Tribal Green Summit 2016

Daniel Glenn (Apsaalooke – Crow) will discuss the impact of colonization on indigenous architecture in North America and recent efforts to develop a contemporary, tribally-specific architecture through examples from his own work with several tribes in the United States.
North American tribes, like indigenous people around the world, developed a highly sustainable architecture that was culturally and regionally specific, utilized local materials, and reflected spiritual and practical needs. This diverse and beautiful architecture was replaced by the ubiquitous “HUD home”, a simple low-gabled 3 bedroom box that continuous to be the primary house type of most reservations in the United States today. Mr. Glenn will discuss his own experience, beginning in the 1970’s working with the U.S. government agencies of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) and the BIA(Bureau of Indian Affairs), to the present, where Mr. Glenn works directly with tribes across the country to develop housing and community buildings and community plans that reflect and celebrate tribal diversity and seeks to reclaim that cultural legacy in a contemporary version of tribally-specific, culturally and environmentally-responsive architecture. He will present four of his projects which are published in the book, Design Re-Imagined: New Architecture on Indigenous Lands, and discuss his most recent work with tribes in the Pacific Northwest. These include the Payne Family Native American Center, a LEED-Platinum building reflecting the 12 tribes of Montana, the Little Big Horn College campus plan and buildings on the Crow Reservation, the Nageezi House, for Navajo elders in New Mexico, the Place of Hidden Waters, which was the LEED for Homes Project of the Year 2012, for the Puyallup Tribe in Washington, and a new community center for the Skokomish Tribe in Washington.