{"id":22653,"date":"2026-03-11T13:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/the-great-spirit-moved-him-to-help-house-the-nations-elders\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T19:23:14","slug":"the-great-spirit-moved-him-to-help-house-the-nations-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guideposts.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/people-helping-people\/the-great-spirit-moved-him-to-help-house-the-nations-elders\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Spirit Moved Him to Help House the Nation’s Elders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago, if you told me I\u2019d give up the business I spent my life putting together to go build houses on Indian reservations instead, I\u2019d have said you were nuts. The Seattle-based loungewear company I started with a partner was cranking out a profit. At 33, I\u2019d just married my longtime sweetheart Anita. I wanted to slow down, have a family, savor life and the rewards of success.<\/p>\n

Then I saw that headline.<\/p>\n

I was in New Mexico on business and picked up a local paper called Indian Country<\/em>. There it was on the front page, like an epitaph: \u201cElders Freeze to Death.\u201d How could such a thing happen here in America, the richest country in the world? I tore out the article and stuck it in my pocket.<\/p>\n

That night in my hotel room, meetings done, I read the story again. It seemed so tragic. Somebody\u2014the government, the tribal council\u2014would no doubt do something to make sure it did not happen again. Still, I tucked the clipping into my briefcase instead of throwing it away. Why, I had no idea.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later, another business trip. Another headline staring at me from the local paper. \u201cTaos Woman Starts Adopt-A-Grandparent Program for Aging Native Americans.\u201d According to the article, on reservations across the country, thousands of elderly Native Americans struggled not just to make ends meet but simply to stay alive. At the end of the piece there was a number for people interested in volunteering to call. I didn\u2019t stop to think. I just picked up the phone and dialed.<\/p>\n

Soon I was matched with a \u201cgrandparent\u201d\u2014Katherine Red Feather, of South Dakota\u2019s Pine Ridge Reservation. I dropped her a note introducing myself. \u201cI am seventy-eight years old,\u201d Katherine wrote back, \u201cand blessed with 13 children and seven grandchildren. I am so happy to learn I now have another grandchild! Do you have a wife and children of your own? I hope so, as they are one of the most wonderful gifts<\/a> the Great Spirit can give a person in this life.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her about Anita, and how she was indeed a godsend. Then I asked Katherine if there was anything I could send her. \u201cYes,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIf it\u2019s not too much trouble, I would very much appreciate a bottle of shampoo and some aspirin. Thank you for your generosity<\/a>, Grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grandson<\/em>\u2026 Katherine was really taking this program seriously. But shampoo? Aspirin? Why wouldn\u2019t she have such basic items? I decided to visit the reservation after my next business trip and look in on Katherine.<\/p>\n

Pine Ridge Reservation encompasses the two poorest counties in the United States. So the letter from the Adopt-A-Grandparent program had informed me. But I was not prepared for the reality of that poverty. Rutted dirt roads, dilapidated shacks, rusted-out automobiles with entire families living in them\u2026 The dwellings I passed wouldn\u2019t keep a person warm on a chill fall night like this. In the Dakota winter, temperatures sometimes plunged to 60 degrees below zero. How could people freeze to death on a reservation? The answer was right before my eyes.<\/p>\n

Katherine\u2019s \u201chouse\u201d was a small, busted-up trailer pushed against the body of an old school bus. The trailer door opened and a delicate-looking woman wearing slacks and a simple patterned sweater emerged.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrandson! Come in out of the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trailer was dark and barely big enough to turn around in, but the three people sitting by the wood stove stood when Katherine led me inside. \u201cThis is Robert,\u201d she announced. \u201cMy new grandson. Robert, these are my children. They are your family now too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katherine must have seen my confusion. \u201cThe Great Spirit<\/a> has chosen you to be a part of my life,\u201d she told me. \u201cWe are one family in his eyes.\u201d We sat down to a simple meal of white bread and beans heated on a propane stove.<\/p>\n

There was no running water, so Katherine needed to carry it from a well out back. It was next to an outhouse with a black flag flying overhead. \u201cTo scare away the rattlesnakes,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey think it\u2019s a hawk.\u201d Katherine took such pains to make me feel at home that it was only at the end of my visit two days later that I could bring myself to ask her, \u201cIsn\u2019t it hard for you to have to fetch wood and water every day?\u201d<\/p>\n

Katherine took my hands in hers. \u201cI know how my life must look to you, Grandson, but all of us here live this way. I\u2019m no different than anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about Katherine once I got home to Seattle. The days grew shorter and colder. I looked out the window of my cozy apartment and imagined my new grandmother in that tiny trailer, huddled over her smoky little stove.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe needs to be in a place that will keep her warm,\u201d I told Anita one night. \u201cA place where the wind doesn\u2019t blow through the chinks in the walls. Katherine needs a real house.\u201d<\/p>\n

A real house.<\/em> The moment those words left my lips, I knew what I had to do.<\/p>\n

At the end of that summer I took two weeks off and went back to Pine Ridge. Anita and a handful of friends came with me. We were going to build Katherine a house<\/a>. None of us had built so much as a doghouse before, but I figured that with a simple floor plan and plenty of enthusiasm, we could get the job done.<\/p>\n

Word got around the reservation. Dozens of Katherine\u2019s neighbors and family members pitched in. Toward the end we worked round the clock, my car headlights trained on the site. Finally the last nail was driven. Katherine\u2019s tribal chairman said a prayer of thanks<\/a>, and there was a big celebration. It was the first time Katherine had all her relatives together since the Red Feather clan had been divided and made to live on two different reservations years back. She welcomed them all into her house, her eyes brimming with tears of joy.<\/p>\n

Anita squeezed my hand, and I knew what we\u2019d done here was bigger than anything I could ever hope to achieve with my business. At last I understood what Katherine meant about all of us being one family.<\/p>\n

Back in Seattle, I tried to concentrate on my work. Katherine would be safe and warm this winter. But what about all the neighbors who\u2019d pitched in to build Katherine\u2019s house, only to go home to ramshackle trailers? America has about two million tribal members, and some 300,000 of them are without proper homes. What about all those people?<\/p>\n

Building frame houses like we\u2019d done for Katherine was impossible. Too expensive and labor-intensive. I had to come up with a design that was warm, inexpensive and easy to build. A little research and I came across straw bale houses. Built from blocks of straw covered with stucco, they\u2019re ideal for reservations. The straw is plentiful on the Great Plains, and provides extremely effective insulation.<\/p>\n

Getting these straw bale houses built on a large scale, though, would take organization. A huge investment of time and energy. Time and energy I wouldn\u2019t have if I kept my day job. I sold my half of the business and started a new venture, the Red Feather Development Group, to help Native Americans get decent housing. Eventually Anita and I moved to Bozeman, Montana, in the vicinity of half a dozen reservations.<\/p>\n

To think, none of this would have happened if I hadn\u2019t seen those headlines 10 years ago. Even then I\u2019d known someone would look after elders like my grandmother Katherine. I just never expected that person to be me. But that is how the Great Spirit works.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

The House You Built<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meeting Rob Young at the 2003 Volvo for Life Awards for heroes, I knew his story would be perfect for Guideposts<\/em>. But even I was surprised at the response from our readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were sacks of mail from people who\u2019d read my story in Guideposts<\/em>,\u201d Rob told us. \u201cThe Red Feather website was swamped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers donated more than $100,000 to help build warm homes for Native Americans. They volunteered their services\u2014plumbing, roofing, carpentry. Rob was most moved by folks who donated one dollar and said they had to give something and wished they could give more. In September 2006, readers traveled to the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, to work side by side with Rob on a house for a little boy recovering from leukemia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw that story, I just knew I had to get involved,\u201d they said. More volunteers came to Red Feather through Guideposts<\/em> than any other source. A great example of how Guideposts is and always will be more than a magazine.<\/p>\n

\u2014Celeste McCauley<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em>Guideposts<\/strong><\/a> magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years ago, if you told me I\u2019d give up the business I spent my life putting together to go build houses on Indian reservations instead, I\u2019d have said you were nuts. The Seattle-based loungewear company I started with a partner was cranking out a profit. At 33, I\u2019d just married my longtime sweetheart Anita. 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