Fwd: The Isle de Jean Charles Tribe’s Cultural Survival - A Call to Action
Julie Maldonado
From: Chantel Comardelle <tela...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 7:39 PM
Subject: The Isle de Jean Charles Tribe’s Cultural Survival - A Call to Action
To: <Cha...@isledejeancharlestribe.org>
Halito,
Our Tribe, the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw, has lost over 98% of our traditional lands to erosion and subsidence in coastal Louisiana, and more than 75% of our people have been displaced over the last 65 years due to repeated storms and flooding.
In 2002 our Tribal Council began planning our Tribe’s resettlement inland to reunite our displaced people and revitalize our traditional ways of life. Our efforts have garnered immense support but also faced some significant letdowns in trying to acquire resources for a Tribal-driven resettlement process.
In 2015, we partnered with Louisiana's Office of Community Development, working closely with them to include our Tribal resettlement in their successful application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC). HUD awarded the State of Louisiana $48 million to support our Tribe’s vision.
Since the HUD award was announced in early 2016, however, state planners have steadily erased our role as leaders of the resettlement process, excluded our leaders from decision-making, disregarded Tribal protocols during community engagement activities, proposed we give up our Island home and that the new land be opened to public auction or to house other so-called “climate refugees” from throughout the coast. Moreover, planners have exacerbated tensions among family within our Tribe.
Last week, after more than three months awaiting a response from the State on some of our concerns regarding the rights of those who remain on the Island to continue owning and being stewards of their traditional lands, an aspect that is essential for the success of the resettlement, we learned - through the public press release - that the State completed the purchase of the new land. Once again, we have been excluded from critical aspects of the planning process.
We would like to refocus the State’s approach to the Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement and demand that state planners and policy-makers honor our rights, as they committed to when they recognized our Tribe in 2004 and as they did throughout the NDRC grant proposal-writing process prior to receiving federal funding. We are not merely “stakeholders” engaged in a project. We are rights-holders committed to future generations of our families, our knowledge, our ways of life, and our Island people. Our Tribe’s cultural survival depends on it.
We ask you to please stand in solidarity with our Tribe at this moment of uncertainty by adding your name and organization to our list of supporters. Please also indicate whether or not you are signing as an individual or on behalf of an organization. To add your support, click here.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Chief Albert White Buffalo Naquin
Cell: (985) 232-1286
Email: whiteb...@aim.com
Website: www.isledejeancharles.com
Julie Maldonado
Julie