Wind Is Energy ?Gift? For Native Americans

“The buffalo were a gift,” [Tribal official Ken Haukaas] continued. “The wind is a gift.” Native Americans on the Great Plains are harvesting a new gift these days… wind power. This story in the New York Times says tribes such as the Rosebud Sioux on the border of Nebraska and South Dakota are builidng wind turbine farms, which could give an economic boost to the tribes’ 29,000 members: “We’re broke here,” Mr. Haukaas said. “We’re poor.” But, he added: “The wind is free. There’s energy here all the time.” Mr. Haukaas believes that “the same thing that brought the buffalo brings the wind.” “The buffalo were a gift,” he continued. “The wind is a gift.” In 2003, after erecting a 750-kilowatt turbine that powers the Rosebud Casino near the Nebraska border, the Rosebud Sioux tribal... [read full story]