This page provides text versions of the audio recordings that accompany the Office of Indian Energy article: Indian Energy Champions: Chief Henry Red Cloud and John Red Cloud.

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Listen to Chief Red Cloud speak about students being rebuilt and the lasting impact this has at the grassroots level.

I can see a lot of rebuilding throughout Indian Countries, through our program. There's a lot of rebuilding I can see. I would like to say that I was in the same chair as the students, you know, the students that we do have coming through today. So, being there and understanding – it's an awesome thing to see because I went through the program.

I unknowingly was rebuilding myself. You know, finding – just basically sitting there, taking off all my armor, you know, so to speak, and picking up each piece and examining it and how it would benefit me. And if it was going to benefit me in a good, positive way, then I reattached it to myself.

I found that the students – they're basically doing the same thing, is really rebuilding themselves. Which has a lasting impact at the grassroots level. We're working with students ranging from 14-years-old, students to 60 years old. And to see how they merge together, how they work together, some of the younger ones never handled a power tool. The older ones then would step up and say, "Okay, this is the easiest way. This is what you've got to do." So, there's a lot of building within there.

It's so enlightening for me to see this happening. A friend of mine told me once that – he said to me, "Well, Henry, today there – I haven't saw you in a while. And there's something really different about you." He said, "I don't know what it is. I'm trying to figure it out." But he said, "I want to be like you." And what he saw was, I guess you would say the spirit or the aura just beaming because of being rebuilt.

We all have that opportunity. And I just, I could see this within the students. I can see what they're – just by looking at them, I can almost think what they're thinking because I sat there.

Hear from John Red Cloud on his vision for bridging renewable industry divides in gender equality.

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – you know, IRA – the opportunities are – it's hard to really wrap my head around it. I know there was, like, $369 billion for climate resiliency efforts. And every – you know, it's just so much money it's really hard to think of. You know, every billion is like a thousand million. So – and through the Biden-Harris administration, Justice40, 40 percent of that would go to low-to-middle-income, tribal communities, veteran-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and really, trying to reflect, I think, the demographic of this country, which is pretty key. It hasn't been that way for a number of years. So, sometimes it takes the stroke, the power of the pen to kind of make that happen.

So, through that, opportunity has come up. And, one thing that we're working on, just recently I was able to submit a letter of intent, a concept paper through the DOE, the SETO, Solar Energy Technologies Office. They had a funding opportunity for $10 million, "Advancing Equity Through Workforce Partnership." So, I put forward a proposal. It's in the concept paper stage right now but it's, I call it BRIDGE, an acronym for Bridging Renewable Industry Divides and Gender Equality. So, the BRIDGE program.

And the goal of that, the hope is that we get funding. There's $10 million available. We've asked for the ceiling, which is $1.5 million and we're trying to provide a program for 2 years to recruit and train and provide wraparound services for at least 60 Native American women to become solar panel installers, PV installers, because the representation – I mean, I've seen the numbers. To my reckoning, they're saying women are – make up, like, 26 percent of the solar workforce, and then Native Americans in general, cross-gender, is 3 percent. So, you put the 3 percent and the 26 percent and then we're talking a fraction of a percent. So, we have some work to do. You know? And, and I like that.

Hear from John Red Cloud on building trust to form partnerships.

And to me, knowing that others that are out there who may be not sure about "Well, maybe there's a lot of distrust" – there's been historical distrust with native folks and the government. You know, they mean well, sometimes come into the reservation and "We're going to do this program for X amount" and then all of a sudden, poof, they're gone. So, there's some people who are leery on the reservation and still have that built-in mistrust.

And part of that, you know, I think is generational. And my advice to any of those who are a little bit leery is, you know, sometimes you have to really take a leap of faith, kind of, you know, and hope. I mean, it's not like you're, like, white-knuckling it somewhere. You have an idea of what you're doing, you have a blueprint, and you have a vision that you're trying to follow. And you put your faith in there and you follow the guidance, your ancestors. Your spirituality guides you. You build that piece in and also believe that you, that the work that you're doing, is appreciated.

And sometimes the people, I think, that we serve and help and, and are meant to help, they're not able to fully understand sometimes a lot of these back-end processes, grants, deadlines, meetings, Zoom. You know, they don't get that. It's like "What are you going to do for us?"

So, part of that is making that kind of the divide and then using the platform that we have in order to effect greater good. And while using that platform, I think success begets success, right? So, we hope that others can look at what we're doing.

Listen to Chief Red Cloud on the power of people to effect change.

We have to get back to that. You know? We have to get back to people power. Because we throughout the country here, every citizen throughout, we have the power to change things. We've just been waiting for so long and been waiting in line for so long for our decision makers to say, "Okay, go ahead" when we have that inherent right, we have that power.

We can, we can just easily step out of line and start banding together and moving down this green path together and creating that ultimate future that we want to see.

Hear from John Red Cloud on the generational obligation of fulfilling his ancestor Chief Red Cloud’s vision.

To me it's an extension. It's really an answer to the call of the vision that goes back even before my dad. Our ancestor Chief Red Cloud talked about that years ago in the 1800s. You know, by his seventh generation he prophesied that he wanted to have the little Lakota children be able to speak, read, write, understand the English language. You know, it would take that many generations in order to be comfortable in this second, in this new world that was coming.

So, I felt like I was doing my part by going off and getting this formal education – you know, ABCs, 1-2-3s, got the paper here – and then be that for my kids, who are the seventh generation. You know, and others are able to see that it's possible. And to me, that is really the rewarding part of it, you know, just knowing that I'm fulfilling a little bit of that prophecy from all them years ago, and that's part of that generational obligation that I feel like I have. So, it's real satisfying to know I'm doing that with the work I'm doing today for people in Indian Country.

Hear from Chief Red Cloud on the most fulfilling part of his work—his passion.

And my passion in it is to see, to see people happy. You know, if I see Grandma smile, that's all I need. You know, just to see her smile and say, "Okay, this does what? It's going to save me money?" And I see her a few months later and she says, "You know, my power bill came down. Thank you." You know, and she's smiling. And she's the advocate out there for this here change. It goes back to the old saying: "If Grandma ain't happy, nobody's happy. But if she's happy, then everybody's happy." You know?

So, it was great to see her embrace and receive and then to spread the word about solar technology, solar energy, how it helped her to lessen her carbon moccasin print. And because she, she as well is worried about all the changes: the weather, things that are happening, it really affects her. You know, it takes me back thinking about my grandmother, which I spent a lot of time with. I helped her quite a bit as I was growing up. So, it takes me back to thinking about her and, okay, that there change, if, you know, Grandma's happy, then everybody's going to be happy. And the whole community comes alive and everybody's happy, moving down this here path together.

Hear from John Red Cloud on the responsibility of instilling hope.

And whenever that's not the case, it really creates a lot of hope for me, whenever people can put those things aside and, and realize that there is utility in working together and trying to understand each other and really try to be part of this solution, really. And so, that gives me the hope.

And also, the human race is also the cause for pause. You know? There's plenty of things that are not so great about just our species, if you will, on the planet, the things that we've done, and not really knowing any better, or not really having any regard for the future. So, part of our responsibility, I think, is trying to create that culture shift and then make the next generation, you know, create that awareness for them.

And the hope is that it's normalized for them where they're not seeing the differences and dissimilarities in others, but it's like knowing "What is the best that you have, and that you have, and the best that I have? Let's bring it together and move it all forward." To me, that's what's hopeful, you know, and knowing that the next generation, this one included and even my kids, are – I would like to instill that in them as, you know, to try and work, bridge these divides, some of this – you know, this country has some fairly unique pathologies going back to its inception of, you know, the historical racism. And now you've got this enormous wealth gap, political polarization in this country is really crazy. And that just seems to be driving things.

But whenever people set aside those differences, work for a common good, and kind of forget about some of those misguided loyalties, I think that's what's hopeful.

And if maybe that's for the future generation, to normalize that behavior for them. Right? You want to model the behavior that you expect. And part of it is us now starting to refine the edges of that new way of moving forward. And to me, I think that's probably one of the most hopeful things, that I'm sure in a few generations down the road it won't nearly be as – like it is now, hopefully. But that takes work that we're doing.

Hear Chief Henry Red Cloud expound on his vision.

I know big things are nice. We like to think "Okay, we're going to do this huge, big, enormous thing." But the small ones count too. If we get these small ones, a tribe energy-independent before the country, then the country's all gonna look. Everybody's gonna look. And they're gonna say, "Okay, that's where we need to be headed."

So, that's one of my passions. That's what I would like to see for one of the 574 federally recognized tribes.