![\"GRID](\"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Tribal_group.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOn a cold, January day, as smoke from wood fires filled the air, five young AmeriCorps members were hard at work digging a trench in front of a home in the Tesuque Pueblo in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. Fellows with GRID Alternatives, the workers were getting ready to install the community\u2019s very first solar electric system for a family of seven. All save one were themselves Native American, coming from tribes across the United States to both learn the solar trade and serve communities like the ones they came from.<\/p>\n
The AmeriCorps-funded SolarCorps program is GRID\u2019s most intensive job training program, providing year-long paid service learning opportunities for people exploring solar careers. For Native Americans from more remote regions with little or no solar industry, the program is an ideal way to get hands-on, in-depth solar PV training. And through GRID\u2019s National Tribal Program, that training is happening on tribal lands.<\/p>\n
Austin Thompson, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, started with GRID\u2019s tribal program in 2015, after earning an associates degree in solar PV and NABCEP certification. Following his SolarCorps year, he was promoted to Solar Installation Supervisor. He was joined in September 2016 by two more SolarCorps fellows, Krystian Fragua from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico and Nick Aberle from the Forest Lake Chapter of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.<\/p>\n
Wyatt Atkinson, a SolarCorps working for GRID\u2019s Bay Area office on the north coast of California, also joined the group for the Tesuque installation. A U.S. Navy Veteran and member of the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, Wyatt has dreams of bringing solar back home to his people. \u201cAs part of my end goal, I plan on going back to my own reservation and helping them achieve energy sovereignty,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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Austin, Nick and Wyatt all got their start with GRID as volunteers. Joining the SolarCorps program has helped them deepen their learning and develop the skills they will need to work in the industry or even start their own companies.<\/p>\n
Being able to bring solar power and solar job training to tribes in the process of gaining their own skills is a powerful motivator for the fellows. Many of GRID\u2019s tribal partners are looking to become energy independent and form their own utilities, and having local expertise is paramount.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of GRID\u2019s main missions is developing a workforce,\u201d said Wyatt. \u201cIf we want energy sovereignty on tribal lands, it needs to be tribal members that are spearheading that workforce, creating our own companies, creating our own jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHelping build these skills within the community is invaluable to the tribe – it provides jobs, it saves them money, and they use a technology that is clean and renewable,\u201d said Berlyn Hubler, a SolarCorps fellow with GRID\u2019s Tribal Program since 2016. Though not Native American herself, she has a deep commitment to the work. \u201cThese systemic benefits are what keep me passionate about working with tribes,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
As they laid the wiring in the trench for the ground-mount system in Tesuque Pueblo, the camaraderie among the fellows was palpable, with conversation ranging from favorite NFL teams to cultural jokes to Star Wars and back again. It was the first time they had all worked together on a project and their presence was inspiring to the whole community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s very good for the young people to learn what needs to be done in the future and to see them going out and learning about solar,\u201d said Mrs. Dorame, the homeowner. \u201cAnd it\u2019s young Indian people, Native Americans, they\u2019re the ones trying to do something here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all from different reservations, but we all have the same goal to help out and give back to our communities,\u201d said Wyatt. \u201cBeing able to connect with other people out in Indian Country is a very valuable resource. I assume I\u2019ll know these guys the rest of my life and be able to make other things happen.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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