Traditional Navajos were "green"

Old ways may be today's green

Navajo 'green developers' look to tradition for inspirationWhat if the Diné got it right the first time?

"Before HUD," as Tony Skrelunas likes to say, Navajos lived in small, energy-efficient homes built of local materials, spent most of their time outside in the summer, and knew their neighbors--in fact, they were probably related to them.

If the green communities movement had been around back then, Navajos could have been its poster children.

"The traditional Navajo family was living very sustainably," said Skrelunas, director of the Grand Canyon Trust's Native American Program and a management team member of the new Navajo-owned development company Keya Earth.