Winter 2022 Newsletter: We are guests in the home of fire and water: Interview with Roy Lee Hosteen

From the Ground: We are Guests in the Home of Fire and Water 

 RED FEATHER'S INTREPID LEADER OF THE 4-CORNERS WEATHERIZATION AND STOVE SWAP-OUT PROGRAM DISCUSSES HOW HE FOUND THIS PATH, WHAT IT MEANS TO CARE FOR HEARTH AND HOME, AND HOW TO KEEP THIS WORK GROWING IN COMMUNITY. 
​
​

​Finding this path:
​“After I retired from my former life in the mining industry, I had daydreams where I thought it would be great to win the lottery and go out and help families. Just give them a hand, maybe even get them a new stove, or a roof. Just whatever they needed to give them that motivation that comes from getting a little help, getting a boost.
​
‘That was my retirement daydream before joining Red Feather, but it sort of faded away. Then I interviewed with Red Feather, joined the team, and when we started working in homes again after COVID, that dream sort of came back to me. As far as becoming a millionaire, I didn’t get that part of my dream, but I got to the part of helping people, I’m just spending someone else’s money.  And when I realized that I had this moment of just “wow, the essence of my dream did come true”, so that was pretty exciting.

​​
​‘And I just keep thinking about the next family we are going to help. Because I’ve seen the benefits of what we do. I’ve helped people who were truly just scraping by, I’ve had clients come to me and say “we didn’t know how we were going to make it” and I’ve seen people just break down, just be so grateful because no one else was coming out to just give that little bit of help to get over a hump.

‘And then we started the 4-Corners Weatherization and Stove-Swap out Program, and we kept running into these issues for people, where they had a mold problem, or a stove leaking CO2, or bad water heater, and they wouldn’t qualify for weatherization because of this. So I went back to the team with this problem, and that’s when we approached NTEC (Navajo Transitional Energy Company). Their Community Benefit Fund gave us a grant specifically for this issue. So we had money to go in and fix these problems, help people pass their audits, and then get full weatherization on their homes or get new stoves.  When that happened, it was like “Wow- now we can get people what they really need.” 

It was phenomenal. Red Feather has been a lifeline to a lot of families. When I go out and see homes that are in need of service, I say “We are here to serve. We are here to help.”  That ‘we’ includes people from outside the reservation, from outside the community.

Keeping the Balance:
‘I immerse myself in this, in helping families. For awhile I got very immersed in it, it was even taking over my weekends, evenings, early mornings. When that happened I had to pull back a bit, so I could approach this program with the happy attitude it deserves, and not go down that road of over-working myself. Its easy to get so immersed when you are doing such important work. But now I really take the time to refresh myself. I don’t take calls after five. I need my own time. I need time with my wife. She is also a huge part of what makes it possible for me to do this work. Her support makes me able to do what I do.

Remembering the Motivation:
‘One of the reasons this work is so important to me, one of the things that drives me, is that my late uncle, he used to be a medicine man. He used to say, “We, we as human beings, we invite ourselves into the home of a fire.” Meaning that fire is the thing that stays in the house. Being human, having vehicles, we go here and there. But the fire doesn’t, it stays in the home keeping the house warm even while you are gone. It’s the hot water, the electricity, keeping everything working in the house. It is the same thing with water. It holds the home, and humans are just visitors into the homes of these two elements. This came from my elderly uncle, and he always said “just keep in mind that we are just visitors.” That just always stuck with me.

"We, we as human beings, we invite ourselves into the home of a fire.” Meaning that fire is the thing that stays in the house. Being human, having vehicles, we go here and there. But the fire doesn’t, it stays in the home keeping the house warm even while you are gone. 

Working with Fire and Ash:
‘How I see home is a place of fire. The idea of teaching families about their new woodstove, teaching them about how to get a clean burn, how to work with wood and smoke, it’s so rewarding. Some people just don’t have that perspective, or they think “Look, it’s just a fire, I didn’t think there was more too it.” But learning about woodstoves, how the wood burns, turns to gas, which is the smoke, and then burns again, to give us heat, this is alchemy. It requires knowledge and care. 

 ‘The same way with the ash. When we deliver new stoves I always ask people, “Where do you put your ash?” and I tell them, if they have kids or others dump the ash, to always make sure it goes in a proper place. Because I have seen situations where ash was taken out with embers still in it, and the wind got hold of it, and it set the house on fire. This has happened to several homes I know of. So this is one of those safety things that I always remind people about. We need to remember to tell our kids and grandchildren this. Same with stove safety and stove care. I always remind people not to burn trash, not to use cardboard to start the fire. Yes, it might not seem like it makes a difference at first, but if you treat your stove that way, it won’t work as well, it will break down. Its like taking care of a car. If you want it to continue to work for you, you have to do the maintenance. This is how we take care of the fire in the long term.

​
​Creating Safety in Every Home:
‘I was a project manager in the mining industry, and when I retired, I kept that idea of “safety first always”. We live by that in the mining industry, and it is the same in this work and this program.
‘We are so lucky to have this contractor we are working with [for the 4-Corners Program]. They are just so amazing. Every home we go into they check for CO2 leaks, look for safety issues, check every appliance in the home. This is that “safety first” mentality, and its so important to everything we do.
‘When it comes to the old stoves I see, I mean, it’s a losing battle for a lot of people. Some of them are barely holding together, and that’s truly unsafe. So to get a new stove, and have everything there, the whole chimney kit, it’s a really amazing gift to be able to give people.

​How the Dream Grows:
‘I was talking to my nephew, and he said his brother-in-law fixes and cleans pellet stoves. So I said to him, “This would be a great business for him, because we have numerous clients who need their stoves cleaned out. If you get yourself certified, you could have a full business with this.” So employment for others, creating more jobs, that’s the broader circle. That’s the next dream, the next level of these concentric circles going outwards, Red Feather’s work expanding and making bigger change. And then it’s really having the tribal government, the tribe itself also join these efforts, see the importance of what we do and say “we will and are joining you in creating healthy homes for everyone on the reservation.”

When it comes to the old stoves I see, I mean, it’s a losing battle for a lot of people. Some of them are barely holding together, and that’s truly unsafe. So to get a new stove, and have everything there, the whole chimney kit, it’s a really amazing gift to be able to give people.

Joy in completing the work: 
‘What brings me the biggest joy around all of this? Sense of completion. Sense of completion for others. Something is done and done well.’

Download the full Newsletter