Sustainable Native Communities
Honoring cultural heritage, sovereignty, and self-determination
Indigenous communities have long endured systemic disinvestment, loss of culture, loss of land, and environmental degradation. This marginalization and suppression have resulted in disparities in health, housing, and economic opportunity. Traditional ecological knowledge systems, which emphasize harmony between nature and society, have often been overlooked in modern development. This has perpetuated a cycle of inequity and environmental harm while dismantling cultural identity and connection to place.
Harry Connolly
Indigenous knowledge offers a powerful path toward a more just, resilient, and regenerative future.
By working alongside Native communities—both in cities and on Tribal lands—we can design spaces that strengthen health and ecological balance, support sovereignty, and perpetuate cultural traditions. When Indigenous leadership shapes the built environment, the impact reaches far beyond individual communities—helping us all imagine a future grounded in respect, reciprocity, and belonging.
We partner with Tribes and Native-led organizations to co-design buildings and landscapes that demonstrate the power of culturally rooted design.
These pilot projects—ranging from health centers and memorials to schools and housing—showcase how architecture can strengthen community resilience, honor cultural lifeways, address historical trauma, and respond to urgent needs in both urban and rural Native communities.
Case Study: El Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes
Centuries of neglect and desecration have left El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes fragmented and nearly erased. As Presidio expanded, roads and housing developments bulldozed sacred ground, reducing the cemetery to infill surrounded by walled-off properties. This desecration is emblematic of the broader displacement and cultural erasure faced by the Lipan Apache Tribe and the People of La Junta. In response, decades of advocacy have led to a renewed commitment to protect and reincorporate this sacred site.
This project presents a powerful opportunity to acknowledge the Indigenous presence in the Chihuahuan Desert and to create a spatial language of sacredness, healing, and return of land. The design offers a respectful and transformative response to generations of cultural erasure. With clear thresholds defined by gabion walls that delineate and protect the site, visitors are guided through a healing journey. The design incorporates the future reinterment of remains, allowing the cemetery to reclaim its role as a sacred resting place.
The reclamation and preservation of El Cementerio Del Barrio de los Lipanes have profoundly impacted the Lipan Apache Tribe, the People of La Junta, and the broader Presidio community. The return of the cemetery to the Tribe in 2021 marked a powerful step toward landback, cultural healing, and Indigenous sovereignty—transforming a space once desecrated into a place of honor and remembrance.
Rather than enclosing or monumentalizing the site, the design creates protective thresholds that quietly guide visitors through the space, promoting reflection and respect. The simple act of carrying a stone through the cemetery is a ceremonial gesture that invites participation and presence, encouraging a deeper relationship between the land, memory, and community.
Interpretive markers and sensitively designed paths help visitors understand the site's history and the broader story of Indigenous erasure and resilience in the Chihuahuan Desert. The cemetery is designed and constructed to protect the past and become a teaching space for future generations—a site of living heritage.
