Prior Lake, Minnesota - A Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community grant of $250,000 to the organization Honor the Earth will support three different projects. Two of those projects are renewable energy and community food programs of the White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP). The third is a national alternative energy project of Honor the Earth.

Honor the Earth, founded by director and activist Winona LaDuke, has a mission to create awareness and support for Native American environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native American communities. “We’re very thankful that the Shakopee Tribe is supporting the next energy economy and helping building a sustainable nation in North America,” said LaDuke.

Honor the Earth received $50,000 to install renewable energy systems, both wind and solar, in reservation communities. A 65 kilowatt refurbished turbine for KILI Radio on the Pine Ridge Reservation and community-scale solar panel installations and trainings on the Northern Cheyenne and Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservations and at the Little Earth of United Tribes community in Minneapolis are being financed. Honor the Earth will also conduct a large-scale photovoltaic installation and training at the Shiprock Middle School on the Navajo Reservation. And, lastly, funds will be used for tribal renewable energy educational literature and planning materials that can lead to further development of tribally owned wind and solar projects.

The White Earth Land Recovery Project (Callaway, Minnesota) works to facilitate recovery of the original land base of the White Earth Indian Reservation, while preserving and restoring traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and strengthening their spiritual and cultural heritage. The WELRP achieves these goals through its many projects, including alternative energy, education, forest stewardship, wild rice campaign, and more. SMSC funds in the amount of $125,000 will be used to complete the purchase of a 250 kilowatt wind turbine to support the electricity needs of the WELRP food processing facility, office, and soon, their radio station. It will also be a learning center for wind energy technologies for White Earth and other Native American communities in the region.

The third project funded with the SMSC grant is the Farm to School Program of the WELRP which provides two meals a day to 65 children, 15 staff, and 20 elderly at the Pine Point School in Ponsford. New equipment will streamline the effectiveness of the food system and increase sales of foods nationally and internationally. Commercial freezers, a walk in cooler, commercial mixer, range stove, a maple syrup evaporator, and refining, packaging, canning, and other equipment will be purchased with $75,000 of the SMSC grant to enhance food sovereignty.

For more information about Honor the Earth and the White Earth Land Recovery Project, go to www.honorearth.org or call 1-800-973-9870.

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