Cloud who entered into the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie with the US Government and transitioned the Lakota people into life on the reservation.  Asked what his great-great-grandfather would think of life on the reservation today, Henry answered, “He would cry.” Henry is doing everything in his power to give the Oglala Lakota people a new vision and direction for the future while remaining true to Lakota traditions and culture, including their deep connection to Mother Earth. TOS-USA is humbled to assist in his efforts.

To assist in TOS-USA’s support of Red Cloud Renewable, please click here to donate, and select “Native American Support” from the Donation Option drop-down menu.  Thank you for your assistance, and remember, Mitákuye Oyás'in (“We Are All Related”).