Fresh start for Sask. First Nation comes from the bones of a grain elevator

The plot of land is near-empty, but standing on the November-frosted dirt and looking over it, Elaine Arlene Pelletier calls it home. And that's what her community plans to build, board by board.

Pelletier is an elder from Lucky Man Cree Nation, a Saskatchewan nation that has formally held the land, located about 100 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, for about 34 years.

There are few indications on the 3,100 hectares of land that it might be home to anyone: an aged community hall, a nearby trailer and a yellow "NO HUNTING NO TRESPASSING" sign.

Now they've been joined by what will soon be the community's first house, its skeleton grafted from the bones of a recently dismantled grain elevator.

"To see these buildings here it's emotional, because we've never had a home — a reserve — before," Pelletier said. "Now this is our home."

Pelletier has been living for about 42 years in a small town about an hour's drive away, but said she would move in an instant if there was somewhere to stay on reserve.

That's the goal Lucky Man has for Pelletier and the other members. Leadership estimates there are about 120, but expects that number to grow.

The house is being built with wood carefully collected during the dismantling of two Saskatchewan grain elevators. Its an environmentally friendly alternative to cutting down more trees that reduces the carbon footprint in comparison to typical construction, though the calculations to determine if the build is fully net-zero construction haven't been completed.

The plan is for the house to have net-zero energy and emissions thanks to well-insulated walls, a heat pump and solar panels.

Lucky Man Cree Nation Chief Crystal Okemow said they chose a net-zero build with climate change in mind. They want to set the stage for the rest of the community, also planned to be net-zero.

"You always think about the generations behind you, coming."

One of the companies the First Nation has been working with dismantles aging, unused grain elevators. Instead of being trucking to garbage dumps, or burned, the valuable century-old wood has become the walls and flooring of Lucky Man's first house.

"The idea was to reuse this mass timber, which is really strong and it's in really good shape," said Ian Loughran, owner of Vereco Smart Green Homes, which oversaw the net-zero design of the building.

Loughran referenced the importance of net-zero emission homes, given the federal goal to lower emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.