The Lower Sioux Indian Community has opened a new facility to turn hemp into a home insulation material known as “hempcrete.” The tribe hopes to build an industry with the help of a wider group of farmers and address a housing shortage for its citizens.
Hempcrete is made from the woody core of hemp — called hurd — lime and water. It’s material that former tribal council member Earl Pendleton has researched for several years to provide “safer and healthier” homes to members of the tribal community.
Ira Vandever, left, shakes seeds out of a hemp stalk in Morton.Jackson Forderer for MPR News
He says hempcrete does not use carbon-based products that contribute to the problem of greenhouse gases. The material also avoids toxic substances that may be found in manufactured building materials.
“From seed to sovereignty,” Pendleton said. He says the tribe has grown hemp since 2021 for the purpose of building homes but lacked the ability to process it into building materials.
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Pendleton says community housing needs propelled the idea, but the prospect of economic growth and outside partnerships also played a part.
The tribe invited local farmers to learn about growing hemp with demonstrations and presentations at the opening of the Industrial Hemp Campus in Morton, Minn., on Thursday.
Jesse Berry, a Lower Sioux citizen, sprays hemp insulation into a wall during a demonstration at the grand opening of the Lower Sioux’s Industrial Hemp Campus.Jackson Forderer for MPR News
Danny Desjarlais, tribal member and manager of the hemp construction project said the facility can process up to 2,500 acres of hemp but the tribe only has 500 tillable acres of its own.
“We don’t have enough acreage here in the community to be able to fulfill the need that we need to build these houses,” Desjarlais said.
The processing facility will require more hemp, beyond what’s grown by the Lower Sioux community to operate year-round.
“We’ll always be needing the local farmers in the area to produce the hemp,” Pendleton added.
The tribe has already built three homes utilizing hempcrete using outsourced hemp. With the opening of the facility and partnerships on the horizon, Desjarlais says they will be able to produce more housing in the spring and summer months.
Sam Larocque from Turtle Mountain, S.D., asks a question to a presenter at the grand opening of the Lower Sioux’s Industrial Hemp Campus in rural Morton.Jackson Forderer for MPR News
In addition to local farmers, the prospect of building relationships across the industry brought visitors from out-of-state, including North Dakota and Washington, among the more than 100 attendees.
John Peterson of Dakota Hemp, which grows and sells products made from the crop, and the treasurer for the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Association, said Midwestern farmers are beginning to see the market potential.
“Just getting exposure and introducing people to this is what’s really going to turn the tide for us in this industry,” Peterson said.
Micaela Machado from Tucson, emerges from a hemp field in rural Morton. “This is my happy place,” said Machado, who owns a company that makes hemp blocks for home insulation.Jackson Forderer for MPR NewsTribal nations are expanding their footprint in the cannabis industryAnishinaabe author Ashley Fairbanks invites children to honor ancestral Native land in her new bookVariety of Ojibwe-translated children’s books are headed to immersion classrooms Hempcrete is a material that tribal members hope will provide “safer and healthier” homes to members of the Lower Sioux community. Read More