Along the Louisiana coast, indigenous cultures and communities remain in peril

Hurricanes, flooding, and coastal erosion continue to threaten many indigenous communities across coastal Louisiana. Albert Naquin, chief of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians on Isle de Jean Charles in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, says it's time for the island's remaining residents to move farther inland, surrendering their way of life to the twin threats of storm surge and coastal erosion, reports the Times-Picayune.

Due to land loss, the island and much of the community is being swallowed by the Gulf of Mexico. According to the Times-Picayune, more than a week after Hurricane Gustav flooded much of Isle de Jean Charles, Hurricane Ike brought a 9-foot storm surge, overtopping the island's 6- to 7-foot levees and swamping homes once again. Although the Native American residents of the island have lived through numerous floodings, most do not have the money to continually rebuild, and the community knows it will never get stronger levee protection.

As the Times-Picayune reports:

Like other bayou communities, Isle de Jean Charles is a victim of coastal erosion, subsidence and sea-level rise. The oil and gas industry's construction of canals for vessels and pipelines enabled saltwater from the Gulf to invade and destroy freshwater wetlands. Levee building also caused southern Louisiana communities to be cut off from the Mississippi River and its sediments, which would have replenished the land and prevented it from sinking.
Island shrinking

Isle de Jean Charles once stretched about four miles wide, but is now a quarter-mile wide.

Coastal and bayou communities throughout Louisiana have been sinking for years, placing Cajun, Creole, and other unique cultures along the coast at risk of disappearing completely, and threatening the livelihoods of entire coastal communities. This land and culture loss is one of the biggest ecological and social disasters along Louisiana's coast.

Tribal leaders and tribal attorneys say the recent storms again sound the alarm that Louisiana's coastal communities need stronger flood protection and more emphasis on coastal and wetlands restoration to reduce surge, reports the Times-Picayune. "These communities are cultural and historical assets," Joel Waltzer, a tribal attorney for the Pointe-aux-Chenes Indians, told the Times-Picayune, adding that losing the communities "would mean the end of an entire lifestyle and, in this case, the end of an entire people."