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- By Chez Oxendine
- Energy | Environment
A Native-led nonprofit won a national award this week for its work training “solar warriors” for renewable energy development in Indian Country.
Red Cloud Renewable, a solar workforce development nonprofit based on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, received the Power for All Award from the Electric Innovation Initiative on Wednesday during Climate Week NYC. The award recognizes projects that expand access to clean energy and related jobs.
“Energy independence is possible,” said Chief Henry Red Cloud, the organization’s founder and president. “I want Solar Warriors on rooftops in every state, representing all 575 tribal nations walking the green path.”
The organization pairs hands-on technical training with solar installations in Native communities. John Red Cloud, its operations director, said the recognition reflected years of work carried out in one of the country’s most challenging energy landscapes.
“It’s the highlight of the work and the impact that it’s doing,” he said.
Red Cloud Renewables operates what it describes as the only Indigenous-led renewable energy training campus in the United States. It has trained more than 1,100 “Solar Warriors” and helped install more than 1,200 solar furnaces in Native homes, John Red Cloud told Tribal Business News.
The organization also administers BRIDGE, a $1.5 million solar workforce program for Native women. More than 80% of its alumni have found jobs, John Red Cloud said.
RCR’s model is designed to chip away at entrenched unemployment on Pine Ridge, where rates have hovered between 65 and 80 percent for decades.
John Red Cloud said attending the award ceremony felt surreal.
“It was a bit of bewilderment, first of all, and then really surreal,” he said. “We started to feel like, okay, we do belong here.”
The award follows an April fire that damaged the Sacred Earth Lodge, the organization’s main classroom and gathering space. The fire forced Red Cloud Renewable to temporarily suspend in-person training and postpone its May cohort, Tribal Business News reported at the time.
Red Cloud Renewable plans to double its annual training capacity at Pine Ridge and eventually establish satellite campuses in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest. John Red Cloud said the organization is working on an agreement with the Warm Springs Housing Authority in Oregon and hopes to launch a pilot training center there in spring 2027.
