Tribal Program

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The counties that the Rosebud Sioux reservation encompasses are among the poorest in the nation, with unemployment rates as high as 83 percent, and as much as three quarters of the employed population still living under the poverty line. Winter is always the worst, with frigid temperatures, ice and snow limiting already-scarce work opportunities, and sending electricity bills skyrocketing. This year, though, a beacon of hope for some relief is taking shape in the form of a solar array on the home of tribal member Karen Spotted Tail.

The wide stretches of sparsely populated land in Navajo Nation can make it feel like you’ve stepped back into the past. For residents here, that remoteness comes with a price: many live without electricity. Across the Navajo nation, an estimated 15,000 homes have never been connected to the grid. This week we demonstrated one way to begin addressing this issue with an off-grid solar installation for Vietnam veteran Henry Yazzie.

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Shinnecock Tribal leaders brought attention to how tribal communities are at the front lines of climate change in our latest Tribal Solarthon event. Few communities are closer to the front lines than the Shinnecock, a 10,000-year-old tribe on the eastern end of Long Island. With just about 1000 acres of land remaining in its name, the Nation is losing feet of precious coastline every year to rising sea levels, and saw parts of its ancestral graveyard swept away during Superstorm Sandy.

GRID Alternatives launches its Tribal Solarthon in partnership with four tribes across the country to provide solar power and solar job training to tribal residents and put a spotlight on energy and economic issues in Native American communities.

Willits residents Dustin and Rebecca may not have known in 2014 that GRID Alternatives launched a satellite office in their small hometown. But, this spring, they became the first family in Willits to receive a new solar system from GRID!

Sustainable building research students from the Rosebud Sioux Nation in South Dakota volunteered on a solar installation in Arvada, Colorado in June. The students participated in the month-long Sustainable Building Research and Mentoring Program for Tribal youth hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder where they learn about energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable housing, and building systems.

Magnificent red sandstone bluffs dotted with juniper and pinon trees set against expansive blue sky to form a stunning backdrop for a recent solar PV install on Mary Benally’s home in the Mexican Water Chapter of the Navajo Nation in Southeastern Utah. The project was a result of a collaboration between DesignBuildBLUFF, GRID Alternatives’ Tribal Program and the Mexican Water Chapter House to bring clean renewable energy to the Benally family.