American Indian Sustainable Housing Initiative

Red Feather believes that in order to strengthen American Indian nations, we must first begin by empowering native families to take the lead role in the betterment of their own communities.  Our approach builds on the strengths of native cultural traditions and works with all generations to achieve family and community development in the process of creating new housing and community facilities. This allows families and communities to gain the skills and confidence necessary to build the leadership capabilities among their young people that will enable them to address the many other important issues facing their lives.

The focus of Red Feather’s American Indian Sustainable Housing Initiative is to educate Indian nations on straw bale building methods that will enable tribes to establish frameworks for long-term self-sufficiency.  It also provides a model for rebuilding reservation communities and facilitating positive change.  Using workshops and seminars to demonstrate volunteer-friendly straw bale construction techniques, communities are empowered to build desperately needed homes and community facilities in a manner that also helps restore their social structure.

We have developed four components to complement our American Indian Sustainable Housing Initiative in Northern Cheyenne and Hopi communities:

• the Indigenous Builders Exchange, which provides paid training for American Indians from our partner communities and beyond
• The Solar Energy Initiative helps to bring self-sustainability to the homes we build
• Our straw bale construction emphasis, which includes our publication Building a Straw Bale House, helps promote a construction technique focused on economic, environmetnal, and cultural sustainability.