Empowering Native Communities with Renewable Energy

Cody Two Bears is an enrolled member of The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. His work centers on the collaboration of Western science with Indigenous traditional knowledge.  Cody is the Founder and Executive Director of Indigenized Energy which is actively helping tribes develop long term energy plans and pursue strategies that will enable a just transition to renewable energy. The CannonBall Community of the Standing Rock Reservation, where Cody grew up, is one of the poorest counties in the nation, and energy costs there are among the highest. In the wake of the #NoDAPL protests that gripped his community in 2016, Cody merged his cultural knowledge and desire for climate justice to create the Indigenized Energy organization. He created the largest solar farm in the State of North Dakota on Standing Rock, which now serves as an example for other tribes that it is possible to move away from fossil fuels. At age 26, Cody became the youngest elected tribal council member in history on Standing Rock. In 2013, he helped bring President Obama to the reservation in what became the only visit to a Native American reservation in the President’s two-term tenure. Instead of having the president address the community, the organizers had the community’s youth address the president and tell their stories. Youth empowerment is also central to Cody’s work. He founded a program called Indigenized Youth which focuses on encouraging young Standing Rock Sioux tribal members to continue traditional ways of tending to the earth. Cody’s message to youth is that renewable energy is just as attainable as iPhones and iPads — and that it will play a big role in helping the community break cycles of poverty. Cody speaks regularly in native communities and universities, and has been featured in People Magazine, Rolling Stone, AlJazeera, Parade Magazine's 2019 renewable project of the year, USA Today, Solar Power World Magazine and other national news outlets.