Ever wonder how Native Americans, those peoples closest to Mother Earth, would build homes today? Strawbale houses are one such sustainable prototype home that are being built by and for the Navajo people’s on and off the reservation.

In discussing aboriginal architecture with an anthropologist at Drexel specializing in Native American culture, I discovered the most difficult concept for non-Natives to grasp is that Native’s buildings are constructed to return to the earth when their time is up. While this can lead to more maintenance over time, it ensures that they will leave it ensures that they will leave no footprint, no trace on the earth when they’re gone.. The cultural reverence for Mother Earth places a high priority on such sustainable buildings.