A new hemp fiber processing facility opened by a Minnesota Native American community will need to source hemp crops from outside of tribal lands to make the factory operate efficiently, according to a project leader.
Minnesota’s Lower Sioux Indian Community opened the decortication facility with a ceremony last week. The tribe said it intends to grow and then process fiber hemp into building materials to meet a shortage of about 100 homes on the reservation.
Former tribal council member Earl Pendleton, who has explored options for developing sustainable homes for the Lower Sioux community, said housing needs propelled the idea, but the prospect of economic growth and outside partnerships also spurred the project.
The facility is located in Morton, Redwood County, Minn., adjacent to the Sioux reservation in the southern part of the state.
Hemp farmers needed
Tribal leaders on the housing project told Minnesota Public Radio that the facility can process up to 2,500 acres of hemp annually. The tribe has only 500 tillable acres on its land and can grow only about 100 acres of hemp a year, Danny Desjarlais, a tribal member and manager of the hemp construction project, told Lancaster Farming.
“We don’t have enough acreage here in the community to be able to fulfill the need to build these houses,” Desjarlais said.
“We’ll always be needing the local farmers in the area to produce the hemp,” according to Pendleton. He envisions a circular economy model in which the tribe farms hemp and uses the hurd to build affordable, energy-efficient homes made of hempcrete for the Lower Sioux community, but also sells products outside of the reservation.
Read more at Hemp Today