Hemp Voices: Danny Desjarlais, Lower Sioux Hemp Program/Green Buffalo Institute
Danny Desjarlais is the Lower Sioux Industrial Hemp Construction Project Manager and director of the Green Buffalo Institute in Morton MN
Green Buffalo Institute is a majority indigenous women-run nonprofit with the goal of bringing natural building education to the underserved communities. Just getting the 501(c) 3 status and our documentation from the IRS December 30th was a huge success especially with the government shutdown right after we submitted the paperwork. We are focused on addressing the lack of educational opportunities for the underserved communities with a strong focus on our indigenous communities.
For the Lower Sioux Industrial Hemp Construction Program, I oversee the entire process from seed to sovereignty.
A win for us in the past year was hosting the 13th International Hemp Building Symposium in October and completing our first project off of the reservation in Rochester with Americhanvre.
Our bottleneck at the Lower Sioux is definitely processing – which I feel is pretty similar to the rest of the US industrial hemp industry. We are looking to upgrade and expand our processing production but don’t want to put any more funding towards a subpar equipment line. We have taken a step back from processing in hopes someone else in the US will find the solution. We have focused more on offsite construction and will be offering our panel system to other communities in the spring of 2026.
Lower Sioux Hemp Program and Housing Project
Phone: 507-697-6185
