Native Sun Community Power Development

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Empowering Communities for a Sustainable Future.

Native Sun Community Power Development is a Native-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2019 and based in Minneapolis. Our name, Native Sun Community Power Development, reflects our collective power to heal, reclaim knowledge, and make decisions rooted in sovereignty, care, and self-determination. True power lives in relationships with one another, with the land, and with the generations yet to come. Native Sun Community Power Development isn't just about power in the electrical sense. It is about our collective power to heal our communities and the Earth. It is about the community being empowered

At the policy level, we show up so that Native communities are not treated as an afterthought. We work with Tribal Nations, state partners, and allies to keep equity, access, and energy sovereignty on the table when Minnesota makes choices about power plants, transmission, EV infrastructure, and clean energy investments.

Our Values

The principle of seven generations guides us. Our impact on future generations shapes every program we build and every partnership we form. This long-term vision helps us stay focused, steady, and rooted in our responsibilities. We measure our impact not just in metrics, but in the stories our grandchildren will tell.

Our Mission

Our mission is to advance energy sovereignty, climate resilience, and economic justice for Tribal and rural communities across the region. 

In the words of Bob Blake, “When we heal our relationship with the environment, we heal our relationship with one another and ultimately with ourselves.”

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On the ground, our education and workforce programs turn those ideas into something people can see and feel:

• Solar Cub and community education help young people and families understand how energy works, how climate affects daily life, and what clean energy can look like in their homes and homelands. We use hands-on activities, cultural teachings, and real examples to make it feel practical rather than abstract.
• Our Green Jobs program prepares Native and rural workers for real jobs in solar, EVs, and other clean energy fields. People get training, navigation, and support so they can enter the field and stay there. This work also touches projects like agrivoltaics, where solar and food production share the same land and support both energy and food systems.

   

We are committed to building collective power across Tribal Nations through energy sovereignty, climate resilience, and economic justice. Everything we do is grounded in Anishinaabe teachings and the seven generations principle, honoring our responsibilities to those who came before us and those yet to come. Our work supports Native communities in reclaiming control of their energy futures, advancing self-determination, and creating pathways to environmental and economic sustainability. We train and equip our relatives for clean energy careers, help communities with electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure, and educate youth using cultural knowledge and STEM principles. 

We partner with Tribal Nations, schools, workforce boards, and public agencies, sharing tools and strategies that enable others to replicate and adapt our work. Collaboration, cultural grounding, and long-term investment in community leadership build collective power.

We ensure that Native communities receive priority treatment at the policy level. We work with Tribal Nations, state partners, and allies to keep equity, access, and energy sovereignty on the table when Minnesota makes choices about power plants, transmission, EV infrastructure, and clean energy investments.

When you give to Native Sun for Give to the Max, you are not just donating to a nonprofit. You are helping to:

• Keep Native voices at the policy tables that shape Minnesota’s clean energy future.
• Keep youth and families connected to real, local solutions through Solar Cub and community education.
• Keep doors open for Native workers who want steady, good jobs in the clean energy economy.

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