Honoring 10 Years of Indigenous Innovation
Yesterday, January 25th 2026, Red Cloud Renewable celebrated 10 years as a 501(c)(3)
a decade of Indigenous-led innovation and community-powered impact.
Here are ten milestones from the past decade, captured in photos, that celebrate Native
leadership in renewable energy, workforce training, sustainable housing, and weatherization,
made possible by supporters and community members like you and grounded in
sovereignty, sustainability, and self determination.
On January 25, 2016, Red Cloud Renewable officially became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, turning this Pine Ridge campus into the home base for a long-term, Native-led organization focused on energy sovereignty and community-centered climate solutions. That shift from individual projects to a lasting institution opened the door to new grants, partnerships, and supporters who still power the work happening on this land today.
On June 24, 2016, Red Cloud Renewable completed a solar-powered compressed earth block home for Wahacanka Paul Shields and his family on the Pine Ridge Reservation. With earth-based walls, solar radiant floor heat, a solar air furnace, and rooftop solar, the home, built with your support, shows how Native-designed, renewable energy housing can answer the ongoing housing crisis in Native communities.
In April 2018, founder Henry Red Cloud was named an Oceti Sakowin Solve Fellow through MIT Solve for advancing energy independence in Native communities. This recognition placed Red Cloud Renewable’s community-powered solar work on a global stage, affirming Indigenous innovation as essential to solving climate and energy challenges and expanding our credibility, partnerships, and reach.
In June 2019, Red Cloud Renewable launched its first formal solar training initiative, turning community installs like this one into hands-on classrooms for Native learners. As programs like T4 (Train the Trainer) evolved into today’s Solar Pre-Apprenticeship Readiness Program, each graduating class helps build a pathway to long-term solar careers and clean energy in Native communities.
In February 2020, Washington College awarded founder Henry Red Cloud an Honorary Doctor of Public Service for decades of advocacy rooted in Indigenous values and renewable energy. This national recognition elevated Red Cloud Renewable’s voice in academic, policy, and philanthropic circles, strengthening our ability to advance Native-led climate justice and sustainability.
On July 8, 2022, Red Cloud Renewable received a $1.65 million U.S. Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program grant for the Native to Native Energy Sovereignty project, expanding our capacity to deliver deep energy retrofits for Indigenous households. Shown here, our weatherization crew and their director turn that support into culturally grounded, technical energy solutions that strengthen home energy security across Native communities.
On October 24, 2023, Red Cloud Renewable was featured on PBS’s Native America for our leadership in climate-resilient building and renewable energy on Pine Ridge. The broadcast carried community stories to a national audience, lifting up Indigenous responses to housing, energy, and environmental challenges and strengthening public awareness of Native innovation and resilience.
In June 2024, Red Cloud Renewable launched its first all-women BRIDGE training program, ( Bridging Renewable Industry Divides in Gender Equality) bringing Native women from across the country together for hands-on solar education. By pairing technical skills with job readiness, leadership development, and national recruitment, BRIDGE helps close gender gaps in the trades and grows a more inclusive, Indigenous-led clean energy workforce.
On April 22, 2025, Red Cloud Renewable hosted our first annual Earth Day Wacipi at the powwow grounds on Pine Ridge, bringing community together in song, dance, and prayer to honor Unčí Maka and future generations. By weaving cultural celebration together with our climate work, the Wacipi shows that sustainability is rooted in relationship to land and community and lifts up our role as both service provider and community convener, made possible through your support.
In October 2025, Red Cloud Renewable hosted its first Native to Native Energy Sovereignty Training focused on weatherization at our Pine Ridge campus. Over five days, students from several tribal nations, like the trainees shown here, learned hands-on home energy efficiency and tribal program design skills, transforming lessons from a federal weatherization grant into community-ready tools and shared Indigenous leadership for energy sovereignty.
As we look back on these ten milestones, we know every solar panel installed, every home weatherized, and every student trained has been powered by people like you.
If this journey inspires you, we invite you to help shape the next decade of Native-led energy sovereignty by making a gift today, becoming a monthly supporter, or sharing this email so more relatives can stand with Red Cloud Renewable.
