Past Projects

Northern Cheyenne
Learn more about our long-term partnership with Northern Cheyenne communities here.

Hopi
Red Feather is currently working within Hopiland to address the communities' needs for housing. Learn more here.

Project Map
Click here for details on communities where Red Feather has worked.

Past Projects

This is only a partial listing of Red Feather's past projects. Our projects range from a one-day installation of wheelchair ramps to the construction of straw bale homes and communal facilities. For a more complete list, please click here.



		Shebola Home Project, Hopi Reservation September 2006 Community members from all over Hopiland joined the Shebola family, the village of Bacavi, and Red Feather Development Group in celebrating the completion of the Shebola's new straw bale home on Friday, September 30, 2006. The home project, which represented the greatest community interest of any Red Feather build to date, allowed Kerri Shebola to return to Bacavi with her daughter, Danielle, and son, Matthew, who is recovering from leukemia.


		Roundstone Home Project, Northern Cheyenne Reservation June 2006 After four weeks of construction and several years of navigating the bureaucratic process required for new home construction, the Roundstone Family moved into their new straw bale home in July of 2006. With the assistance of volunteers, representatives of various tribal and federal agencies, community members, and corporate sponsors, Red Feather and the Roundstone family were able to build a home and a model for homeownership in Northern Cheyenne country.


		Turtle Mountain Community College Environmental Research Center , 2004-2005 TMCC Environmental Research Center is complete! Turtle Mountain Community College, Red Feather, and dedicated volunteers from the across the reservation and the United States completed the final phase of the Environmental Research Center in August, 2005. A group of dedicated tribal trades students lent their invaluable work to the project and will continue to enjoy the benefits of the ERC as they attend classes on sustainable construction, resource efficiency and alternative energy from within these straw bale walls.


		Tenakhongva Home Project, Hopi Reservation April 2005 Mary Tenakhongva's straw bale home-the Hopi Nation's first straw bale home on the reservation-was completed April 29, 2005. Red Feather hosted an open house in Hotevilla where Hopi tribal members gathered until late evening to see Mary's affordable, sustainable and beautiful straw bale home. Hopi people from all the mesas, Red Feather volunteers, and neighboring Navajo tribal members joined Mary and her family to celebrate and bless their new home.

		Crow Nation Community Study Hall July 2002 Four Crow junior high school students, inspired by the Red Feather/University of Washington 1999 straw bale housing project, entered the Bayer/National Science Foundation Competition. The four girls, also known as the "Rez Protectors", were awarded the top prize of $25,000. This prize along with matching funds from Oprah Winfrey and the assistance of Red Feather helped make their dream of an efficient straw bale constructed community study hall come true.


		Bear Quiver Home Project, Northern Cheyenne Reservation July 2001 Two tribal members and their four children were living in a small HUD rental unit when they discovered straw bale construction during a trip to the neighboring Crow Reservation where they toured a Red Feather/University of Washington project. The family then procured a mortgage for materials through the USDA Rural Development Program, and Red Feather, the University of Washington, and Penn State University provided the volunteer team, students and technical support that helped them build this four-bedroom, two-bathroom house. This, Red Feather’s largest residential project to date, is also the first straw bale home to be financed by the USDA, and the first straw bale home built in the Northern Cheyenne Nation.

		Straw Bale Home Project, Pine Ridge Reservation July 2000 Oglala tribal members, Red Feather volunteers, University of Washington staff and students, and members of the Adopt-A-Grandparent Program built this beautiful, sustainable, single-family straw bale home for two Oglala elders who had raised 24 foster children in their 2-bedroom HUD rental home. The University of Washington College of Architecture and Urban Planning provided the home design, and the Department of Construction Management provided on-site project management. St. Thomas More parishioners and Red Feather Development Group supporters provided the funding.


		Straw Bale Home Project, Crow Reservation July 1999 In 1978 a tribal member lost her home when the Little Bighorn flooded. She was given a Red Cross trailer for use until she could secure new housing. It was not adequate for her son and adopted children to live in, but they managed for twenty years to suffer through gas leaks, holes in the floor, and brutally cold winters. In 1999, she became the recipient of Red Feather's first straw bale home, built in partnership with the departments of Architecture and Construction Management of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP) at the University of Washington.


		Home Rehabilitation Project, Pine Ridge Reservation August 1998 An Oglala Lakota tribal elder lives in a remote area of the Pine Ridge Reservation four miles from the nearest paved road. Thirty years ago, he and his family constructed a small one-room cabin with logs from their land. The home had no insulation, running water, or electricity and was often cut off from outside services due to severe weather. Red Feather volunteers worked alongside the family to replace the home’s roof, doors, and windows and to build new interior walls, electrical and plumbing service, a new bathroom, and a front porch and stairs.


		Barrier-free Access, Muckleshoot Reservation December 1997 Red Feather volunteers built a deck and ramp for 104-year-old Tulalip elder on the Muckleshoot Reservation in Washington. The dilapidated ramp outside her front door had made it impossible to leave her own home without the help of family members. In many cases, Red Feather’s Wheelchair Ramp-A-Thons have provided bridges back to their community for tribal elders and the disabled.


		Home Rehabilitation Project, Pine Ridge Reservation July 1997 A Pine Ridge elder was living in a one-room trailer with six of her grandchildren. The trailer had neither running water nor electricity. The dream of a new home finally arrived, thanks to a coalition effort between the Red Feather Development Group and the National Association for American Indian Children and Elders. Now that the family's old home has been completely rehabilitated and has water and electricity for the first time, they can safely raise grandchildren in a warm, secure home with dreams of a better tomorrow.