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One year after organizing opposition against the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Reservation that drew national attention, Cody Two Bears and others organized Indigenized Energy.
The nonprofit organization aims to bring renewable energy to Indian Country by teaching tribal members on reservations how to operate and maintain renewable energy infrastructure, such as solar panels.
The group also helps facilitate funding to cover the start-up costs of installing renewable energy infrastructure on reservations.
“It was really important to me to bring some of these resources here to our homelands,” Two Bears said in a recent press conference.
Indigenized Energy visited the Menominee Reservation in spring 2023 and helped train dozens of volunteers in the area to install and operate an array of solar panels on the College of Menominee Nation campus.
This spring, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that Indigenized Energy and a coalition of 14 tribal nations, including Menominee in Wisconsin, will receive $135.5 million from its Solar for All program to install and expand renewable energy infrastructure on reservations in five states.
Indigenized Energy will help each of the 14 tribes plan their renewable energy projects this year.
Source: milwaukee journal sentinel
