Impact Spotlight
Provides clean, renewable energy for Wozu's Indigenous-led community campus
Indigenous clean energy workforce through hands-on solar training and installation
Reduces operating costs to expand buffalo restoration, food sovereignty, and cultural revitalization
About
Wozu is an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based on Standing Rock in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Its name, Wozu, means "to plant" or "to grow," reflecting the belief that lasting change begins by planting seeds of hope, opportunity, and responsibility for future generations. Its mission is to regenerate land, people, culture, and buffalo by restoring Indigenous relationships with the natural world, creating opportunities for Tribal members to reconnect with the land through buffalo restoration, regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, renewable energy, cultural revitalization, and outdoor stewardship.
Wozu believes the future is built through regeneration rather than reliance, and works to replace outside dependence for essential resources like food and energy with reliable, affordable, community-owned solutions that strengthen self-determination. By blending traditional Indigenous knowledge with innovation, Wozu is planting the seeds of a future where communities thrive through stewardship, energy sovereignty, and a lasting connection to the land.
“For generations we resisted to protect what we love. Today, we are called to regenerate it. By restoring the land, we restore our people. Our vision is simple: healthy land, thriving buffalo, affordable and reliable energy, alongside food sovereignty, vibrant Native language, and communities where no one goes hungry or without a home.”
HF Partnership
In partnership with the Honnold Foundation, Wozu is advancing a vision of energy sovereignty rooted in Indigenous values, environmental stewardship, and community self-determination. With the Foundation's support, Wozu will install a ground-mounted solar energy system to provide reliable, affordable, renewable electricity for its community campus on the Standing Rock Reservation, allowing the organization to produce its own power and move from reliance to regeneration.
The solar installation will power the heart of Wozu's operations, supporting buffalo restoration, regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, youth programming, and cultural revitalization, while reducing long-term utility costs so more resources can go directly toward serving the community.
The partnership also creates opportunities for Tribal members to gain hands-on experience alongside professional solar installers, building local renewable energy knowledge and expanding pathways into the clean energy workforce, demonstrating that Tribal communities can lead the transition to renewable energy while creating local jobs and strengthening resilience. For Wozu, clean energy supports a larger vision in which energy sovereignty, food sovereignty, and healthy land and people reinforce one another, with plans for this project to be a model for other Indigenous communities seeking reliable, affordable, community-owned energy solutions.
In the News
