Penn State Dispatch

Dispatches from Montana

A group of Penn State students, faculty and alumni traveled to the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, where they are working with a group from the University of Washington to construct a straw-bale literacy center at Dull Knife Memorial College. Schreyer Honors Scholar Corinne Thatcher, a junior majoring in Latin American studies, along with Christa Scott, a senior majoring in integrative arts, have agreed to give Newswire readers a glimpse into their experiences in Montana.

For information about the American Indian Housing Initiative, check the Web at http://www.engr.psu.edu/greenbuild/intro.html.
For the full story, visit http://www.psu.edu/ur/2002/straw-balecenter.html.

Installment 4: Covering up
and opening up

LAME DEER, Mont., July 24 -- It's now been over a week since we -- the students, faculty and alumni from UW and PSU -- arrived in Lame Deer, Mont., to work on the Dull Knife Memorial College literacy center. Getting up every morning at 7 a.m.

and putting in a full day's work under the hot sun has been a challenge, but it's also been a lot of fun. Everyone in the group has worked and played hard and well together, teaming up to put together one heck of a straw-bale building. Right now we are working on the most labor-intensive of all the steps of the construction process: applying the three layers of stucco needed to seal the walls of the literacy center and to provide a smooth, natural facade.

The Northern Cheyenne community has been wonderfully receptive to the project, lending to a large turnout at Monday's open house/cookout, where student-guided tours of the building were given to anyone interested. Everyone we speak to here wants to know our names, where we're from, what brings us out to the rez, and, of course, always reciprocates with a story or two about his or her own life. On Sunday, another student and I stopped at a spring where a Cheyenne family was enjoying the day off. Rather than act protective of their space along the shoreline, they immediately began to chat with us, encouraging us to jump in for a swim, sharing with us the secrets of the landscape.

It's refreshing to be in such wide open country with such open, honest people. It's important to visit someplace you've never been, to really get to know the people, not through books but interactions and friendships, and to pay close attention as the beauty and wonderment of our world replace the misnomers and stereotypes that keep so many of us from experiencing the true diversity of life.

Installment 3: Building
more than a literacy center

LAME DEER, Mont., July 19 -- We are coming to the end of our first week and much progress has been made.
The walls were completed by Wednesday evening and Thursday the trusses were placed. It is amazing to see how all these hands can contribute and make such fast progress.
More ...

Installment 2: Rethinking the model

LAME DEER, Mont., July 16 -- Things certainly operate a bit differently out here on site in Montana than they do on a typical construction site back east. Improvisation became the word of the day when we discovered this morning that our bales weren't quite the length we expected them to be, forcing us to rethink the model several students and faculty had carefully laid out yesterday. As Sergio Palleroni, a faculty member from the University of Washington, joked during our lunch break, this is really "build-design" rather than design-build! More ...

Installment 1: All smiles
as construction begins
LAME DEER, Mont., July 15 -- Well, we're finally on site. A group of 60 students, faculty and alumni representing the span of the continent from Penn State to the University of Washington descended upon the small town of Lame Deer, Mont. It's wonderful and amazing to see so many people from so many different academic backgrounds -- from art history to architecture to anthropology -- excited to work together for a common cause. More ...