The Standing Rock protests launched one man’s renewable energy transformation

Actress Shailene Woodley poses with Cody Two Bears during the grand opening of a solar farm near Cannon Ball, N.D., on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. (Image credit: AP Photo/Dave Kolpack) Transcript: This year is the 10th anniversary of historic protests in North Dakota, when members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of supporters stood together to oppose the construction of an oil pipeline near tribal land. Protesters argued that the Dakota Access pipeline would endanger water supplies, desecrate sacred sites, and increase reliance on fossil fuels. The pipeline was built anyway. But for Cody Two Bears, who served on the Standing Rock Tribal Council at the time, the protests were still transformative. Two Bears: “I’ve always seen on the news about how extraction affects communities around the world and … never really thought that would come to my backyard.” The experience motivated him to learn more about the impacts of fossil fuels and to help tribes develop alternatives. Two Bears: “I decided to get out of the leadership role from my tribe and start a nonprofit called Indigenized Energy.” Indigenized Energy helped develop North Dakota’s largest solar farm right on the Standing Rock Reservation. And it leads the Tribal Renewable Energy Coalition, a network of tribes working to install solar on tribal land. So for Two Bears, the Standing Rock protests ignited a passion for clean energy that continues to drive him today. Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.