The spectacular-looking homes and other buildings honor and evoke Native American architecture and values without sinking into cliché. Tribal members were overcome with emotion and gratitude at the results and embraced the values articulated in an early planning video that spoke of “a gathering of eagles, where boundaries are broken, where pain is no longer forsaken and all human battles are won.” This was exactly what the Tribe was searching for, and John and Brent then set about the task of transforming it into reality.

Using Rastra, a stucco-like material developed in Europe, they came up with a building plan that compliments the environment without overwhelming it. The homes, with steep roofs and an integration of organic and geometric shapes that invoke both past and future, rise magically but respectfully from the oak-studded hills. They fit seamlessly into the rolling landscape the Tribe's ancestors had lived on for generations.

Tied together by an architecturally exquisite community center and elementary school, the village seems to flow directly from the brush-covered hills on the distant horizon. The earth-toned exteriors use Native American landscape and architecture without trivializing or exaggerating it. Interior spaces soar with light and openness that are at once inspirational and unpretentious. Homes and the community center overlook a central sculpture garden and meditative walkway across a pond and waterfall – another homage to spirit and the element of water.