"Good morning out there.
Hope you're enjoying this awesome morning.
It's going to be warm again today, my sunshines.
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3.
So there you have it.
That's what's going on today.
So here we go."
"How long has KILI radio been around and how long have you been here?"
"So I've been here 18 years.
KILI's been here for 34 years.
It's a lifeline for the reservation.
It's how people know what's going on.
It's their main source of information."
"So we have the wind turbine, and then we have solar panels up on the roof?"
"Yes.
We have so much renewable things here we can use, from the sun to the wind.
It's exciting because people are starting to see, wow, we can use our own resources."
The U.S. government took land, independence, and power from its Native people.
Many tribes are left with little more than raw resources.
For the Crow in Montana, that includes coal.
Lots of coal.
In fact, about a third of U.S. coal reserves west of the Mississippi are on tribal lands.
Other tribes have less to work with.
South Dakota's Pine Ridge reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota nation, has one of the
poorest counties in the U.S.
Half live in poverty, and a lack of infrastructure means sky-high electric and utility bills.
So to create a new economy, Henry Red Cloud has harnessed one resource they have plenty
of here: the sun.
"Welcome everybody to Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center.
Through our native ways, our culture, our language, our song, our dance, it's all built
around renewable energy.
But you know, today we're going to learn this new way of honoring the old way and then becoming
sustainable starting to create our own economies, creating a small business,
putting some to work."
"Well, let's move on over to the mobile solar power plant.
What we'll be doing this week guys.
What you'll be doing."
"So all this week Henry Red Cloud and Lakota Solar are training this group on how to capture
and use solar energy.
And the goal is for them to take that solar know-how back to their reservations and their
homes all across the country."
"Grid tie, off grid.
So this one here, this one on the left here, consists of a panel, battery, everything's
inside encased here.
It's good for small applications, charging small stuff."
"It's beautiful.
Hey, look at all these flowers."
"We've been operating since 2006.
So 11 years with pretty close to 1,000 students coming through our program and 42 of the Greater
Northern Plain tribes."
"What are some of the difficulties of building solar energy infrastructure on Pine Ridge?"
"Capital.
You've got to have some kind of, either go to the bank or make a loan, do a small business
loan with the SBA, you know, do something.
But here on Pine Ridge, we don't have a bank.
We need to start looking at creating economic opportunities, jobs, businesses.
Renewable energy can help families to have lights for the first time, and then have running
water, having all of these necessities that, if we do have it, we take it for granted."
"The idea of tribal sovereignty.
What does that mean and how does wind and solar energy play in to that?"
"Well, let me tell you a little bit about Pine Ridge.
Pine Ridge now we have four governments here.
Very confusing.
We've got the state government, the county government, the federal government and the
tribal government.
My grandfather, he's in the history books.
The Indian Wars of the 1860s, 1800s.
My grandfather, one of the wars they call Red Cloud's War.
They were defending the land.
They were defending the resources here.
Because if they didn't, their way of life would be no more.
My great great grandfather signed a treaty back in 1868.
And so, treaties aren't made just with anybody.
It's a binding nation-to-nation agreement.
You know, so we consider ourself a sovereign nation."
Tribal sovereignty is a big deal.
But exactly what that means and how much sovereignty tribes have has changed throughout U.S. history.
"The first treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe."
Tribes don't have representation in Congress — or even full ownership of their land.
But they do have their own government, law enforcement, court system and tax jurisdiction.
And tribal sovereignty can mean different things to different tribes.
For the Crow tribe in Montana, sovereignty means taking full ownership of the tribe's
economic lifeline — a huge coal mine that they've allowed outside companies to mine
for decades in exchange for a payout to every member of the Crow tribe.
"What do you typically use the payment for?"
"The per cap?
Usually just like pay some bills."
"Sometimes it's like 200, sometimes it's 400."
"I don't know, shopping, sometimes.
Buy people stuff."
"It all depends.
If it's April, it's mainly graduations, receptions, gifts, that kind of stuff.
August, Crow Fair.
December, Christmas."
Despite that coal money, about one in three Crow tribe members live in poverty.
That's lower than the poverty rate on Pine Ridge, but still a lot higher than the rate
across the U.S. (12.6%).
With coal revenues down, in early 2017 the Crow government had to lay off 1,000 of its
1,300 employees.
Shortly after, Vice President Mike Pence visited the reservation here and rode out to the coal
mine with the tribe's vice chairman, who's hopeful the Trump White House will boost the
tribe's coal fortunes.
"Coal has been our main source of income since 1974 so that’s been 43 years ago.
You know the administration of Obama really hurt our coal, coal market.
But we want to run our own coal mine.
I believe we have the capacity, the leadership.
I don't want to be a passive royalty.
Passive royalty is developing our land, not developing it ourselves.
We want to be developing it.
We want to be in control.
Coal is the main source of income.
Right now it is but we want to diversify.
Diversity our natural resources.
Develop our natural resources."
"Some tribes in South Dakota for example, are really focused on solar energy or wind energy.
Is that something that the Crow tribe has considered?"
"Well the best wind that we can generate electricity is there in the Bighorn in what we call the
great mine area, but it costs a lot of money.
We are resource rich but cash poor.
We don’t have the capital."
Back on Pine Ridge, capital is also a problem.
So, people here are using the sun, the wind, and a unique approach to build something totally new.
"So you are looking at 5 of our 7 houses from our first phase of our regenerative community.
We put them in this configuration because it hearkens back to our teachings as Lakota
to put things in a circle.
So that families are put close together.
So as time progresses, you'll see two more circles of these single-family homes."
"So this solar panel helps power most of the construction that’s going on, but when these
houses are finished they’ll have solar panels up on the roofs, won’t they?"
"Yep.
If you want to talk about keeping people into poverty, some of our homes, families are paying
upwards of four, five, six hundred dollar heating bills in one month, and so these homes
have really been constructed with the idea of being affordable, being able to capitalize
on the passive solar heat.
We mention the solar panels on our houses, we want to make sure that it’s not only
there to just save our families money but it’s also there because it’s important
to us to utilize mother nature’s gifts in the best possible way.
We’re dreaming big here and we’re reaching for the best that we can get, and we’re
going to build it here."
"We’ve been here for 150, 140 years and pretty much nothing has really changed for us here.
We know that our history was terrible.
Our way of life changed, a lot of things happened, but there’s no way that we can step back
to change that.
We can learn from that, embrace it, get a direction from it.
Here we are, seven generations from that era of the 1868, 1851 treaties, here we are.
I'm starting to see people start to rebuild themselves.
Looking at the environment, looking at their culture, their ancestors' way of lives, and
then incorporating that, and then incorporating new technologies.
So we're in that same history book,
but we're just in a different chapter making history together."