The Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Lakota, has a major housing crisis. It is common place to have Lakota families living in conditions of extreme overcrowding, with 3 to 4 families inhabiting one three-bedroom home. Many of the families have no electricity, telephone, running water, or sewage systems; and many use wood stoves to heat their homes, depleting limited wood resources. The Lakota people are living in third world conditions, right in our own backyard!
In partnership with Henry Red Cloud, Pine Ridge resident and owner of Lakota Solar Enterprises, we are working to bring sustainable housing solutions to reservation communities and we need your help! We have started by constructing a straw bale home demonstration site at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center (RCREC), complete with solar heating and lighting. This demonstration site will provide TWP’s Tribal Lands Renewable Energy Program with a place to conduct workshops, share knowledge, and pass on green building skills throughout Indian Country. This will be the beginning of a long-term project to bring hundreds of straw bale homes to the Pine Ridge Reservation, providing families with dignified living conditions that every human being deserves.
You can help support this project by making a donation today! Click here to donte.