Since the 1940s, tribes in the Great Plains have been affected by dam construction on the Missouri River. The system of six dams and reservoirs authorized under the Pick Sloan Act forced the removal of Native communities from their homes to small reservations, devastating families and damaging communities. The ongoing management of the dams and reservoirs worsens this injustice. Many of the now flooded lands are subject to the ebb and flows designed to support other project purposes such as hydro-power, flood control, navigation, and recreation. This situation is only worsened by global climate change. Erosion exposes sacred burial sites, particularly on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, Standing Rock Reservation, and the Lower Brule Reservation.

The Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) has entered into long-term contracts to provide energy throughout the region, stressing the already overtaxed water resources. With global climate change, particularly in the past two years, reduced snowfall and rainfall has decreased water in the system. Additionally, high water levels in the lower reaches of the system means that water must be held back for flood control purposes and released for navigation purposes with minimal economic benefit and further impacts on threatened bird and fish species. While WAPA was largely founded on hydroelectric resources from the region, these are now precarious due to global climate change. The basic infrastructure for power distribution is already in place in the region, with inter-basin generation trade-offs occurring with detrimental consequences.

To meet the terms of its contracts, WAPA currently replaces unavailable hydroelectric power with coal generated electricity. This power specifically originates from Basin Electric in North Dakota. In a recent study, Basin Electric was ranked number one in the country in the production of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hours of electricity produced – worsening already dangerous global climate change. [The study, "Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Generation Owners in the United States - 2000," is a collaboration between the environmental groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, and a Newark, NJ utility, the Public Service Enterprise Group.]

The Great Plains represents a place to make a huge difference by transitioning from primarily coal and hydroelectric generation to renewable energy such as wind and solar power and ultimately hydrogen production. Native communities in other regions (for example, the Columbia River Basin and the Great Lakes region) also have great potential for wind generation.