Tribe steps into solar age

LAPWAI — In an effort to bolster its sovereignty while taking steps toward energy independence and against climate change, the Nez Perce Tribe officially entered the renewable energy era Wednesday.

Casey Mitchell, vice chairman of tribal government, flipped a switch to activate 770 solar panels recently installed on the rooftops of several buildings at tribal headquarters.

“We want to be able to really assert our sovereignty and renewable energy and solar energy is one way we can do that,” he said. “We have always known the power of the sun and the moon. We dry our hides, we dry our meat, we still use the sun to this day as our ancestors did, and this is one new way we can use the sun.”

The Nez Perce solar energy strategy is multifaceted, said Chantel Greene, a planner with the tribe’s Department of Natural Resources and a former member of the tribe’s executive committee who helped spearhead its efforts to fight climate change. Investing in solar contributes to worldwide efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and furthers the region’s move to more renewable energy sources that may one day contribute to salmon recovery by allowing the dams on the lower Snake River to be breached.

It is helping train tribal workers in the booming solar and renewable energy fields, and Greene hopes this is the first step to a profitable tribal enterprise — solar energy contracting.

“Our intent is to reduce energy costs to the tribe and lessen our eco-footprint, diversify how we invest and promote the mission of our climate change and energy subcommittee,” she said. “We will soon be opening our doors to the outside community and with our solar army we can provide others with solar energy and storage. This is just the beginning of our solar journey.”

She said outward-looking plans include equipping the tribe’s far-flung governmental buildings in places like Joseph, Ore., Orofino and Kamiah with solar panels, and the eventual creation of a Nez Perce Department of Energy.

The tribe partnered with the company RevoluSun on the project. During the monthslong installation project, about 35 tribal members gained hands-on training in the field. Many of them are continuing classes to become certified installers.

Robin Black Eagle, one of the installers, sees investment in the modern technology as a step back and toward tradition and independence.

“It will give us jobs, it will give us our own energy, it will hopefully get us back out there doing the things our ancestors wanted us to be doing and that is with our hands out there in the dirt.”

She looks at the panels not so much in the terms of the energy they can produce but the future they will help foster through a sustainable climate and environment.

“Indigenous people don’t really equate that as electricity, we equate that into how many fish we hope to return,” she said. “So for each panel, that’s a fish to return back to our waters.”

Tuck Miller, general manager of RevoluSun Mountain States Region, said the solar panels can produce about 307 kilowatts and will feed a pair of mega batteries that will allow the buildings at and around tribal headquarters to operate off-grid.

Stefanie Krantz, climate change coordinator for the tribe, said most tribal members understand climate change to be a crisis and an existential threat to their way of life, but most American do not.

“It is the people of our time who will determine the fate of this world,” she said. “The fate of fish, the fate of frogs, the fate of birds. We are all leaders every day. We vote with our money and our actions, and each one of us has a chance to make this world a better place.”

Installer Basil George felt honored to participate in the project and said society needs to do more to battle global warming.

“It’s kind of unimaginable to think about what this represents. Not for me but for my family and my people. I think what we need is to come together as people, all people, where we could see this as something bigger than what we are as individuals.”

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.