In 2012, one in four American Indians and Alaskan Natives lived in poverty, according to Pew Research Center. Joblessness is a big problem on reservations, where the median income is just over $35,000, compared to more than $50,000 nationwide.

Henry Red Cloud was a steel worker in the late 1990s, traveling around the country. “But my heart was always back home,” he says. When he returned to South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he was struck anew by his community’s hardships. He volunteered on home-building projects, then moved on to DIY solar installations and wind turbines. Red Cloud soon realized that he could manufacture his creations–and that he could train and hire locals to help.

In 2004, Red Cloud launched Lakota Solar, a Pine Ridge–based company that builds and installs solar thermal systems, with a focus on bringing solar power to reservations. In 2008, he opened up the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, funded by a combination of private donations and public fundraising, which trains Native Americans from tribes countrywide in solar installation and support.

More than 450 students have gone through his training program, many of whom now have jobs in the renewable energy sector. A few of Red Cloud’s students have even started their own businesses, continuing the cycle begun by Lakota Solar (which currently employees nine full-time local workers and has manufactured more than 4,000 solar units) of bringing new jobs to reservations across the country.