Wind Farms Planned for Pine Ridge, Cheyenne River

It’s said that anything worth having is worth waiting for. If that’s the case, Lyle Jack has put in more than his fair share of time envisioning wind turbines on this Oglala homeland; now he’s ready to see his dream of having the largest renewable energy source on the Northern Plains start benefiting his people. The longtime economic development researcher has announced that the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes are on the cusp of establishing a joint 570-megawatt wind energy project that will straddle 2 reservations and provide millions of dollars of income to both tribes. “I’ve been at this for so long,” explained Jack.” When I started, it was dark. And now I see light at the end of the tunnel. You can actually see the opening of the tunnel now and we’re getting ready to go through it.” “In 2015, we came together through resolutions of each tribe and formed the Oceti Sakowin Power Authority,” explained Jack, “consisting of 6 tribes, and decided it would be a Section 17 corporation. Section 17 under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 allows tribes to federally charter a corporation under their umbrella and to own it. So, that is what we’ve done, and we came up with our own bylaws and a board of directors.” Lyle Jack is now chairman of that board. The 6 tribes involved are the Rosebud, Flandreau, Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Yankton and Oglala. The Crow Creek tribe dropped out of the group along the way...MORE