Natives from the Lower Sioux Indian Reservation in southwestern Minnesota are building a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing campus that will allow them to pioneer a green experiment, the first of its kind in the United States. They are growing hemp to process it into hempcrete, and then build healthy homes with it.
Once the tribe makes this low-carbon material, they can begin to address a severe shortage of housing and jobs. Recapturing a slice of sovereignty would be a win for them, since they were subjected to some of the worst brutality against the Indigenous nations in North America. Nearly half of the 1,124 enrolled members of the tribe need homes.
Now, they have two prototypes that are nearly done. While learning how to make these, the construction team developed a skill they can market off the reservation as well. “The idea of making homes that would last and be healthy…
Read full article originally published on naturalbuildingblog.com