Yes, this.
Listening is always a good plan.
I love the idea of having a good
rocket mass heater building frenzy on the rez, and I think people will really take initiative. Maybe it's already happening.
You might try talking with (and listening to) Bryan Deans who's Lakota if my memory serves, and works with Lakota community doing
permaculture projects already.
Lastly, my thought is to settle for nothing less than having Ernie or Erica or Paul or Uncle Mud (Chris McClellan) or Peter come in person to do it right. from Paul's
podcasts I'm getting that there are common errors that set the whole thing back and then give the impression that it's just pseudopermaculture. It's something where there isn't room for error--you can't sort of build a
rocket mass heater and have something of value, you can build it and have a severe danger to life and limb, or a smoke hazard, or a completely useless pile of rock. Even a really solid permaculturist may not have the time and patience to sort through all the rumors and facts on RMH's, and with fire there's too much room for error. I imagine Bryan would agree with this, but we didn't talk about RMH's when I spoke to him a few years back. I don't know if he has expertise on this, but if he's cautious about it I'd say it's a different matter to say "I'll do what it takes to bring Ernie and Erica over" vs. "I will build a RMH from the book." Second choice would be build it from the book, I guess. I haven't read it myself. I'm only going on what I have heard from the podcasts and
common sense. 2,000 degrees fahrenheit is nothing to mess with. It's worth getting it from the horse's mouth and getting it right the first time, then you can move from there.
But again, only if it's something people are asking for.
I imagine there are people asking for this, you may be able to find them.
Here's a link to a conference Bryan was involved in.
https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/8x5q3x/inside-the-lakota-siouxs-fight-for-food-sovereignty
Maybe root cellars would be a better project to plug into.
Jim Fry wrote:I spent 20+ years helping as I was asked to do, on Pineridge, --and other Rez's. One of my first, and hardest, lessons was to learn to stop talking so much and learn to stop trying to fix their problems. I drove over 70 truck loads of clothing, furniture, food out there (1200 miles one way). We set up a women's and children's shelter. We took Herbalists and Midwives out there to teach. We established Little League teams with uniforms. We paid for Elders to travel to the U. N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. We paid for and accompanied Elders and Medicine Men to go to Iraq to Pray for Peace. We paid for (endless) amounts of winter heat. I took them and gave them cars and pickup trucks. ....All of which they asked me to do.
What we didn't do was (the very obvious, to us) many projects which (we) thought would improve life there. We had learned that they had to decide what to do. Otherwise your (my) idea just won't work.
So my suggestion to you is that if you think rocket heaters is a good idea, suggest it to the Elders, or other folks, you know there. And see if they want a work shop. Or instructors. Or fire bricks. -Ask them first.
My second suggestion is that at the same time you propose mass heaters, you also suggest you could alternatively supply them with pickup trucks and chain saws, so they can go the Black Hills and cut and haul their own wood.
My third suggestion is that whatever you do, promise nothing. Only offer exactly what you can actually DO. They have heard it all before. And been disappointed many times.
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