OWYHEE, Nev. (AP) — The family placed flowers by a pair of weathered cowboy boots, as people quietly gathered for the memorial of the soft-spoken tribal chairman who mentored teens in the boxing ring and teased his grandkids on tractor rides.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium is known as the Mother Church of Country Music. And, indeed, it began as a church, built by a riverboat captain who was converted to religion by an evangelist.

More than 130 years after it was built as the nondenominational Union Gospel Tabernacle, Music City’s most revered concert venue retains its religious roots.

Modern buildings tend to take electricity and air conditioning for granted. They often have glass facades and windows that can’t be opened. And when the power goes out for days in the middle of a heat wave, as the Houston area experienced in July 2024 after Hurricane Beryl, these buildings can become unbearable.

Yet, for millennia, civilizations knew how to shelter humans in hot and dry climates.