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At a first public wind meeting on the White Earth Reservation, students from Circle of Life School, some local farmers and tribal members gathered to discuss the potential for wind power on the reservation.

GaaNoodinoke, or “the Wind Maker” in Ojibwe, is on the horizon, with the White Earth Reservation as one of the windiest reservations in the state of Minnesota.

For the past few years, the White Earth Land Recovery Project has been looking at wind energy potential for the White Earth Reservation. Three years ago, Diana King’s farm near Waubun became the site of an experimental wind turbine, a 20 kw Jacobs wind turbine.

Two years ago, the White Earth Tribal Council joined the WELRP to look at both the potential for wind generation for specific projects on the reservation, and as well, to look at the potential for commercial wind production – over there where it’s windy on Highway 59.

Why Wind:

The Great Wind is a constant in our lives as Anishinaabeg people. Indeed, Ningaabii-anong Noodin, the West Wind, is a part of our oldest history. Look at it this way: We’re used to electricity, waasamowin.

The question is not whether we use electricity, but rather, how electricity is produced. Demand will continue to increase on the reservation, and local utilities, whether Wild Rice, Ottertail Power, or Itasca Mantrap are buying some wind power, but have not been active in developing new wind power in our area. Based on the idea that local people can make a difference, the WELRP, farmers and White Earth Tribal Council are looking at the environmental, cultural and economic options posed in energy choices. These are big issues.

In short, most energy supplied to the White Earth Reservation comes from coal. In Northern Minnesota, we see the rail-cars carrying thousands of tons of coal move through Detroit Lakes daily. Each car in those trains represents air pollution, thousands of gallons of polluted water, and a deep hole in the Earth from where that coal was extracted.

That coal, once burned, ends up in our lakes and rivers; most lakes in Minnesota presently have fish consumption advisories on them for heavy metals and mercury. The two largest sources of these pollutants are coal fired power plants and incinerators. Basically, if we want to continue fishing we’ve got to stop combusting.

Coal also causes global warming and climate change. Carbon dioxide is the major cause of global climate change. In the past 200 years, the amount of carbon dioxide gases in the atmosphere has grown by almost one-third. That’s more than in the past 20 million years. The earth’s snow cover has decreased by 10 percent since the late 1960s.

As a result of ice melts, the sea level is on the rise and the prevalence of waterborne and airborne diseases is exploding, as evidenced by the West Nile Virus that is thriving and spreading east. This impacts on all aspects of our future. In the summer of 2004, the U.S. Pentagon released a report which not only confirmed that global warming is occurring, but identified global climate change as the greatest threat to the National Security because of the increased risk for weather-related catastrophes.

As if burning coal to generate electricity was not bad enough, here in Minnesota we also make electricity from dams and nuclear reactors. The dams flood out our relatives, the Ojibwe and Cree in Canada, who are asking that Minnesotans do not buy any more electricity from Canada.

And nuclear power plants contaminate the land and people around them. Beyond that, the nuclear waste from Minnesota nuclear power plants is destined for yet other Native communities.

We believe that Native America should generate alternative energy, not stockpile nuclear waste. Unfortunately, the nuclear industry continues to be subsidized by the U.S. government at a rate that is 18 times that for all forms of renewable energy combined.

We had to start somewhere.

That would be on Diana King’s farm. Diana King’s project has been in operation off and on for the past few years.

The 20 kw wind turbine has the potential to produce not only enough power for Diana King’s house, but enough to put it back into the grid – something which would mean that Wild Rice Electric would be buying locally produced power as well as selling power to local consumers.

Diana and her son have been working on the project with various technical people, and there have been a number of challenges – like a couple of lightening strikes, and some wiring difficulties, not to mention that as well, most of the technical people who can help or are knowledgeable on these projects live far away. That means long waits when there are questions or some simple issues which could be resolved.

Ron Chilton from the WELRP hopes to work on getting some of those issues resolved in the upcoming months. “We’re hoping to keep developing local expertise so that we can be the ones to build and take care of these turbines in the future,” explains Chilton. True to his word, Ron and the staff at the WELRP have worked on the project, and are also continuing, along with Martin, Diana’s son, to learn more as they go along.

There’s more interest all around in the project. Some local farmers are interested in hosting wind turbines, and recently at the White Earth Tribal Council meeting, the Council agreed to select lands (under WELSA) which would also be beneficial to wind turbine siting... Chi-Miigwech!

There is some good potential for a growing industry. Wind energy is the fastest growing source of energy on a worldwide scale. North Dakota is about the windiest state in the country (although it’s behind Minnesota in developing that wind potential), and right nearby, in places like East Grand Forks, one can find Glassfiber, the Danish manufacturer of wind turbine blades, making about 65 percent of the blades available on a worldwide scale.

A local group of tribal members and residents on the reservation is looking at both the potential to develop some projects here on the reservation, and at the possibility of having a “wind smith” program here in the area, to train local people in both the development of wind technologies, the policy issues, and over time, the maintenance issues.

It’s the beginning of something big at White Earth – something which is spreading across Indian tribes in the whole region, who see the environmental, cultural and economic potential of alternative energy.

For more information contact: WELRP 2l8-573-3448, or stop by our offices at the Strawberry Lake corner.