Natural Villages

Outdoor Hearth and Kitchen Building; ongoing, call to schedule

admin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:59:59 +0000

Come learn, help, contribute to a new development trend by gaining skill and information.

Click our videos link in the blog roll, or go to this video for more background information:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D18q7Z-AKM&feature=channel

Natural Villages Presents:

The Sacred Village:

Schedule days of earth wall building, outdoor earth kitchen of recycled and natural materials…prayerfully sculpted with artists and earth house trainers.

Earn certification toward new green job markets in an environment of GOOD THOUGHTS and PRAYERS FOR the healing of the land, and our hearts…..as we learn how to begin our sacred natural village renaissance:

WHO: Natural Villages and Natural Villagers

WHAT: Learning and camping and playing and praying while building outdoor HEARTH, a natural earth kitchen for almost no cost.

WHEN: Ongoing learning and training. Work trades for knowlege welcomed. Winter programming through April.

WHERE: camping at Big Basin State Park and working four minutes away, on our site…adjacent to Sempervirens Outdoor School. Hiking, meals included with food donation.

WHY: Because Natural Villages recover our landscape, and our lifestyles. Because environmental healing comes from the return of regional plants, animals and food production within natural house communities.

COST: This hands on learning is a gift to you and to us: But we do need funding to begin building this movement:

-funds to help train, certify and teach natural house building.

-we welcome ALL and we welcome gifts of money, love, support, materials and networking.

PREPARATION:

WE need more stones for the foundation; work trades and barter available.

* we accomodate learners on a first come, first serve basis! BRING: Food ie; a grain, a vegetable, a fruit, and perhaps some bread; a tent, sleeping gear, your heart, laughter and love.

Become part of this peoples movement towards Sacred Village reality…

www.natural-villages.org is a for SOCIAL profit organization: tax id# 87-0769918

Building Sustainability Camps

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:53:50 +0000

Our camps are learning intensive experiences.

The first summers at Wounded Knee have thrown mainstream

Americans together with Isreali nationals, Scottish, African and

English nationals from different class and race backgrounds

together with third generation Lakota Wounded Knee and

Manderson residents.

This has created a challenging and invigorating clash of cultural

perspectives, heart deep relationships, hard experiences and hopeful

potentialization. Sustainability education has everything to do with

learning how to learn on every level of our being.

In a global climate of world crisis due to changing weather caused by

environmental devastation, contributing now to the sea level rises,

food crop challenges, all the expected natural breaking down that has

been seen coming by natural law practitioners since the beginning of

the industrial age…we now actively ponder the wisdom of corporate markets,

dow averages and other economic justifications for those who must

amass wealth to feel successful in life. Sustainability education has

much more to do with realignment within the balance of our human nature

than anything else possibly could.

When we mix the earth with our hands, and pray the breath of our love into the intentions we mix into the clay rich soil, sweating in the sun, getting drenched in the rain, we can begin the dance of social change, we can begin the dance of do unto others as we would have for ourselves. We can begin to respect each other by using the ancient protocol of human behavior ie; thinking only good thoughts about ourselves and each other. We human beings call this RESPECT. It is the goal of every human being; to achieve excellence in this area. This is known as having achieved the goal of being able to remain in a “good” or “god” realized condition. It is a very precious condition we call sacred.

There is no healthier classroom than the diversity of passionate humans clashing their belief in life and love together with generating energy for a new way of global cultural recovery. A return to natural law spirituality in action, as a global community does not preclude anyones religious actions on any level. Promotion of natural, safe, comfortable earth and air, prana and life giving homes can be built simply and safely by anyone, any age and any size. Many people in wheelchairs or those with thinking disorders find peace and calm while working on cob walls. Children are the most useful for many many jobs.

A healthy, happy Cob house building site has food, music, laughter and many hands working to get an average size home up within a few months. In just a summer, with the right size team, a whole house can be completed. A house, that when properly built and maintained, will remain resistant to gale force winds, fire, severe storms, intense heat or cold, for up to 1,000 years. In our minds, learning how to grow our own food, how to support the return of fully food producing, naturally occuring environments so cost effective that a family cottage industry, and a well maintained garden are all one needs to survive, means freedom to choose an art, live beyond the boundaries of imposed stress, and blossom once again into a race of divine beings.

We crave a global culture similar to those in the past whos natural village existences included profound numbers of seasonal festivals, ceremonies of lavish detail and cultivation of much joy in communities working together in communion with life and love that most of us know is possible, crave deeply, but have on some level, given up hope of ever having.

Because many of us simply don’t want to see another human being too cold, too hungry or uncomfortable in ways others are not subjected to because of birth location, we feel the time is right to promote peace on earth through natural village development.

To us, this is the highest form of delivering love to each other.

Please join us.

pictured above: A 15 hour ceremony festival honoring the Earth as our Mother, embodiment of natural peace and the Queen of our forests, the Sun, as our father and creator and initiator of our journey through the sun, moon and stars… to the peace within ourselves as divine beings who live in heaven, in the garden of our Mother, whos son, is the Christos, the embodiment of all enlightenment…. Held in the village of Mapia in the Amazon Basin of Brazil, 2000. To know love, is to know the light. To know the light is to know only good, as darkeness cannot enter therin.

Wounded Knee Community Church: The place where wakes and funerals occur.

Our Sustainability building camps are held every summer on village construction sites of hosts who have expressed a welcome to visiting students and other natural idealists. Students and visitors will be expected to be fully prepared to camp with minimum supports beyondcooperative meals and sanitary conditions. Please notify our team, anduse this site to help you prepare for the experience.

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All travellers to Pine Ridge reservation are encouraged to know the weather, have adequate resources for the time they intend to stay, and the ability to connect and give support without judgement or criticizms of the current realities that have developed as a result of good folks struggling under oppression conditions for 200 years. This summer our camp hosts again will be on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Building Together

Masanobu Fukuoka’s Natural Farming and Permaculture

author

Larry Korn

Description:

Masanobu Fukuoka is a farmer/philosopher who lives on the Island of Shikoku, in southern Japan. His farming technique requires no machines, no chemicals and very little weeding. He does not plow the soil or use prepared compost and yet the condition of the soil in his orchards and fields improve each year. His method creates no pollution and does not require fossil fuels. His method requires less labor than any other, yet the yields in his orchard and fields compare favorably with the most productive Japanese farms which use all the technical know-how of modern science.

Full Text:

How is this possible? I admit, when I first went to his farm in 1973 I was skeptical. But there was the proof – beautiful grain crops in the fields, healthy orchard trees growing with a ground cover of vegetables, weeds and white clover. Over the two-year period I lived and worked there his techniques and philosophy gradually became clear to me.

I had not heard of permaculture at the time, but I can see now that Fukuoka’s farm is a classic working model of permaculture design. It is remarkable that Fukuoka and Bill Mollison, working independently, on two different continents with entirely different environmental conditions should come up with such similar solutions to the question, “How can people on live this planet sustainably and in harmony with nature.” Both claim that the principles of their system can be adapted to any climatic area.

Mollison and Fukuoka

Perhaps Fukuoka, in his book The One Straw Revolution , has best stated the basic philosophy of permaculture. In brief, it is philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single-product system.

–Bill Mollison in Permaculture 2

Mollison and Fukuoka took entirely different routes to get to essentially the same place. Permaculture is a design system which aims to maximize the functional connection of its elements. It integrates raising crops and animals with careful water management. Homes and other structures are designed for maximum energy efficiency. Everything is made to work together and evolve over time to blend harmoniously into a complete and sustainable agricultural system.

The key word here is design. Permaculture is a consciously designed system. The designer carefully uses his/her knowledge, skill and sensitivity to make a plan, then implement it. Fukuoka created natural farming from a completely different perspective.

The idea for natural farming came to Fukuoka when he was about twenty five years old. One morning, as he sat at sunrise on a bluff overlooking Yokohama Bay, a flash of inspiration occurred. He saw that nature was perfect just as it is. Problems arise when people try to improve upon nature and use nature strictly for human benefit. He tried to explain this understanding to others, but when they could not understand he made a decision to return to his family farm. He decided to create a concrete example of his understanding by applying it to agriculture.

But where to begin? Fukuoka had no model to go by. “‘How about trying this? How about trying that?’ That is the usual way of developing agricultural technique. My way was different. ‘How about not doing this, and How about not doing that?’ – this was the path I followed. Now my rice growing is simply sowing seed and spreading straw, but it has taken me more than thirty years to reach this simplicity.”

The basic idea for his rice growing came to him one day when he happened to pass an old field
which had been left unused and unplowed for many years. There he saw healthy rice seedlings sprouting through a tangle of grasses and weeds. From that time on he stopped sowing rice seed in the spring and, instead, put the seed out in the fall when it would naturally have fallen to the ground. Instead of plowing to get rid of weeds he learned to control them with a ground cover of white clover and a mulch of barley straw. Once he has tilted the balance slightly in favor of his crops Fukuoka interferes as little as possible with the plant and animal communities in his fields.

This is not to say that Fukuoka did not experiment. For example, he tried more than twenty different ground covers before noticing that white clover was the only one which held back weeds effectively. It also fixes nitrogen so it improves the soil. He tried spreading the straw neatly over the fields but found the rice seeds could not make their way through. In one corner of the field, however, where the straw had scattered every which way, the seedlings emerged. The next year he scattered the straw across the entire field. There were years when his experiments resulted in almost a total crop loss, but in small areas things worked out well. He closely observed what was different in that part of the field and next year the results were better. The point is, he had no preconceived idea of what would work the best. He tried many things and took the direction nature revealed. As far as possible, Fukuoka was trying to take the human intellect out of the decision making process.

His vegetable growing also reflects this idea. He grows vegetables in the spaces between the citrus trees in the orchard. Instead of deciding which vegetables would do well in which locations he mixes all the seeds together and scatters them everywhere. He lets the vegetables find their own location, often in areas he would have least have expected. The vegetables reseed themselves and move around the orchard from year to year. Vegetables grown this way stronger and gradually revert to the form of their semi-wild ancestors.

I mentioned that Fukuoka’s farm is a fine model of permaculture design. In Zone 1, nearest his family home in the village, he and his family maintain a vegetable garden in the traditional Japanese style. Kitchen scraps are dug into the rows, are crops rotated and chickens run freely. This garden is really an extension of the home living area.

Zone 2 is his grain fields. He grows a crop of rice and one of barley every year. Because he returns the straw to the fields and has the ground cover of white clover the soil actually improves each year. The natural balance of insects and a healthy soil keep insect and disease infestations to a minimum. Until Bill Mollison read The One-Straw Revolution he said he had no idea of how to include grain growing in his permaculture designs. All the agricultural models involved plowing the soil, a practice he does not agree with. Now he includes Fukuoka’s no-tillage technique in his teaching.

Zone 3 is the orchard. The main tree crop is Mandarin oranges, but he also grows many other fruit trees, native shrubs and other native and ornamental trees. The upper story is tall trees, many of which fix nitrogen and so improve the soil deep down. The middle story is the citrus and other fruit trees. The ground is covered with a riotous mixture of weeds, vegetables, herbs and white clover. Chickens run freely. This multi-tiered orchard area came about through a natural evolution rather than conscious design. It still contains many of the basic permacultural design features. It has many different plant and species, maximizes surface area, contains solar sunlight “traps” and maintains a natural balance of insect populations.

Author Larry Korn with Fukuoka

Fukuoka invites visitors from Zone 4 anytime. Wild animals and birds come and go freely. The surrounding forest is the source of mushrooms, wild herbs and vegetables. It is also an inspiration. “To get an idea of the perfection and abundance of nature,” Fukuoka says, “take a walk into the forest sometime. There, the animals, tall trees and shrubs are living together in harmony. All of this came about without benefit of human ingenuity or intervention.”

What is remarkable is that Fukuoka’s natural farming and permaculture should resemble each other so closely despite their nearly opposite approaches. Permaculture relies on the human intellect to devise a strategy to live abundantly and sustainably within nature. Fukuoka sees the human intellect as the culprit serving only to separate people from nature. The “one mountain top, many paths” adage seems to apply here.

Natural farming and permaculture share a profound debt to each other. The many examples of permaculture throughout the world show that a natural farming system is truly universal. It can be applied to arid climates as well as humid, temperate Japan. Also, the worldwide permaculture movement is an inspiration to Fukuoka. For many years he worked virtually alone in his work. For most of his life Japan was not receptive to his message. He had to self-publish his books because no publisher would take a chance on someone so far from the mainstream. When his experiments resulted in failure the other villagers would ridicule his work. In the mid-1980’s he came to a Permaculture Convergence in Olympia, Washington and met Bill Mollison. There were nearly one thousand people there. He was overwhelmed and heartened by the number and sincerity of the like-thinking people he met. He thanked Mollison for “creating this network of bright, energetic people working to help save the planet.” “Now,” he said, “for the first time in my life I have hope for the future.”

In turn, permaculture has adopted many things from Fukuoka. Besides the many agricultural techniques, such as continuous no-tillage grain growing and growing vegetables like wild plants, permaculture has also learned an important new approach for devising practical strategies. Most importantly, the philosophy of natural farming has given permaculture a truly spiritual basis lacking in its earlier teachings.

Fukuoka believes that natural farming proceeds from the spiritual health of the individual. He considers the healing of the land and the purification of the human spirit to be one process, and he proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which this process can take place. “Natural farming is not just for growing crops,” he says, “it is for the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”

Contact information:

Larry Korn

P.O. Box 2384

Berkeley, CA 94702

(510) 530-1194

FAX (510) 530-1194

About Earth Houses

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:51:34 +0000

About cob, or earth based houses

NOTE: Many of the pictures shown on this page and throughout the Natural Villages website were borrowed from other websites and from at least one book – The Hand-Sculpted House. We have deep gratitude for the construction team and house designers who have built one or more of those pictured here.

Some of these artists and photographers include: Sunray Kelly, Elke Cole, Nancy Chase, Becky Bee, Eric Hoel, Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley, Michael Smith…to name just a few…

We urge you to query any search engine with “cob house” or “cob building” or “cob construction”. You’ll see the same pictures, with some really heartwarming stories by people about their houses that they literally slapped and kneaded into shape.

We want to acknowledge Lois Lewis, our dear 70 year old friend who did it ALL BY herself, (over a few years, a 30 ft in diameter home!!!) with only help on the roof from her sons…Lois says : “if I can do it, ANYONE can!”

“Cob” refers to a mixture of clay soil, sand, water and straw, which is well blended in rather arbitrary proportions (dictated by the clay content of the soil) and used to form a structure. “Cob” means “gob”, more or less. “Monolitic Adobe” describes its rock-like mass. Many mix with barefeet, others with boots, others with cement mixers, horses and, you get the picture…

“Adobe” is a term with which you may be more familiar. Adobe is made of the same materials, but it is pressed wet into forms and allowed to bake into bricks in the sun. The structure is then constructed of the bricks, usually with a coat of plaster applied inside and out to finish it. Brick construction has been shown to be more likely to fall apart in earth quakes. With cob construction, or “monolithic adobe”, the whole structure (walls, at least) becomes like a giant adobe brick.

It is possible that mud was among the very first “permanent” construction materials. Cob buildings are standing today, still useable, that were built over 1000 years ago. Cob buildings in England have been continuously inhabited for over 500 years. There is a 10-story cob apartment building in Yemen, that has been continuously occupied for at least 900 years. (see hand sculpted house for photo)

A cob house is usually built in the following manner:

A trench, about three feet wide, is dug three or more feet deep (far enough to allow the base of the foundation to sit below the frost line). The trench is filled with rock or “deconstructed” concrete or some similar material. The foundation wall is usually extended at least a foot above the ground level.

Cob is applied directly to the foundation wall, and is built upwards, to whatever level the builder wants to place the roof eave. Anchors for doors and roof can be embedded in the cob walls; openings are left for doors. Windows are usually built into the walls as they go up, with lintels embedded above the windows for load-bearing. If careful planning is applied to wallmass, large poles bound into massive earth walls can hold a roof in the fiercest of winds, while promoting cool in the warmest times.

Any of a variety of roof styles can be utilized.

The walls are plastered, usually with a strawless mixture of clay, sand and lime. Often elements such as egg, flour, milk and other natural elements will appear as favorite indoor or outdoor wall protection recipes.

Plumbing, heating, electrical lines and appliances can easily be accommodated, either by building them into the plans and construction, or adding them later.

Advantages of cob construction.

Most materials can be had free of charge, provided the owner or builder is willing and able to scrounge, which requires a truck. Dirt is usually free; it is rare that good cobbing soil can not be found near a building site. Foundation material is readily available; slabs of broken driveways and concrete floors, urbanite, or broken cement pieces are ideal – and found anywhere in a city or town where a building, basement or sidewalk is being razed . Sometimes we can be paid for hauling away these cement pieces. Making piles of collected broken cement chunks can be a huge service to any community seeking to build many of these homes.

Windows from a building in deconstruction are great, as are windows from junk cars. Car and truck windsheilds make ideal livingroom portals. We can get sheets of aluminum from the sides of old trailers, and sometimes sheets of 3/4 inch and other thicknesses of plywood can be pulled up from old trailer floors, and used for roofs. Roofing material is anything that will keep out the rain, really. Earth roofs of rubber pond liner, plywood, cardboard, old rugs and soil are more environmentally interconnected and often used to create the garden or earth roof seen in some of our photos…

Some suggest high tornado winds and big weather flows will respect the house as a hill within the elements and be less likely to explode or blow apart if built in the round, with an earthen or hill like roof.

A builder, usually the owner, has nearly unlimited creative license in everything from dimension and shape to the tiniest details within and without a cob house.

They are naturally energy-efficient to cool and heat, provided the builder takes care to insulate the ceiling, and attend to solar positioning advantages. Straw bales embedded into north walls make this more true. Heat tends to pass out through north facing walls. Straw bales tend to keep this heat in, better that only earth, which is more pourous for air passage.

It is indescribably satisfying to build your own house without using materials that harm you, your neighbors, or some people or animals on the other side of the world, either from obtaining them or from their effects after manufacture such as the gassing off of rugs, fabrics and paints.

Disadvantages

1. Its time consuming. Its labor-intensive. 1a. But less than you might think. 2. It makes the need for community obvious, while demonstrating our inherent unified power. A large family group can erect a small family home in a similar amount of time it takes for a modern construction company, only the materials and approach are different. About three months, on average.

Frequently asked questions about zoning and permitting processes.

Emerging artists flourish in these environments.

Buy The Hand-Sculpted House and The Cob Builders Handbook

Inquire about cob construction on a search engine.

This article is good for those not familiar with this building process, and it is good for folks who have land and need basic information about what is involved with building from earth. It is written for folks who live on or near Pine Ridge, reservation.

It also says thanks to those folks last year (2003), and this year for all the help and hard work. The first article described the project and sustainable community development possibilities of earth home building in general.

HOW TO BUILD A BEAUTIFUL (ALMOST) FREE HOUSE

(and where to go for recycled and natural materials)

by Johanna Parry Cougar

Okay, are you ready to build yourself a home that could last say, 1,000 years? The first thing you need is a place to put it. Then you could build a little one to work out the details of your big one. If you let one inch represent one foot, you can build a little mud house with little rocks that represent the foundation. You can add mud formed furniture and stairs, anything you want in your big house. You can use sticks and squares of cardboard sized like plywood to work out your roof system. The earth out here seems to have plenty of clay in it mostly… so just get dirt and add water for this part. Mix it like making bread dough, adding enough water to shape it like clay. Usually it is good to add some sand It makes it stronger.

Then, you need a few tools. A shovel will be needed to dig the foundation trench, especially if you have no access to a back hoe or something more practical.

Some of you read the article about Leola One Feather’s earth house before. Our project taught us many things about where to get all the materials we needed. We didn’t have anything bigger than a shovel at Leola’s. While Leola’s boys, Shcope and Nupa completed about half the trench, digging by hand in a day, the ladies worked steadily in the heat and rain, especially Dawn, and sure enough we completed the rest of the digging and rock hauling in about two weeks.

The team of ladies came from London, California, and Colorado. Then more friends from Michigan, a friend from New York and a couple from Ohio. These folks helped haul rocks, fill the trench with rubble, transport big cement chunks and gravel to smoothe the surface in preparation for the foundation wall. We made many journeys to get broken cement chunks… these work the best for a foundation. Since earthquakes aren’t common out here, nice flat cement chunks dry stack into a foundation wall incredibly well. The sheer weight of massive three foot thick walls one or two stories high, that are dry and heavy like rock make it next to impossible for a sound foundation to move under this weight. Altho at first it might settle some.

Cement chunks are found in any reconstruction site. Often the construction company has to pay someone to haul them to the dump. A person with a truck, and a phone, could make a deal with a reconstruction group and find out where locally any of the cement projects are being torn out. Maybe you can get paid for hauling them away to your house site. If not, I have seen amazing square rocks out near the Brainerd Indian School. Your foundation rocks need to be very flat on at least two sides. Squarish rocks are ideal because they fit together in a very stable, beautiful way. Experiment. Your eyes and senses wont lie about how safe your foundation is or isn’t.

Last summer a foundation expert named Ram Sharan came out and showed me carefully how to align the rocks so the face of the inside and outside looks even and nice, then like a jigsaw puzzle we fill in the center with rocks carefully keeping the wall shape, filling in between the gaps with rubble and little rocks. It went up almost two feet high, to make sure the earth wall doesn’t get water and snow splashing up on the base of it. It is three feet wide, so the walls are nice and thick against the intense winter winds and sleet.

We were really, really grateful for the friends who showed up to work. For their sweat in the sun and strained rock hauling backs, folks trickled out from different places and helped along with Percy, Leola’s boys Dad, who was lending support with loaning trailers, tools, and helping locate gravel piles. Elmer Bear Eagle, Leola’s cousin, was definitely our hero out there. He knew not only where to borrow a truck or find good sand, he was a genius at keeping the campsite tarps from blowing away in the storms.

Elmer and I really talked through the roof system several times, to be sure we could design one that didn’t cost more than we had. We realized that every abandoned trailer out there has a floor full of ¾ inch plywood sheets that are perfect for roofing. And that in a pinch, if we had to, we could pull sheets of aluminum off those old trailers, and use them as roof sheeting.(Be sure you get permission before gleening up an old trailer site for someone).

I learned that how you lay the roof tiles makes all the difference.

Being sure to lay them so they overlap from the top of the roof slant down, to shed any water that lands on them. When you design your roof you really need to think carefully about all the different ways water can trickle under it. Earth walls don’t want to get too wet, so your roof overhang has to be two feet long to keep driving rain off them.

In this climate the trench needs to go just deeper than frost level. We dug ours three feet down, and almost three feet across. Then, we used the dirt to make the mix for the walls.

Freda Yellow Hair was our cheerleader. She faithfully supported us by fielding phone calls, helping track down lost friends trying to find the camp, and hung out with us and chatted while we all worked away on the house model and foundation. It might have been my deep love for Freda that got me back out here. I want her to have a house, too but she can’t get her land traded in a way that gives her a home here, in Wounded Knee, where she belongs.

So mixing where we worked meant a good load was made from three five gallon plastic buckets filled with earth, to one bucket of sand, one big stack of dried prarie grass, and water added as needed until, mixing this on a tarp with your feet, you get it to fold over like bread dough or a full tortilla. I like to thank my mother the earth, when I am doing this. And when I hold the earth in my hands while making the wall, I like to pray for happiness within the walls, and the love of creator to permeate the hearts of the family within them. For them to know no suffering.

What folks don’t always know is you don’t need to buy straw for your earth wall mix, if you rake the grass, and use really dry long and short grasses, stuffing as much as possible into every single batch. This straw, or prarie grass is a big part of the insulation of the wall.

Out here, it is a great idea to have straw bales on your coldest north wall. You can mortar them in place with your earth mix, being careful to stab the bales with sharp sticks sticking out all over, to hold the inside of the earth mix, and hold the bale stable inside the wall. This would be one cost to the house. Bales for about five bucks apiece, needing, maybe 24 to 30 for the whole north wall…about $150 at the most.

Now windows; the best I’ve seen out there are the windshields front and back of the old cars. Thick and nicely curved makes a big broad view, and the three foot thick walls give a window sill to sit in. When you place them long, tall ends up and down, they are really gorgeous.

You just plaster them in place with the earth mix that dries like rock around it. If it breaks, you get a hatchet, and clean out the broken glass, carve away the dry dirt around the window, make a new batch of earth, add what crumbled off, and place a new one in. It takes less time than a traditional house window, and if the window is free, so is putting it in.

It’s a good idea to put a lintel, board or a length wise log above every window and door, to spread the mass of the earth weight and wall above it, especially if your house is two stories.

If you make your doorway frames from hand stripped and sawed poles or logs, you can nail them into your doorways by placing a small stump, with a short root system embedded into the earth wall, and the stump carefully place to be exposed wood, right where you want to nail or screw your doorframe to the earth wall. Don’t forget to adequately season your lumber if you cut it on your own land, so shrinking doesn’t cause problems later. But if it does, just go caulx the cracks in with more mix and plaster…

Use the earth mix to fill in any cracks between the wood and the earth. Don’t worry, everything can be fixed up to look better no matter how bad you screw up. Remember, the interior walls can all be painted with a natural gypsum white plaster. Clean, and beautiful. Other colors too. The outside can be painted if you don’t like the earth finish look. But only with natural (and usually free) paints and plasters made of things like flour, egg whites, lime, gypsum, chalk, charcoal, etc…the traditional chemical paints make the walls sweat and not breathe and they will grow molds and corrode them. A healthy earth home smells like you are outside whether it is warm or cool inside.

So the stump is embedded so only the wood of the stump is seen, the rest holds it inside the wall. No way you can pull this out after the wall is dry. So use this root method, or build a wood box, and leave the smooth wood exposed on one side and embed the rest of the box into the earth wall, this makes it with lumber if you don’t have stumps to use. Do this at the very top of your wall to fasten the roof system on to the walls, too. Leola wants an earth or sod roof for her house. My friend Nancy gave me the simplest recipe for this: Build up the walls to slant the roof down in the back. Fasten stripped poles lengthwise from front wall to the back wall, nailing them down on the wood exposed in the upper walls. Be sure you flatten your poles with a chainsaw, or have them milled to flat on both sides of the poles.

Then nail the ¾ inch plywood sheets you harvested down onto the poles for a very flat roof that slants down in back. This style is called a shed roof. Now, here is where money and trust come in…the tar and roof sealants are really toxic and expensive, especially the best quality roof sealants and glues. If you can seal with a safe cheap elmers glue, provided it stays dry under the plastic, it costs only $20 a gallon, and can be used in all the edges, cracks, and seams where all the plywood is nailed and fitted together. Then put the heaviest mil plastic you can get over the glue, gluing it down to the plywood, careful to seal plastic edges with the upper lip going down over the top of the piece under it, on the downhill slant for water repelling with no leaks. Then place plastic and/or pond liner on top of the plywood, (Hopefully you already built up a four inch lip around the edge of the roof), and after the liner goes in, then you can throw a layer of old cardboard, a layer of old carpets, try looking at the dump for these, then throw three inches or more of soil up there and grow something drought resistant and useful, like red clover. So it’s like making a pond of your roof, but filling with dirt, and carpets and cardboard, not water.

Make good drains and downspouts on this roof. Especially off the back. Dig a French drain around the underside of your roof overhang to draw the water away from your foundation.

To make fire and rodent proof insulation to stuff tight under this roof, between your ceiling of the house, and the under of the roof, stuff old or donated clothes that have been first soaked in heavy clay/earth solution, then dried to hard in the sun. Rodents can’t eat clay, and fire can’t burn it. Stuff lots of it in there…you need really good insulation in your roof. Some people use clay soaked straw or dry grass, but this is riskier if not well coated, it can burn. Some people take sheets, soak them in heavy clay, dry them to stiff, and paint them with natural colors for wall dividers and ceiling materials.

I know folks that have built a 400 square foot, one and a half story home that will last their family hundreds of years, for about five hundred dollars, taking about three to four people maybe three or four months start to finish. This method above would cost less, and take less time, depending on how big the house footage is because you spent nothing on windows, walls or lumber.

You can plan for wiring and plumbing using common sense. Remember to put your woodstove pipe through the earth wall, you can coil the clay earth into stovepipe going up or inside a wall, too. Earth fireplaces and stoves can be awesome.

If you go to any public or college library, you can go a computer, and go to: www.emeraldearth.org : www.pachamama.org : www.real.com/welcome/index.html : www.ecobusinesslinks.com/sustainablecommunities.hml : www.wattlehollow.com/cobsite.html : www.kleiwerks.com

This will take you to other earth builders, houses, communities and villages

So there you have it. One more thing. I really wanted to thank Elmer for all the laughing, working, sweating and caring.

Wounded Knee History/Future

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:50:51 +0000

Wounded Knee,

A Wound That Won’t Heal

Wounded Knee Community Church

Did the Army Attempt To Coverup the Massacre of Prisoners of War?

By Richard W. Hill. Sr.

Last Edit: Oct 7, 1999………….

Claudia Iron Hawk Sully testified that the actual numbers of Indians killed at Wounded Knee numbered 2 or 3 times than usually reported. She told of some children who were hiding in a small cave after the first attack. The soldiers discovered the cave and told the children to come out as they would not be harmed. When they did crawl out they were hacked to death with sabers. High Hawk, who witnessed this crawled back into the cave to survive. One man reported seeing the soldiers shoving a young boy back and forth, cutting him to shreds each time. They finally let him drop to the ground with his flesh hanging from his bones like torn rags.

…..In 1968 the federal government designated the Wounded Knee site a historic national landmark. The Wounded Knee Survivors Association developed proposed legislation that called for Congress to make a formal apology to the Sioux people for the 1890 massacre; establish a national monument and memorial at the massacre site; compensate the descendants of the Indian victims for the killing or wounding of their relatives in the form of educational and community benefits and compensation for personal property confiscated by the Army off the bodies of the dead victims. During testimony on the proposed resolution the descendants claimed that 426 of their relatives were killed as a result of the attack at Wounded Knee. The Bureau of Indians Affairs maintained that only 200 people were killed or wounded. Congress finally passed Concurrent Resolution #153 on October 19, 1990, whereby the U.S. Congress acknowledged the 100th anniversary of the tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek, State of South Dakota, December 29, 1890. That resolution stated that soldiers of the United States Army 7th Cavalry killed and wounded approximately 350-375 Indian men, women, and children of Chief Big Foot’s band of the Minneconjou Sioux. The text of the resolution concludes:

“Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring),

“(1) the Congress, on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890, hereby acknowledges the historical significance of this event as the last armed conflict of the Indian wars period resulting in the tragic death and injury of approximately 350-375 Indian men, women, and children of Chief Big Foot’s band of Minneconjou Sioux and hereby expresses its deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims and survivors and their respective tribal communities;

“(2) the Congress also hereby recognizes and commends the efforts of reconciliation initiated by the State of South Dakota and the Wounded Knee Survivors Association and expresses its support for the establishment of a suitable and appropriate Memorial to those who were so tragically slain at Wounded Knee which could inform the American public of the historic significance of the events at Wounded Knee and accurately portray the heroic and courageous campaign waged by the Sioux people to preserve and protect their lands and their way of life during this period; and

“(3) the Congress hereby expresses its commitment to acknowledge and learn from our history, including the Wounded Knee Massacre, in order to provide a proper foundation for building an ever more humane, enlightened, and just society for the future.” (35)

It is important to note that this resolution is not an apology. It is a statement of “deep regret.” Congress denied any attempts for reparations, however, there was a promise to provide funding for a monument and reparations in the future. Ironically, there was a ceremony commemorating the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1986. It was a healing of sorts as both the descendant of the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians who defeated Custer in 1876 and the current members of the 7th Cavalry. Together they witnessed the reburial of the remains of 34 soldiers who were killed in action with Custer. They were reburied at the Custer Battlefield with full military honor. In his invocation, Reverend Vincent Heir of Mount Carmel Catholic Church of St. Louis called for an end of the “clash of cultures” that the battle represented. Indian spiritual leaders called for a new day of healing and peace. However, the Congressional resolution of 1990 fell short of healing the wounds from the massacre of 1890. In retrospect, even if a formal apology was issued, it still would not be enough. The issue of the Medals of Honor, the Battle Streamers and the lack of justice would continue unresolved.

WHEREVER YOU ARE

Let us talk about how to build sustainable Natural Villages ~ Lets share our vision and power ~

Or tell us how do you connect and which Natural Village you have or wish to have and be part of.

Builders have been coming to Wounded Knee for years, working each time, delivering the building method to more residents who could be using it with more direction, or access to organized materials and helping families receive what is available…

help us give the building method, and reality into the community, by helping families, that have very little in the way of being able to build…some of the biggest blocks to building homes for villages, is lack of gas money to haul and recycle materials, and, the level of tired and disorganized those who have addictions can be…or those simply tired from diabetes, an illness, caring for too many grandchildren, etc…

There are many ways to support freindships in a manner that leads to homes and food production villages. Supporting natural villages will definatelty help move all this forward. Please, step forward to help the residents and communities in our native nations…alert Obamma to this recovery system…do your part so we can do ours!!! THANK YOU

PILAMAYA to all who care enough to

Act.

Join us this summer as we return for yet another attempt to finish a house for the community…

Natural Villages: 831-425-3393

THE ARROGANCE OF INNOCENSE

By Stephanie Swartz

This is an article of facts about the lives of modern-day American Indians, a topic most mainstream American news organizations will not discuss. It is not a plea for charity. It is not a promotion for non-profit organizations. It is not aimed for pity. It is not even an effort to detail cause and effect. It is, however, an effort to dispel ignorance. a massive, pervasive, societal ignorance filled with illusions and caricatures which, ultimately, serve only to corrupt the intelligence and decent intent of the average mainstream citizen.

Only through knowledge and understanding can solutions be found. But facts must be known first. Then, it is the reader’s choice what to do with those facts.Hidden away, out of sight but dotting the landscape of America, are the little known or forgotten Reservations of the Indigenous People of our land. Sadly, the average U.S. mainstream resident knows almost nothing about the people of the Native American reservations other than what romanticized or caricaturized versions they see on film or as the print media stereotypes of oil or casino-rich Indians.

Most assume that whatever poverty exists on a reservation is most certainly comparable to that which they might experience themselves. Further, they assume it is curable by the same means they would use.But that is the arrogance of ignorance.Our dominant society is accustomed to being exposed to poverty. It’s nearly invisible because it is everywhere. We drive through our cities with a blind eye, numb to the suffering on the streets, or we shake our heads and turn away, assuming help is on the way. After all, it’s known that the government and the big charities are helping the needy in nearly every corner of the world. But the question begs: What about the sovereign nations on America’s own soil, within this country, a part and yet apart from mainstream society? What about these Reservations that few people ever see?

Oddly enough, the case could be made that more Europeans and Australians know and understand the cultures and conditions of our Indigenous people better than Americans do. Moreover, what the Europeans and Australians know is that there are a number of very fortunate Native American Nations whose people are able to earn a very good living due to casino income, natural resource income, a good job market from nearby cities, or from some other source.

They also know, however, that a staggering number of residents on Native American reservations live in abject, incomprehensible conditions rivaling, or even surpassing, that of many Third World countries.This article chronicles just one Nation: the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Yet the name and only a few details could easily be changed to describe a host of others. the Dineh (Navajo), Ute Mountain Ute, Tohono O’odham, Pima, Yaqui, Apache, the Brule’ Lakota (Sioux).

The list is long. But this is not an article of hopelessness. Despite nearly-insurmountable conditions, few resources, and against unbelievable odds, Nation after Nation of Indigenous leaders and their people are working hard to counteract decades of oppression and forced destruction of their cultures, to bring their citizens back to a life of self-respect and self-sufficiency in today’s world.

In the meantime, these words will serve simply to dispel a few illusions and make public part of that which is hidden away, out of sight, out of mind, in the richest country in the world. It seeks to dispel the arrogance of ignorance.Crow Dog’s camp, Pine Ridge SD, Dec 18, 1890 (Ten days before the Wounded Knee massacre)
Demographic Information The Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indian Reservation sits in Bennett, Jackson, and Shannon Counties and is located in the southwest corner of South Dakota, fifty miles east of the Wyoming border.The 11,000-square mile (approximately 2.7 million acres) Pine Ridge Reservation is the second-largest Native American Reservation within the United States. It is roughly the size of the State of Connecticut. According to the Oglala Sioux tribal statistics, approximately 1.7 million acres of this land are owned by the Tribe or by tribal members.

The Reservation is divided into eight districts: Eagle Nest, Pass Creek, Wakpamni, LaCreek, Pine Ridge, White Clay, Medicine Root, Porcupine, and Wounded Knee.

The topography of the Pine Ridge Reservation includes the barren Badlands, rolling grassland hills, dryland prairie, and areas dotted with pine trees.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is home to approximately 40,000 persons, 35% of which are under the age of 18. The latest Federal Census shows the median age to be 20.6 years. Approximately half the residents of the Reservation are registered tribal members of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Nation.

According to the most recent Federal Census, 58.7% of the grandparents on the Reservation are responsible for raising their own grandchildren.

The population is slowly but steadily rising, despite the severe conditions on the Reservation, as more and more Oglala Lakota return home from far-away cities to live within their societal values, be with their families, and assist with the revitalization of their culture and their Nation.

Employment Information

Recent reports vary but many point out that the median income on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately $2,600 to $3,500 per year.
The unemployment rate on Pine Ridge is said to be approximately 83-85% and can be higher during the winter months when travel is difficult or often impossible.

According to 2006 resources, about 97% of the population lives below Federal poverty levels.

There is little industry, technology, or commercial infrastructure on the Reservation to provide employment.

Rapid City, South Dakota is the nearest town of size (population approximately 57,700) for those who can travel to find work. It is located 120 miles from the Reservation. The nearest large city to Pine Ridge is Denver, Colorado located some 350 miles away.

Life Expectancy and Health Conditions

Some figures state that the life expectancy on the Reservation is 48 years old for men and 52 for women. Other reports state that the average life expectancy on the Reservation is 45 years old. These statistics are far from the 77.5 years of age life expectancy average found in the United States as a whole. According to current USDA Rural Development documents, the Lakota have the lowest life expectancy of any group in America.

Teenage suicide rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is 150% higher than the U.S. national average for this age group.

The infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent and is about 300% higher than the U.S. national average.

More than half the Reservation’s adults battle addiction and disease. Alcoholism, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and malnutrition are pervasive.

The rate of diabetes on the Reservation is reported to be 800% higher than the U.S. national average.

Recent reports indicate that almost 50% of the adults on the Reservation over the age of 40 have diabetes.

As a result of the high rate of diabetes on the Reservation, diabetic-related blindness, amputations, and kidney failure are common.

The tuberculosis rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately 800% higher than the U.S. national average.

Cervical cancer is 500% higher than the U.S. national average.

It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are infested with Black Mold, Stachybotrys. This infestation causes an often-fatal condition with infants, children, elderly, those with damaged immune systems, and those with lung and pulmonary conditions at the highest risk. Exposure to this mold can cause hemorrhaging of the lungs and brain as well as cancer.

A Federal Commodity Food Program is active but supplies mostly inappropriate foods (high in carbohydrate and/or sugar) for the largely diabetic population of the Reservation.

A small non-profit Food Co-op is in operation on the Reservation but is available only for those with funds to participate.

Health Care

Many Reservation residents live without health care due to vast travel distances involved in accessing that care. Additional factors include under-funded, under-staffed medical facilities and outdated or non-existent medical equipment.

Preventive healthcare programs are rare.

In most of the treaties between the U.S. Government and Indian Nations, the U.S. government agreed to provide adequate medical care for Indians in return for vast quantities of land. The Indian Health Services (IHS) was set up to administer the health care for Indians under these treaties and receives an appropriation each year to fund Indian health care. Unfortunately, the appropriation is very small compared to the need and there is little hope for increased funding from Congress. The IHS is understaffed and ill-equipped and can’t possibly address the needs of Indian communities. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the Pine Ridge Reservation

Education Issues

School drop-out rate is over 70%.

According to a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) report, the Pine Ridge Reservation schools are in the bottom 10% of school funding by U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Teacher turnover is 800% that of the U.S. national average

Housing Conditions and Homelessness

The small BIA/Tribal Housing Authority homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation are overcrowded and scarce, resulting in many homeless families who often use tents or cars for shelter. Many families live in old cabins or dilapidated mobile homes and trailers.

According to a 2003 report from South Dakota State University, the majority of the current Tribal Housing Authority homes were built from 1970-1979. The report brings to light that a great percentage of that original construction by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) was “shoddy and substandard.” The report also states that 26% of the housing units on the Reservation are mobile homes, often purchased or obtained (through donations) as used, low-value units with negative-value equity.

Even though there is a large homeless population on the Reservation, most families never turn away a relative no matter how distant the blood relation. Consequently, many homes often have large numbers of people living in them.

In a recent case study, the Tribal Council estimated a need for at least 4,000 new homes in order to combat the homeless situation.

There is an estimated average of 17 people living in each family home (a home which may only have two to three rooms). Some larger homes, built for 6 to 8 people, have up to 30 people living in them.

Over-all, 59% of the Reservation homes are substandard.

Over 33% of the Reservation homes lack basic water and sewage systems as well as electricity.

Many residents must carry (often contaminated) water from the local rivers daily for their personal needs.

Some Reservation families are forced to sleep on dirt floors.

Without basic insulation or central heating in their homes, many residents on the Pine Ridge Reservation use their ovens to heat their homes.

Many Reservation homes lack adequate insulation. Even more homes lack central heating.

Periodically, Reservation residents are found dead from hypothermia (freezing).

It is reported that at least 60% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation need to be burned to the ground and replaced with new housing due to infestation of the potentially-fatal Black Mold, Stachybotrys. There is no insurance or government program to assist families in replacing their homes.

39% of the homes on the Pine Ridge Reservation have no electricity.

The most common form of heating fuel is propane. Wood-burning is the second most common form of heating a home although wood supplies are often expensive or difficult to obtain.

Many Reservation homes lack basic furniture and appliances such as beds, refrigerators, and stoves.

60% of Reservation families have no land-line telephone. The Tribe has recently issued basic cell phones to the residents. However, these cell phones (commonly called commodity phones) do not operate off the Reservation at all and are often inoperable in the rural areas on the Reservation or during storms or wind.

Computers and internet connections are very rare.

Federal and tribal heat assistance programs (such as LLEAP) are limited by their funding. In the winter of 2005-2006, the average one-time only payment to a family was said to be approximately $250-$300 to cover the entire winter. For many, that amount did not even fill their propane heating tanks one time.

Life on the Reservation

Most Reservation families live in rural and often isolated areas.

The largest town on the Reservation is the village of Pine Ridge which has a population of approximately 5,720 people and is the administrative center for the Reservation.

There are few improved (paved) roads on the Reservation and most of the rural homes are inaccessible during times of rain or snow.

Weather is extreme on the Reservation. Severe winds are always a factor. Traditionally, summer temperatures reach well over 110*F and winters bring bitter cold with temperatures that can reach -50*F below zero or worse. Flooding, tornados, or wildfires are always a risk.

The Pine Ridge Reservation still has no banks, discount stores, or movie theaters. It has only one grocery store of any moderate size and it is located in the village of Pine Ridge on the Reservation. A motel just opened in 2006 near the Oglala Lakota College at Kyle, South Dakota. There are said to be about 8 Bed and Breakfast or campsite locations found across the Reservation but that number varies from time to time since most are part of a private home.

Several of the banks and lending institutions nearest to the Reservation have been targeted for investigation of fraudulent or predatory lending practices, with the citizens of the Pine Ridge Reservation as their victims.

There are no public libraries except one at the Oglala Lakota College.

There is one radio station on the Pine Ridge Reservation. KILI 90.1FM is located near the town of Porcupine on the Reservation.

Transportation

There is no public transportation available on the Reservation.

Only a minority of Reservation residents own an operable automobile.

Predominant form of travel for all ages on the Reservation is walking or hitchhiking.

There is one very small airport on the Reservation servicing both the Pine Ridge Reservation and Shannon County. It’s longest, paved runway extends 4,969 feet. There are no commercial flights available. The majority of flights using the airport are Federal, State, or County Government-related.

The nearest commercial airport and/or commercial bus line is located in Rapid City, South Dakota (approximately 120 miles away).

Alcoholism

Alcoholism affects eight out of ten families on the Reservation.

The death rate from alcohol-related problems on the Reservation is 300% higher than the remaining US population.

The Oglala Lakota Nation has prohibited the sale and possession of alcohol on the Pine Ridge Reservation since the early 1970’s. However, the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska (which sits 400 yards off the Reservation border in a contested “buffer” zone) has approximately 14 residents and four liquor stores which sell over 4.1 million cans of beer each year resulting in a $3million annual trade. Unlike other Nebraska communities, Whiteclay exists only to sell liquor and make money. It has no schools, no churches, no civic organizations, no parks, no benches, no public bathrooms, no fire service and no law enforcement. Tribal officials have repeatedly pleaded with the State of Nebraska to close these liquor stores or enforce the State laws regulating liquor stores but have been consistently refused.

(Natural Villages Note: We believe that the Tribal Council’s prohibition on alcohol on the reservation is unenforceable, leads to a black market, and makes treatment of alocohol problems on the rez nearly impossible, just as the hypocrisy of various prohibitions leads to similar problems wherever those prohibitions exist. White Clay is valuable as a visible symptom. It is not the problem.)

Water and Aquifer Contamination

Many wells and much of the water and land on the Reservation is contaminated with pesticides and other poisons from farming, mining, open dumps, and commercial and governmental mining operations outside the Reservation. A further source of contamination is buried ordnance and hazardous materials from closed U.S. military bombing ranges on the Reservation.

Scientific studies show that the High Plains/Oglala Aquifer which begins underneath the Pine Ridge Reservation is predicted to run dry in less than 30 years due to commercial interest use and dryland farming in numerous states south of the Reservation. This critical North American underground water resource is not renewable at anything near the present consumption rate. The recent years of drought have simply accelerated the problem.

Scientific studies show that much of the High Plains/Oglala Aquifer has been contaminated with farming pesticides and commercial, factory, mining, and industrial contaminants in the States of South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Sovereignty and Tribal Government

By Treaty, the Tribal nations are considered to have sovereign governmental status. They have a special government to government relationship with the United States. Interactions with the U.S. Government and the Department of Interior (and its Bureau of Indian Affairs) are supposed to be through Treaty negotiations and most Federal programs (such as Indian Health Services) were purchased by the Tribal nations (usually with land) and guaranteed by Treaty. This is specifically true for the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation of the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribal government operates under a constitution consistent with the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and approved by the Tribal membership and Tribal Council of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Tribe. The Tribe is governed by an elected body consisting of a 5 member Executive Committee and an 18 member Tribal Council, all of whom serve a four year term.

Hope

Currently, there are various efforts underway to implement innovative techniques and solutions to Reservation problems. These projects include community volunteer groups, alternative education programs, wind or water energy initiatives, substance abuse programs, cultural and language programs, employment opportunities, cottage industries, promotion of artists and musicians, small co-op businesses, etc. However, funding for these programs is highly limited.

There are several very small projects now working to help with the housing shortage. Some of these involve using donated mobile homes, community-built sod housing, other community-built housing (such as Habitat for Humanity), exploring possible use of unused FEMA mobile homes, and other alternate solutions. Unfortunately, funding is highly limited.

The Tribal Council Housing Authority is working as hard as it can to build new homes and repair existing structures but it is limited by the small, limited amount of funding available.

There are a few reputable small non-profit organizations attempting to sincerely assist the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation in their efforts to resolve and mitigate existing problems. However, funding for these programs is currently highly limited.

There is one small independent (non-IHS) clinic on the Reservation at the community of Porcupine. It was founded and is controlled by the Lakota community. It just recently obtained its first dialysis machine and runs an aggressive program to combat diabetes. However, funding is very limited and is obtained locally and through grants.

The Oglala Lakota are a determined, intelligent, and proud People who are working hard to over-come their Reservation problems. Against all odds, with minimal resources, they are slowly working to re-claim their self-sufficiency, their culture, and their life.

———-

These statistics concerning the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Reservation were compiled from recent Political, Educational, Government, Non-Profit, and Tribal Publications. An earlier version was published by the same author in 2002 entitled, “Hidden Away, in the Land of Plenty.”

Contact the author if you wish a list of the resources and publications used for this report.

Stephanie M. Schwartz may be reached at SilvrDrach@Gmail.com
This and other articles may be viewed on the internet at the website,
The Writings of Stephanie M. Schwartz.

Lakota Voice: a message from the children

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 07:49:43 +0000

Our reservation communities are described by the naive people living there as

“concentration camps” ; places where our government put concentrations of native

people into out of site, out of mind areas where there is no work, no way to travel

into more commercial areas if one has no money for car or travel, and places

that are difficult to get out of or into to receive services or food or help.

Most of these good people feel this was done deliberately by our military, figuring they would “die out” over time in these conditions. This generally can describe very many of our “reservations”. These places are spilling over with suffering of innocent, good hearted people. Some describe several of our reservations as “fourth world nations”.

Native communities are suffering from a heart ripping rash of youth suicides. Never before in natural history can we find entire groups of children, or the young of ANY species, for that matter, working to remove themselves from the intensity of suffering their lives offer in these places where hope does not always shine. Our GLOBAL youth suicide rates have skyrocketed 200% in just one generation, into an anomaly that defies nature. Our worlds communities are not meeting the needs of our vulnerable populations, clearly.

The voices below are a small sampling of the native childrens hearts. They need their families and communities to hear them. If YOU can hear them, please support a natural village Building Camp in your area. As far as we can see, this, is the fastest path back to a restored landscape, community and cultural condition.

Written by Celeste Red Woman a Lakota High School student from Pine Ridge, reservation.

EXPECT NOTHING

Expect nothing, ever.
from another, a govenment or a God.
It is difficult to get food. Gas money. A place to live
On nothing. not even general assistance.

I find it now more difficult to speak.
About living out of doors
poverty has knocked down the family walls
and we are all outside
each of us children fending for ourself

shameless. Thats what we are.
we beg for food.
We break the law to eat.
We dont cry, or complain.
All we know is poverty
we are mangy as dogs
blind to life like beggars
without happiness or sadness

Alone even in a crowd.
I am haunted by poverty
My younger brother dies one day
His heart died.
Then him.
And in the black hills
They wouldnt let us bury him.

MY FRIEND WHO WAS

By Tara Blue Cloud
a Lakota high school student from
Pine Ridge reservation

My freind, I told you
i tried my best to help you
I even scolded you
to leave that awful house
you’d say No, and that
you couldnt leave your Mom
I’d say “take her and leave”
You’d say “she’d never come”
I’d see you every day at school
black bruises on your arms and face
Now there are flowers all over the place
and all I see is black and blue
those painful colors all around
and I lower my head in prayer
as they carry you out the door
in a casket thats black and blue
my freind who was…is dead.

Sustain ability

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:15:51 +0000

To be sustained, is to feel supported.

For a community or a person to feel supported,

this is to have a situation that can be truly sustained.

When a persons body has food,

this is to have sustenance for the body.

If a community produces food for all its members,

this is the group, supporting themselves

in having what is required to survive.

This, is support. Sustenance.

Spiritual sustenance is to have a perspective so gentle and warm, so literally filled with the energy of love, that it feeds your heart, which nourishes your spirit. This is sustaining the soul with love. The souls energy shrinks without love, it becomes separated from love, and, due to this pain, it develops a fear of love and so begins to push love away. Finding fault with others hurts the heart because to love is to support warmth, gentleness and reasons to smile. To be spiritually competent, we must learn how to sustain our ability to hold love steadily in our heart so that it can radiate to others all the time. This, is to be in a condition called sacred, or holy. This divine love is clearly our primary human nourishment. Any energy less than this needs to be purified, or cleaned until it feels like love.

The sustenance of love is what causes children to grow. Without it, we have those who hurt others with their criticisms because pain is all they have known, and they have been told this is love. They have been taught to help improve the other, so this must be love. We cannot improve another. We can only improve ourselves. We are born into a condition of perfect love, love, is whole within us at birth and the humans around us are needed to support this love and the existence of it’s body, while allowing the mind to learn and grow freely, unhindered by stress or tension. When we receive a reflection from another that we are less than earning the immediate smile of their love, a human becomes confused or hurt regardless of age or gender, unless they are already clear in themselves that love is all they are, and the other must need support to return to smiling love. This is to help sustain the heart of the one you love.

Today our world culture imprisons and tortures the wounded hearts who need love to heal this condition. One day, a more compassionate humanity will emerge, and we will support the tender hearts of each other, our humanity. We will treat each human being with respect, by supporting them with a sustainable lifestyle from the beginning. Village and neighborhood communities do offer this lifestyle, if the humans who are in the community know how to offer pure love to each other in doses large enough to sustain peace within this community. If the humans present, understand how to sustain love, which causes everyone to inherently comprehend all the rest of the aspects of sustainability, then our global humanity could indeed rediscover love as the inner fire of itSelf…

Shanti.Salam.Shalom.Paz.Peace.Paix

Legalizing Earth Homes

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:15:19 +0000

Frequently Asked Questions: About legalizing earth homes in the US

*It is very important to remember that the federal government has MANDATED that cities and towns deal with the current homelessness crisis in our nation. This mandate has city planners desperate for healthy, sound, affordable alternative housing options, and informed natural builders are the now the most likely to be listened to when it comes to new development of low cost housing. PLEASE become active in your local area. Being a social or environmental change driver means driving local social and environmental change. Green your neighborhood. Attend meetings.

Q: How do I get my earth house permitted through the county that I live in?

If you have proof of ownership, or can verify permission to build, one needs to be able to (gently, and with humor) educate your local permitting department representative about your building method, and be prepared to answer any questions about engineering requirements and earthquake safety. All of this information is available through contact with other cob house builders who have solved this problem. Legal cob houses currently exist even in earthquake zones. Misha and Elisheva Rauschwerger have posted online the engineering calculations that got their house permitted in an earthquake zone in California, where the toughest permitting laws are currently. You can also obtain copies by contacting the Cob Cottage Company.

Some builders have solved it by “just building” in a remote location, and when the house was tagged by the building department, they were “fined” and after paying the “fines” they had no more problems. Essentially, the cost of their house was paying the fine, once paid, no one could legally harass them. They bought their permission so to speak. No one, to this day, has ever had a bulldozer show up and squish their Cob house. They are too nice, and nice people tend not to do not nice things. Besides, who would pay for the amount of time it would take and the cost of a bulldozer, since they are extremely difficult to DE construct.

Q: How much are the permitting fees and fines?

These, too change from township to county according to local government influences. Fees can range anywhere from processing and filing fees of just $10 or $20 to permit purchases of several hundred to several thousand. Even more, for fines. The best approach is to do an online search of your local planning and zoning departments to obtain your local fee scales and laws for the area of your potential project.

Always remember to check the planning council and zoning department public meeting calendars so you can drop in and find out what is being done currently, who the folks are you need to influence, and to begin a friendly, supportive relationship with those who have the power to change your local laws, and waive your local fees.

Q: What does “zoned for agricultural housing mean?

This is additional zoning for large parcel homesteads of about 40 acres and over that grow grapes and orchards, tomatoes, rice, corn and other large crops where farm workers are needed to harvest effectively. This means one can legally house larger numbers of people with creatively designed dwellings that do not exceed square footage for the parcel development. It can also mean many small legal cabins or a large bunkhouse or apartment building. This can also true for developments that are zoned for commercial use such as a retreat center. Be sure you fully understand your local zoning ordinances for your area of choice.

Q: Zoning residential village communities:

In townships it is legal to house up to 40 people on 15 acres in apartment complexes and co-housing style neighborhood developments. To address this as a real option in your area, local residents must attend the local planning and zoning meetings that are held as public comment sessions by your city planners. Local voices speaking up in local planning and zoning council meetings is what ensures you have the local laws you need for developing what residents want and need their own area. Laws differ from township to township. In Santa Cruz County where Natural Villages education center is located, we have filed comments that mandate the county supervisors to prioritize co-housing style proposals as well as earth, cob, strawbale and other altenative materials for low cost housing development.

Public comments can be made annually to be recorded in the county housing element in your area. These provide the mandates your city and county planning departments are required to follow. If you use your local governmental processes, you can make permanent changes to your local development options for alternative owner builders who want to organize village settings. EVERY major change in legal process comes from people collecting into a singular community voice, and insisting they re craft what was, into what is needed now. Change always comes in this form in communities. UNIFY in your area. Hold local meetings. Create social strategies for making more housing available to those who need it in your area.

Q: What can be done under the “Mother In Law Unit” requirements?

Many Cob houses have been built in back yards and gardens using this law. If your little house is 250 sq ft or less, you do not need a permit to build it. You can go up, for loft and upstairs space, making a cozy little home with sleeping upstairs. Remember, there are Cob apartment buildings that are ten stories high, that have been continuously occupied for nine hundred years in places like Yemen, Iraq. When going up, be sure you trust your design and engineer. Please do your research. Safety is why laws are created in the first place.

Q: How do other people on reservations get these homes?

By contacting one of our development directors posted online. Reservation communities are sovereign nations usually, and determine their own building codes and laws. If a Native American community wishes to use this housing and village development method, it is up to that community to determine where and how to begin. Organizing support will be provided upon request. Please use the consultants contact lists that are available in different areas of this website. Please do not hesitate to contact us.

Lakota ?

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 05:14:52 +0000

Hello friend,

if you would like to read or at least to have an introduction page on this site in
LAKOTA language if YOU are ready to also write an article add few pictures and
send it over to us ~ we’ll be indefinitely thankful !

Yosyama NV team

Lakota ?

admin — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 20:11:44 +0000

Hello friend,

if you would like to read or at least to have an introduction page on this site in LAKOTA language
if YOU are ready to also write an article add few pictures and send it over to us ~ we’ll be indefinitely thankful !

Yosyama NV team

Leola One Feather

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:07:34 +0000

Anna Mae is my loving two year old grand-daughter. She was born with Down Syndrome. I have witnessed many miracles in my life of now half a century. This miracle occurred for Anna Mae and happened because I really believe in the Creator. Our Lakota word for Creator is Wakan Tanka. I believe that Wakan Tanka is with me all the time, and because I believe this way, I give in this way, all my thoughts and feelings to Creator. So in this same way, my little family has now grown to a big family. I am thankful every day and count my blessings, because everyone is doing good and I know one day soon, I can stand and make a circle and see all my smiling and laughing family. Eight children and fourteen grandchildren and forever increasing forward on and on earth…Leola One Feather
November 15 2005

Just One Stitch

When Anna Mae was born at Pine Ridge Indian Hospital we were crowded around her Mom, comforting her. We were massaging her legs and back, trying to rub away her anxiety and pain.

My nieces, Dene Black Elk and Davidica Little Spotted Horse were helping my daughter, Oyeptehesanwin, do her breathing. She was so young, only sixteen.

It wasn’t working, something was wrong. I was so glad Davidica found what was wrong. Her blood pressure was dropping. The doctor on call came into the room and checked Oye’s abdomen for positioning of the baby. He told us she would need a c-section. We were all aghast. My daughter was then asking for help. She had worked so hard to have a normal delivery and now I had to sign papers for a serious surgery.

I knew my daughter was strong. She walked at least 20 miles a week, she stayed on her diet, no soft drinks or foods condusive to gestational diabetes.

So away they took her to surgery, all cloaked in blue uniforms, I thought I was in a trance. Ten minutes passed and I heard the cry of Anna Mae. A beautiful girl. I went to stand by the window to look at a miracle once again. She rolled herself into a ball, and rolled back and forth just enjoying her new arrival. Little did we know that there would be problems. The first we discovered was an umbilical cord only 12 inches long. This meant that normal delivery would have pulled Oye’s womb inside out.

Two days rest after the arrival of Anna Mae and I returned to the hospital to see Oyeptehasnawin and Anna Mae. My daughter was sleeping and poor Anna Mae had on UV light shades the nurses had put on for her jaundice.

I went to stand by her, thinking of the effective herbal tea we could be giving her instead of this light, when I noticed she was quivering, I touched her leg, but she wasn’t cold. My heart started to beat…somethings wrong with baby. I called the nurse, Elaine, one of many wonderful women who have come to our reservation giving more of themselves than most folks do at Christmas. Elaines face and persona make you want to bask in her warmth. Elaine came quickly, seeing the seizures I witnessed. The lab people came for blood samples and within an hour she was being prepared to be transferred to Rapid City Regional Hospital.

The IHS (Indian Health Services) doctors had just realized Anna Mae has Down Syndrome along with a hole in her heart, and her lung. The doctors warned us she would have to be operated on, and she really only needs one stitch. ..

It was the beginning of my begging prayers. And then, I knew the mercy of my creator.
I would wake in the middle of the night, and go outside, no matter how cold and pray that Anna Mae would heal. We live in an old trailer house that is so cold sometimes, you can’t possibly walk barefoot or else you get coldness and cramping in the arch. I would come in from the prayer time, and check on my beautiful, happy grand daughter and cover her up. I made her some fully beaded blue moccasins with little leggings attached. The leggings wrapped around her little brown legs and were tied with long buckskin strings.

Children kick covers and get sick, so this kept her feet warm, and when she would awake she will see the small intricate patterns on her moccasins. I believe because I made moccasins for all my children and grandchildren, they will develop an eye for art. Besides that, moccasins are warm and soft and comfortable.

When my grandmothers made me new moccasins I felt like I could glide like the deer and leap about here and there. There is magic in moccasins, and everyone on earth should own a pair (Anna Mae had four pair of beaded moccasins in just her first year, today she is working on her seventh pair).

Just this year (2005), the State of South Dakota took Anna Mae from her Mom and charged her with medical neglect. The Oglala Souix Tribe has laws over this jurisdiction of Lakota children, enrolled members of the tribe. But, the State took her, and put her in foster care. We got her back, two days later, and I arrived at the thought; when State and Federal Agencies are in collusion with Indian Health Services, our children don’t have a chance.

Our only alternative is to stick to spiritual guidance, and call in our Holy Medicine Men and seek intervention. I called Richard Moves Camp and asked for prayers for Anna Mae. The State workers found Anna Mae with me, and wanted to take her, but I wouldn’t allow it because I prayed with every amount of energy her heart would heal and surgery would no longer be necessary.

So the State Social Workers took us to the Rainbow House in Omaha Nebraska and left us. We had no travel money or food, (When was the last time you were forced to travel with no food money?) I had only the baby’s bag. The next morning a hospital shuttle took us to the Children’s Methodist Hospital to prepare for surgery. I began to feel tears well up into my eyes, threatening to spill out involuntarily. I thought of the 500 years our people have been butchered and used as cadavers and experiments for the advancement of science and mankind. I personally have known other Moms whose babies disappeared into medical facilities suspiciously, never to return. And then, I thought, I will run out of here with her. I had two doctors and a calling card, and fourteen diapers and milk in a baby bag and I could get water on the way. I knew I couldn’t let them take her and hurt her, even though they said they would only take one stitch.

I prayed, and remembered my sons Stanley and Noah and how they sun danced and pierced their chests for Anna Mae, so she would heal. Then, a great calm came over me. I felt a breeze next to my face.

The whole while Anna Mae clung to my neck, her little chest pressed against mine. I wanted her heart to beat and be strong. I felt it then, that her heart was fine. Such a tiny little brave hearted warrior woman she is. The surgeon entered the room and asked me if I was Anna Mae’s grandmother. I said “yes”. She said “you don’t want Anna Mae to have this surgery?” I said “No”.

The words rang clear when she said next “Anna Mae’s hole in her heart is closed”. The tears spilled from my eyes again, but this time from happiness.

So I believe creator really hears my prayers and knows how much I love my children and grandchildren. One day they will be grandparents and they will have their moments of prayer for all sick people.

Anna Mae is learning to walk and talk. One day she will speak the Lakota language fluently and we will have good conversations. For now, she sings hand game melodies and we gamble.

Natural Villages Editor’s Note: As of Sept. 2006, Anna Mae is 4, and is in fine health.