In 2015, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the average home size in the U.S. reached a record 2,687 square feet. Meanwhile, tiny houses are generally one quarter that size, clocking in at 500 square feet or less. Many Madisonians know about tiny houses from Occupy Madison’s highly successful affordable housing project on the near east side. But did you know that tiny houses are also tools of protest?

During the Dakota Access Pipeline protests last year in North Dakota, activists put up tiny houses in the path of the proposed pipeline as both a physical blockade and a philosophical reminder that we can live more simply and consume less. Lately, the Secwepemc (se-KWA-pmu) Women’s Warrior Society in British Columbia has borrowed the DAPL tiny house tactic to try to block the proposed Trans Mountain pipeline proposed by Texas-based Kinder Morgan.

Kanahus Manuel is a member of the Secwepemc Nation, and she joins Eight O’Clock Buzz host Brian Standing by phone from British Columbia.