Defunding the Future: Federal Aid Pulled from Native Women’s Solar Jobs Initiative

The Pine Ridge Reservation, surrounded by gentle rolling hills and the famous Badlands, is home to the Oglala Lakota Nation. It’s here that you’ll find an abundance—abundance of community, resilience, and of sunlight—and one organization using that abundance to create economic opportunity for its people while simultaneously protecting nature through renewable energy.

John Red Cloud—a descendant of famed Oglala Lakota leader Chief Red Cloud—spends much of his time driving across the reservation and visiting other reservations in neighboring states, connecting with Tribal members who are looking for new opportunities.

As the Director Operations for Red Cloud Renewable, his work honors ancestral traditions by empowering Native American communities and fostering self-sufficiency. The nonprofit, started in 2016, offers education and hands-on training in solar installation, sustainable building, and weatherization which reduces energy costs and enhances the quality of life within Tribal Nations.

The organization noticed a lack of Native American women in the clean energy industry and wanted to understand why. Representing less than half a percent of solar installation technicians, Native American women face several barriers to pursuing a family-sustaining career including a lack of childcare, workforce training, and job opportunities. To address this inequity and expand opportunities for Native American women from all 574 federally-recognized Tribes, Red Cloud Renewable sought funding from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advancing Equity Through Workforce Partnerships program.

In 2022, the DOE awarded the organization $1.5 million to advance their Bridging Renewable Industry Divides in Gender Equality—or BRIDGE—initiative. The 36-month BRIDGE Program removes those barriers to Native American women by providing childcare vouchers, travel stipends, workforce training, and post-training mentorship to ensure they can break into the industry and secure a career.

“Our Bridging Renewable Energy Divides in Gender Equality Program is a women-only Native American-focused solar installation class that blends hands-on technical training with cultural relevance, empowering women to harness renewable energy for their communities while honoring their heritage.”

– John Red Cloud

The first BRIDGE cohort ran in 2024 with 13 women. Now, 11 of those women are solar installation professionals working within their Tribe. But after the Trump administration took office in January of 2025, everything changed.

Despite signing a contract with the DOE and the funds being obligated by Congress, the administration deemed BRIDGE a DEI initiative and revoked their reimbursement funding—meaning Red Cloud Renewable could proceed at an “at risk status” with their initiative, but would likely not get reimbursed for the money they invested, leaving the organization to contemplate the path forward.

The BRIDGE program has proceeded, just at a more modest scale. In August, the second cohort brought just nine women to Red Cloud Renewable’s training center and without the same amount of barrier-removing services they could previously offer. Due to its overwhelming success, the BRIDGE Program will continue to be offered as part of the annual Workforce Development efforts at the 10-acre Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center campus right in the heart of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

And because of the fundamental attack on and defunding of clean energy by this administration, the industry and the jobs it offers will be affected. John Red Cloud believes there may be a stark decline in rooftop solar next year. That decline would mean the workforce also suffers—leaving this already drastically underrepresented group of workers behind.

Red Cloud Renewable is thinking about the trajectory of the industry and how it will affect workers and Tribal members. As a licensed curriculum provider, they are considering expanding their training to include large utility and commercial scale solar, fixed tilt systems, ballast mounted systems, operations and maintenance-specific courses, and battery-based systems.

With 35,000 Tribal members on the Pine Ridge Reservation and an average income of $7,773 a year, where do we go from here? Despite the whiplash happening on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in regard to clean energy support, John Red Cloud and his team are continuing to forge a path forward to ensure Tribal Nations have new opportunities and a better quality of life.

“There’s 2 million acres of land and an incredible potential for renewable energy generation here. We’ll continue to offer training and opportunity to as many Tribal members across the country as possible through our fundraising efforts, because we know that’s our only option,” said John Red Cloud.