Native America

RED CLOUD: We're going to step up as 21st-century warriors and we're going to help dreams for the future come true.

So I'm really happy to stand here before you guys.

I'm going to smudge the foundation, and then I'm going to smudge everybody here.

NARRATOR: Like his ancestor Chief Red Cloud, Henry is also waging war.

But on a different front.

His is a battle to build a better future for his people.

(singing in Lakota) (singing continues) RED CLOUD: Here, within the homeland, we need 4,000 homes today.

Within a four-bedroom house, there will be, you know, 30 people.

As you ride across Indian country here, you see a lot of 1970 mobile homes.

You know, two-inch-thick wall and not too much insulation-- pretty much a tin box.

(wind whipping) It gets brutally cold here.

This past winter, we had a minus-26 air temp.

The wind went, began to blow, and then it went, took it to minus-40.

It's not a surprise to hear somebody freezing to death.

We're gonna put it up Lakota-style.

We're gonna put up this tipi structure that way.

Two poles on the east side laying out towards the south and then two on the west side.

Gonna bring the tips together, we'll tie it there, then the rest of us will walk it up.

Okay, that's not going anywhere.

- All right.

- Let's do it.

NARRATOR: The poles, based on a traditional tipi, form the structure to lift into place an entirely new kind of home.

Back up a little bit, just straight back, Adam.

(exhales) Go ahead, set it down there.

NARRATOR: Henry's mission is a magnet that attracts innovative builders Aaron Resnick and Jason Mackie.

Initially, Henry asked us, when we came out here to the reservation the first time and we saw the housing problem, he said, "I need something "that someone can survive the winter in for less than $20,000."

I like it.

RESNICK: So we, we said "Okay, we'll try, but that sounds like a challenge."

(power tools buzzing) RED CLOUD: We sat down one evening to look at what would be the best here, low cost with high efficiency, and they came up with this new technique, Foamcrete.

MACKIE: There is a pretty unique material, it's called cellular concrete, or, on the internet, it's often called Foamcrete or Aircrete.

RESNICK: It's 80% air, it's just full of all these little bubbles.

And so that's the property that makes it super-, super-insulating, so, you know, you can survive minus-40-degree temperatures.

(machine beeps) RED CLOUD: We built two in the past.

We built one, failed on us.

But lessons learned.

So we went back to the drawing board.

And then we built one last year.

NARRATOR: Henry's first shot failed.

The second stood, but was too small.

As his latest design begins to take shape, he remains convinced this home could transform not only Pine Ridge, but many Native communities across Indian country.

RED CLOUD: The structure's taking the old way of the tipi and incorporating it within this Foamcrete.

It actually looks like a tipi.

Hey, we're gonna go face the door east as our ancestors did when they camped.

So let me see here, let me pull out my... Old Indian trick.

(Resnick laughs) RED CLOUD: Everybody carried one of these back in the day.

We're going to be able to step out, greet that morning sun, and then we'll have a walking path into the food right here.

Awesome.

WOMAN (speaking Lakota):