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vices like advocacy, technical assistance, grant writing, and training. We also help tell the stories of amazing things that tribes are doing in developing green and healthy homes and building beautiful projects that also protect their traditional way of life,” Blosser says. The next step is to tie new opportunities for empowered housing development to transportation and economic development. And that’s exactly what’s happening with SNCC’s current work at Santo Domingo Pueblo. Anyone who has ever ridden the Rail Runner Express commuter train that runs between Santa Fe and Albuquerque will have stopped at Santo Domingo and, in what amounts to a terse Indian Country joke, watched tumbleweeds roll by and wondered why the train stops in this bro-
ken-down dust bowl. Now, with assistance from SNCC, ground has been broken for 41 units of housing clustered with a community center, daycare facilities, computer labs, athletic amenities, and a mixed-use social space. The design will be something the tribe is proud of, but Kunkel also sees it anchoring the upcoming Santo Domingo Heritage Arts Trail and, with luck, a new era of opportunity for the pueblo. “They are working with landscape architects on a safe pedestrian path that will connect the housing and a new tribal artists market with the train stop,” Kunkel says. Now people have access to the train to work at jobs in Santa Fe and Albuquerque while living on their tribal lands, and at the same time the train can deliver tourists who are interested in purchasing work from Santo Domingo artists and craftspeople.
A few of SNCC’s site strategies and housing prototypes for the Make It Right Foundation and their Sustainable Village Project for the Fort Peck Tribes (Sioux and Assiniboine). Designed with community input to be culturally appropriate, sustainable, and healthy, the homes are well insulated, incorporating both straw bale and structural insulated panels as well as solar panels. 44
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gathering place for ceremonies. “It isn’t copied directly,” Kunkel says, “rather it’s influenced by the function of the longhouse and it feels right for the people.” The sense of ownership and pride in a community asset that is oriented to place is palpable, he explains. HUD homes historically have not achieved this, and the effect has been detrimental. “Not only do the people have no pride in something that feels foreign and forced, but the homes have been viewed negatively from the outside and resulted in a kind of snowball effect.” SNCC combines design skills and community process with assistance and resources for navigating HUD funding, and the result is a powerful shift toward better housing and more positive perception. “SNCC is able to augment architecture services with other pre-development ser-