Native America Issues
What Can You Do?
Learn about renewable energy issues and how they affect you.
Send letters to the editors of local newspapers supporting renewable energy development and promoting your State’s preference for power.
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According to research by the University of California, Native Americans pay the highest rates for fuel and electricity, have the highest percentage of non-electrified and non-weatherized homes, and have the least control of their energy resources.
Transitioning from resource extraction to a new, sustainable paradigm
America’s unquenchable thirst for power to light, heat, and cool our homes and businesses has created myriad problems. No group has suffered more from air pollution from power plants, radioactivity from uranium tailings, acid drainage from coal mines, and loss of lands flooded for hydroelectric dams than Native America. Yet many tribal lands have no electrical service for their inhabitants.
On the Navajo Nation, over 18,000 homes lack electricity. There are few local providers of renewable energy systems and few incentives to develop such systems on reservation lands. In the Shonto Chapter alone, over 100 households lack electricity. Furthermore, it is cost-prohibitive to run power to outlying homesteads, which Navajos build to facilitate growing food. This is the case with Chapters throughout the western Navajo Nation.
Renewable energy, which relies on the natural flows of wind, water, sunshine, and the earth’s heat to produce power, is in concert with Hopi and Navajo values — and it is the obvious solution to historical problems with energy production. It offers a chance for the Hopi and Navajo to control their energy needs and resources in a way that conforms with their cultures and offers hope of not repeating past mistakes.
The Trust started working with tribes on renewable energy in 2006 to help diversify their economies, which were impacted by the closure of the Mojave Generating Station, previously the Southwest’s biggest polluter. Early work involved educating tribal leaders and executives about the economic potential of developing renewable energy in Native America.
Your donations and membership dues make our work with the Navajo and Hopi Tribes possible.
