About the Organization: The White Earth Land Recovery Project (WELRP) founded in l989.

The WELRP is a multi-issue, non-profit, Native American organization based on the White Earth Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Our approach to systemic change is honed with almost two decades of experience, and today we are one of the largest reservation-based nonprofit organizations nationally. We emerged from a land rights struggle, which was a pitched battle in our community for many generations. The reality is that our tribe controls less than ten percent of our reservation land base, and our people have been made paupers and refugees- over three quarters of tribal members live today in the Twin Cities or elsewhere. Our interest is in structural change, and in restoring our wealthspiritually, culturally, and in terms of land and economics. Our programs are structured in such a way as to strengthen community leadership and build citizen participation involving environmental and cultural justice and preservation work, restoration of sustainable communities, renewable energy, media, and youth and leadership development programs. Our work is both focused on addressing the long-term issues of our Anishinaabe Akiing, and also supports work nationally and internationally on the issues of seed security, food and culture, working with other Indigenous communities to promote these issues. In 2008, with the support of the Otto Bremer Foundation, we were able to create a strategic planning process involving both internal organizational discussions and broader community dialogue on the future of our organization and our community. We are able to collaborate with an increasing number of community organizations that work in all of these arenas, to nurture this work at White Earth and regionally, to create a dignified future for our people and our relatives, whether they have wings, fins, or roots. Most recently, we have been recognized by the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation with an award for Organizational Achievement. This award

was received the same time the organization received two other awards; the Blue Cross Upstream Award for our work on diabetes, and the Northwest Area Foundation Great Strides Award, which we are sharing with the White Earth Community Investment Initiative. We also received international recognition through the 2003 Slow Food award, recognizing our integral part in Indigenous food systems and biodiversity, in particular our work to preserve the genetic integrity of wild rice. The White Earth Land Recovery Project became twenty years old in 2009, a distinguished achievement for a grassroots Native American organization. After twenty years, of working on many facets of our community, we are proposing an agenda for our organization in the upcoming years in four areas: (l) Nurturing Civil Society, (2) Energy Sovereignty (3) Food Security and, (4) Economic and Environmental Justice. Our strategies respond to our present situation as a Native community- one in which our reservation has a stronger set of nonprofit organizations and broader community participation than many reservations, and has, as a consequence, many opportunities to deepen collaborative work for a stronger ji- misawaabandaaming, a view for the future. With the creation of NIIJII Broadcasting, and our work to create the first Native American radio station in northwestern Minnesota, we will further this collaboration. Over the past twenty years, we have accomplished much, both independently and in collaboration with a number of organizations. We have: Purchased or recovered l400 acres of land, including areas used for maple syrup production, heritage farming, cultural preservation and economic development. We have trained over 300 Vista, and other volunteers in community development, renewable energy, an advocacy work, and conducted extensive training programs with tribal and non tribal college and secondary education programs, including the Pathways for a Greener Future Program, Fergus Falls Community College, University of Minnesota at Morris, Northwestern University, Hamline College, St. Thomas University, Northwestern University, and the University of Minnesota. We

have hosted over 30 Vista and AmeriCorps volunteers, and many tribal volunteers. We have completed assessments of food and energy security on the White Earth reservation, and shared these with tribal and non tribal programs including the National Congress of American Indians, Society of American Indian Government Employees, Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, WEWIN, United Tribes Technical College, Leech Lake Tribal College, and many other entities. We have prepared testimony on Green and Indigenous Economics, presented at numerous meetings regionally, nationally and internationally. We have worked successfully to oppose the genetic engineering of wild rice, the installation of new coal generation in our region ( Big Stone II from Ottertail Power), and advocated on numerous environmental issues, ranging from sulfide mining to logging. We have prepared expert testimony on pesticide contamination , in particular focused on industrial potato farming, and prepared numerous publication and articles, widely published on these issues. We created Native Harvest, marketing wild rice, maple syrup , food and art products from the White Earth reservation, with $l50,000 in sales this past year, and projected $250,000 in sales by 2012, with related enterprises Ojibwe Foods. We have created the first successful farm to school program on the White Earth reservation and on any reservation in Minnesota, serving the Pine Point Elementary School, and now being expanded to two additional schools. This is a national model. We have hosted nine successful Indigenous Farming Conferences, bringing together Native and allied farmers in the region, and worked to restore endangered varieties of flint corn to viable levels of production, which we hope in the next ten years will provide for food for our community, and significant production for sale as well as our farm to school programs. In 2011, we brought Niijii Radio, KKWE 89.9 FM onto the air, representing the first independent Native American radio station in Minnesota.

We have conducted feasibility studies, anemometer readings and erected two wind turbines, ten solar thermal projects and two solar photovoltaic projects on the White Earth reservation and Red Lake reservation, and have collaborated and created the intellectual capital for larger scale wind on the White Earth reservation, including the tribal 750 KW Heron wind project. With our sister organization, Honor the Earth, we have been working with the Oglala Sioux Tribe, KILI Radio and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on a 65 KW Nortank Turbine on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. In broader outreach work and collaborations, weve published numerous booklets and articles on sustainable and green economics . END.. New Section: Community: The White Earth Reservation, or Gaawaabaabanikaag, is the homeland to the Anishinaabeg of the Mississippi Band (also known as the Ojibwe or Chippewa). Our ancestors chose this land because it had the biodiversity and spiritual significance to provide for at least the future seven generations of our people. The land was reserved under the 1867 treaty, which designated 837,000 acres to be the White Earth Reservation. Today, our people, as the White Earth Tribe, hold only 76,347 acres or about 9% of the original land base. White Earth Reservation encompasses 100% of Mahnomen County. One-third of Becker is within the boundary of our reservation and approximately one-third of Clearwater County. Twenty two percent of the Mahnomen County is government considered to live in poverty, and is the poorest county in Minnesota. The entire county is within the reservation borders. But we recognize that money is not the only indicator of wealth. Our people are rich in culture, a land of 47 lakes and 500 bodies of water full of fish and medicinal plants, as well as a bountiful wild rice crop which feeds our bellies and our souls. We also have vast, untapped renewable energy resources, and an economy which could be re-tooled to be more efficient and create local multipliers. Leadership: WELRP has a wealth of knowledge and experience

directing this project and working together as a team. Our staff is primarily residents of the White Earth Reservation. Executive Director, Winona LaDuke has led the organization since its founding in l989, after serving as a plaintiff in land rights work on the reservation. LaDuke has degrees from Harvard University and Antioch College ( MA Rural Development) , and was a graduate fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Widely published , her work remains a significant component to the work of the WELRP. Daryl Smith, Chief Financial Officer has an MBA from Boston University, and a long career in non profit organizational accounting and management. Teresa LaDuke serves as administrative director of Honor the Earth and has extensive journalism experience. John Shimek is our renewable energy organizer and is a graduate of the White Earth Tribal Pathways out of Poverty Green and Renewable Energy Training Program . This fall, he will be the Vista position for renewable energy (one of three positions in our organization plus eight this summer). He has undertaken significant training in wind and solar thermal and photovoltaics, and will be certified for installation in our program. Cordero Hale is our second Vista renewable energy program staff. We anticipate hiring a renwable energy policy coordinator, and consulting engineering staff to carry out the wind energy interconnection and coordinate our engineering and policy work. Board of Directors: Chair: Kathy Goodwin, Naytauwash Community member, long time advocate and tribal employee, working primarily with community council and elders , Tribal member. Steve Larson: Store owner and manager in Detroit Lakes, community member, and member of Kiwannis and Rotary Clubs. Wife is tribal member. Audrey Thayer: Executive Director of the Northern Minnesota American Civil Liberties Union, Tribal member. Sue Wika: Professor of Sustainable Agriculture at Fergus Falls Community College, organic farmer.

Two seats are likely to be filled this summer. The board meets quarterly and reviews programmatic and financial matters of the WELRP and its subsidiary organizations, Niijii Radio, Native Harvest and Ojibwe Wind.

White Earth Renewable Energy Work and Energy Justice Opportunity for White Earth Tribal Development and Broader Implications: Renewable Energy

The White Earth reservation is in possession of class four commercial wind in the western portion of the reservation, substantial efficiency or negawatts savings, solar thermal potential for many tribal homes, solar photovoltaic opportunities for tribal buildings and housing, and substantial access to biomass resources. Very few of these resources have been developed. In 2007, the White Earth Land Recovery Project, with the White Earth Tribal Council produced the White Earth Anishinabe Energy Plan, discussing many of these issues. This report has been used by our community and distributed to a number of tribal communities nationally. In the past five years, two wind projects have come under construction on the reservation: the WELRP Lolland project of a 75 kW wind turbine, and the White Earth Tribal Councils 750 kw Heron wind project located in White Earth village. Neither of them is presently operational. The White Earth Land Recovery Project, with partners listed previously has installed approximately ten solar thermal and two solar photovoltaic projects on the reservation and on Red Lake reservation, and in the Little Earth Housing Project. During the 2010-2011 period, as well, the White Earth Tribal Council received a substantial Pathways out of Poverty grant from the US Government to create a tribal renewable energy training program This program graduated with certificates approximately 50 individuals, who have some level of skill and interest in this arena. We wish to utilize and further train many of these individuals for renewable energy. In the broader context, consider the Following:

 Tribal lands have an estimated 535 Billion kWh/year of wind power generation potential. Tribal lands have an estimated 17,000 Billion kWh/year of solar electricity generation potential, about 4.5 times total US annual generation. Investing in renewable energy creates more jobs per dollar invested than fossil fuel energy. Efficiency creates 21.5 jobs for every $1 million invested. The costs of fuel for wind and solar power can be projected into the future, providing a unique opportunity for stabilizing an energy intensive economy. In particular, we also note the Northwest Area Foundation prepared a report in l998, Renewable Energy Potential of Tribal Lands in Montana, the Dakotas and Western Minnesota beginning to address this set of issues. The report was prepared by the National Center for Appropriate Technology. Additional reports have been prepared by the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy and Honor the Earth. (2010). All reports indicate a lack of infrastructure, intellectual and technical capital and great renewable potential.

Climate Change, Economics and Security: In a time of global climate destabilization and a reduction in access to cheap fossil fuels, tribal communities will face increasing hardship, which they have little or no ability to address through structural and systemic change. Already, the White Earth reservation expends approximately one quarter of tribal income on energy, whether for heating,, electricity or transportation. This represents a significant drain on our tribal economy, and, also is a prime indicator of a potentially unstable future. Just as the human body adapts itself to the regular intake of hard drugs, its systems coming to depend on them to such an extent that the user goes through a period of acute distress if they are suddenly

withdrawn, so the use of hard fossil energy alters the economic metabolism and is so highly addictive that in a crisis a user community or country will be prepared to export almost any proportion of its annual output to buy its regular fix. Even in normal conditions, a community in an industrialized country can devote a fifty of its external income to buying energy, an expense that not only constitutes a serious drain on its resources but locks the community into the unpredictable gyrations of the world trading system. Richard Douthwaite, Short Circuit 2000 The White Earth reservations exchange of gross domestic product for energy is higher than the national average of most industrialized countries, yet is representative of northern remote tribal communities who lack infrastructure or efficiency and have relatively recently transitioned to a fossil fuel economy. On a worldwide scale, this expenditure represents the largest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. On the White Earth reservation, this represents a very unstable environment for future development. In the past few years, for instance, the fuel assistance needs of the White Earth reservation have been met by a combination of federal and state funds, and those of Citizens Energy/CITGO Petroleum. The tribal budget for fuel assistance is over $l million annually, and is projected to rise. (This program, however, has been one which has had consistent support at a federal and state level, as the revenue transfers to the utilities and fossil fuel industry.) We believe that this continued transfer of wealth is best addressed by efficiency and local heating options. This is an immediate family and community based approach to addressing the drain of wealth from the community. Regionally, these problems are augmented. Not only is much of the housing in our northern reservations, older, trailer or generally lacking efficiencies in basic heating, but extreme weather patterns remain in the region. Indeed, several severe weather emergencies have occurred in northern reservations over the past two years, (Cheyenne River and Nett Lake) which are likely to become more common in the climate challenged world ahead. And, as well, sear winds have hit the White Earth reservation causing dramatic damage in the past decade.

Consider the following: Energy distribution systems on rural reservations are extremely vulnerable to extended power outages during winter storms, threatening the lives of reservation residents. Reservation communities are at a statistically greater risk from extreme weather related mortality nationwide, especially from cold, heat and drought associated with a rapidly changing climate. Reservations are waiting on more than 200,000 needed new houses. About 1/3 of reservation homes are trailers, generally with completely inadequate weatherization. 20 years, we will be spending some 20% of world GDP on climate change related mitigation and disasters. Policy and Grid Access Issues Our tribal community, and several others in our region, are also faced with multiple electrical providers, a lack of expertise as a tribal community, either in aggregating or wheeling power (through WAPA allocations for instance), or in creating policy and mechanisms to bargain for lower prices and more efficiency. Indeed the White Earth reservation has several utilities- Ottertail Power (which also serves part of Red Lake, Sisseton, Spirit Lake and Turtle Mountain reservations), and several rural cooperatives (Wild Rice Electric Coop, Itasca Mantrap) which are purchasing as a part of Great River and Basin Electric. The tribal community exercises little or no decision making authority in these utilities, and limited strategic analysis has been undertaken as to opportunities to move these entities towards more ecologically and economically sensible strategies. Much of this work has historically been discussed by the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy. This situation is augmented by state net metering policies in Minnesota. Although Minnesota is a leading state in wind energy development, the industry has been polarized into two segments- large scale utility wind and small scale home owned wind- or wind generation which produces at a level under the net metering regulations. In short, Minnesotas ceiling on net metering preferential purchases) at 40 kW, is cost prohibitive for reliable and community based wind generation

development. Most tribal communities, in our region, while possessing good commercial wind potential, lack the resources for larger scaled wind generation, and are limited in their interest or trust in entering into partnerships with wind developers for larger scale utility wind . This situation is complicated by grid access issues in the WAPA and Ottertail grid area, in particular, as limited access has become an obstacle. These issues have been of major interest to many environmental and renewable energy organizations in the state, and as well the University of Minnesota at Morris. Finally, these policy and economic issues are coupled with technical and intellectual capacity access. The US renewable industry, in particular the wind industry is far behind European wind development- in terms of technology, policy and intellectual capital. This is an immense problem in the largest energy market in the world. This is also very problematic in tribal communities increasingly grid tied, and dependent upon large scale utility generation in the face of global climate change, directly related to, for instance coal generation. (Basin Electric is the single largest CO2 emitting utility in the US and the generating plants, primarily in North Dakota have huge ecological footprints for our region.) Over the past decade, the White Earth Land Recovery Project has worked to begin addressing these issues through education, advocacy, tribal policy proposals, state and national policy recommendations and pilot project development. Much of our work is documented in the White Earth Anishinaabe Energy Plan, and several other publications as well as numerous articles and a number of pilot projects. We wish to nurture this work, and build on our intellectual capital to create solutions to this dilemma. We have companioned our work with Honor the Earth, a national organization, and with Solar Energy International, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (Pine River), Lakota Solar Enterprises (Pine Ridge)and other organizations. Indigenous Renewable Energy Development Systemic Challenges: On a worldwide scale, there is significant renewable energy potential in Indigenous territories, yet the same challenges are found everywhere, often causing opposition to renewable energy projects, and or a lack of community control and ownership. Energy is an essential element to Indigenous economies in this critical millennium, and investments must

be made in strategic planning to insure that development is subject to the criteria of: (1) meeting energy needs; (2) is culturally appropriate; (3) is environmentally sustainable; (4) is socially responsible; and, (5) is economically just and viable. In addition, criteria of interspecies and intergenerational justice need to be considered in this arena. The challenges include a history and set of relations and built infrastructure which are in many cases part and parcel of the US unsustainable fossil fuels nuclear or centralized power production system. A second challenge involves lack of access to financial capital for Indigenous self-determination in energy, as the vast majority of energy capital is enmeshed in large scale corporate and government controlled energy projects. A third set of challenges involve the technology itself, as renewable energy in the North American context lags far behind the world standard, due to misprioritized investments and the lack of political will at federal, state and local levels of governance. This is to say that whether the renewable energy strategy involves tidal generation, mid-sized wind, or scaled solar, the intellectual and technical capital for most of these projects and prospects lies either in a foreign country or in the military sector of the American economy, and has not been released for civilian use, even though energy selfsufficiency is a key element of national security. A fourth challenge faced by Indigenous peoples in energy selfdetermination is intellectual capital. This challenge is a result of both a brain drain of tribal intellectuals to large corporations (who recruit successfully most Indigenous engineers, economists, geologists etc), and the fact that the actual technical and intellectual capital for renewable development exists by and large outside of North America. Scandinavian or European countries have come to address the energy issues with far more commitment.

All of these challenges must be addressed to create sustainable Indigenous renewable energy and self-determination, and all have mechanisms to provide for a solution. European Renewable Energy: We are interested in looking more broadly for our strategies, essentially towards European economies and technology. In a recent publication on European wind energy, the following is noted, The global wind industry has been growing at a rate above 40% per annum during the past five years with the top markets being Germany, Spain, Denmark and the US. The production of wind turbine-generated electricity is hence drastically increasing and some countries have now reached double-digit (percentage) coverage of their electricity consumption Denmark being the leading country with 13-14% compared to only 2% in the US. Wind energy employed some 60,000 people worldwide in 2001, of which 45,000 were in the European Union. (Krohn 2002). The electricity is supplied from almost 50 different countries although the greater part is provided from wind turbine plants in Germany, Spain, the US and Denmark (measured in kilowatts, Denmark is responsible for more than 50% of the worlds production of wind energy). On the supply-side there are roughly 25 larger manufacturers of wind turbines in the world. Of these 25 the top ten manufacturers form a strategic group providing approximately 95% of the total recorded installation. The four leading companies in the top ten Vestas Wind Systems (DK), Enercon (GE), NEG Micon (DK) and Gamesa (SP) together account for two thirds of the total supply and hence dominate the world market for wind turbines. Led by Danish Vestas Wind Systems which has for years maintained its position as the worlds largest manufacturer of wind turbines and leads this top ten cluster of companies, these manufacturers together now account for approximately 45% of the US$4.5 billion global wind turbine market making tiny Denmark, with a population of only 5 million, the world's

top manufacturer and exporter of wind turbines. The German manufacturers Enercon, Nordex and Repower together form the second largest cluster in the strategic group with approximately 30% of the market, followed by the Spanish cluster of Gamesa, Made and Escotecnia with a total market share of approximately 14%. The only American manufacturer in the top ten, GE Wind, accounts for 9% of the world market leaving only 5% of the world market to the remaining 15 manufacturers. Several factors account for the historic health of the Danish and German wind industries. First, in the case of Denmark Remote and peripheral communities have to face various challenges, particularly as todays world has got more and more interconnected and relies on centralized global hubs for all sort of business, including manufacturing and technological development, among others. Remote areas need therefore In particular, peripheral regions have to cope with a few unique characteristics, such as: 1. Remote location. This element is highly related to a relative lack of accessibility to economic activity, which, according to some literature, determines the locational advantage or disadvantage of an area relative to all other areas considered [1]. 2. Low population density. Highly dispersed population makes it difficult for the implementation of effective and economically affordable strategies and projects that would increase efficiency (e.g., energy and water use), productivity and mobility. 3. Prejudicial demographic structures. Subject to out-migration particularly of young peopleremote areas have to accommodate a small population and elderly inhabitants, resulting in adverse demographic dependency ratios. 4. Weak urban networks. Peripheral regions generally show a lack of cities in their territorial area, or develop behind the shades of a sole, main urban settlement. As a consequence, they might find it difficult to connect with neighboring regions (in both physical and functional terms) and gain from the involvement into larger markets.

5. Fragile economic development. With low connectivity, adverse demographics and higher logistic costs, remote areas normally show lower employment rates and less developed economic structures. The results of this set of circumstances mean that European, in particular Danish and German wind technology and policy is far advanced from American policies. And, it is interesting to note that Denmarks periphery status has allowed, and forced the development of a renewable energy economy. We believe that Denmarks experience, and creation, particularly of small to medium, robust machinery has significant potential for application in our region. We have an emerging partnership with the Danish Center for Folk Energy, and will be meeting with them this summer, as well as other entities in Europe. Goals: l) To create a model tribal energy strategy based on reduced fossil fuel use, innovative technologies and community-scaled and appropriate choices. 2) To implement community scaled energy efficiency and renewable energy models on the White Earth reservation using both the most innovative in resources, and the least expensive and greatest recycling programs. 3) To create intellectual and technical capital for community scaled renewable energy, which is replicable regionally to northern tribal communities, through a training center, pilot project and collaborative work with academic and technical institutions. 4) To create resources for tribal energy policies and promote broader state energy policies which will provide energy security for our tribal community and a model for capitalizing a sustainable energy economy.