The Wiconi Community

Looking Forward

The Wičóni Community

Red Cloud Renewable is working to acquire the 15 acres adjacent to the existing 10 acre Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center in anticipation of a planned expansion of mission and services.  The additional land will provide a new upland area that will allow us to bring together teachers, apprentices, students, and visitors who are committed to developing a Native based model of sustainable living. 

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The new community center will provide the venue for planning projects, but also for living life – a place where oral tradition and technical skills combine to make something new and good come alive into the world.  A home where Native Voices are raised up as we take on climate change and move towards tribal energy sovereignty.

The Wičóni Community will be a sustainable, multigenerational sustainable living and renewable energy hub that will allow us to better bring together the leaders and workers who will help lead tribal communities towards energy independence and sustainable living. 

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Footpaths divide the tiyošpaye (clan) into seven wicoti (camps), a sacred number for the Lakota, that contain individual houses for tiwahe (families) and attached one-bedroom apartments for elderly family around a central lodge for communal living and dining.

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All buildings will be powered by on-site solar arrays and heated with solar furnaces constructed by tribal members primarily from compressed earth blocks (CEBs) from local soils. On-site food production and a marketplace for small-scale commerce will further empower cultural restoration and community resilience.