For six years, Red Feather Development Group has been
pushing a low-cost solution to the housing crunch on Indian
reservations, where extended families often squeeze into tiny
government-issue homes. One answer, according to the Bellevue,
Wash.-based nonprofit, lies in building houses with bales of
straw.
The bales are a product of the wheat
harvest on many Western reservations. Stacked together, they
provide wall insulation and structural support for houses which are
cheaper and four to seven times better-insulated than comparable
public housing.
Using volunteer labor from
reservations and community groups, Red Feather has organized
construction of over three dozen homes for needy families. Locals
learn straw-bale construction by working on Red Feather buildings
and are equipped to build their own homes; several residents of
Montana’s Crow reservation did just that following a Red Feather
project there last summer.
Federal housing
authorities are catching on, as well. Following the latest Red
Feather demonstration in July on Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota, Housing and Urban Development officials were enthusiastic
about increased construction of straw-bale houses on
reservations.
“It’s a really positive moment for
us,” says Red Feather spokeswoman Betsy
Model.
For more information, call Red Feather at
425/453-7188 or look on the Web at
www.redfeather.org.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Straw bales relieve housing crunch.
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