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Kenya LaMeroux wanders along Island Road, as a storm approaches. grant will help save the tribe from the eroding landscape, but addressing the effects of cultural erosion is far more difficult. “Once our island goes, the core of our tribe is lost,” said Chantel Comardelle, the deputy tribal chief ’s daughter. “We’ve lost our whole culture — that is what is on the line.” According to JR Naquin, a member of the tribe, the island once housed about 300 people, but only about 60 remain today. Much of the tribe’s heritage and traditions have faded away because the people have been scattered by land loss and rising waters. The Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaws haven’t been able to hold a powwow since before Hurricane Katrina hit over 10 years ago. For generations, the Biloxi- Chitimacha-Choctaws have sustained themselves off of the island’s natural resources. But today, residents say the land loss has made that untenable. “When the Great Depression hit, we didn’t know because we would just trade with each other,” says Wenceslaus Billiot, Sr., who was born, raised, and married on the island. He and his wife of 69 years, Denecia Billiot, raised their children there, but their grandchildren and great-grandchildren no longer consider it a viable place to live. Chris Brunet is the eighth generation in his family to live on the island as a member of the tribe. In one generation, “this island has gone from being self-sufficient and fertile to relying on grocery stores,” he says. “What you see now is a skeleton of the island it once was.” The land is disappearing into the Gulf because of a combination of coastal erosion, rising sea levels, lack of soil renewal, and shifting soil due to dredging for oil and gas pipeline placement. The soil that remains is nutrient-depleted because the protective marshlands that once served as the first line of defense against saltwater intrusion for the Louisiana coastline are disappearing at a rate of the area of an entire football field every hour. As the effects of climate change transform coastal communities around the world, the people of Isle de Jean Charles will be only 60 of the estimated 200 million people in coastal communities globally who could be displaced by 2050 because of climate change. Theresa Billiot, living on the island with her parents, Wenceslaus and Denecia, in order to help take care of them, commutes nearly an hour each way to her job at a grocery store in Houma, Louisiana. Her small garden between their house and the levee is one of the only remnants of the days when the tribe could live off of the land. In the distance, three oil storage tanks are visible reminders of how nearby underground pipelines have contributed to the shifting and sinking land.“It is hard for 30 CURRENT FALL 2017
Feature Since 1955, the island has lost 98 percent of its land. Island Road, pictured, frequently washes out. everyday Americans to see and understand climate change,” Comardelle said. “They don’t see land that was once there disappear.” The island, which is thought to have been named after the father of a Frenchman who married into the tribe in the 1800s, is located deep in the southern bayous of Louisiana, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of New Orleans and 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Gulf of Mexico. The only way into or out of Isle de Jean Charles is on Island Road. In 1953, the year the road was built, land and thick marsh surrounded the road. At that time, tribal members could traverse the land around the road to hunt and trap. But erosion is eating away at the road today. Marks of sand and debris indicate where the water covers the road during high tide. If strong southerly winds persist across the island, the road will flood even on a cloudless day. Chris Brunet says he believes that when the bayou was dredged to build up the foundation for the road, that process exposed the road and the island to more erosion. “The more avenues you create for the water, the more she’s coming,” Chris Brunet said. “It’s a powerful thing.” Every time a strong storm heads toward the island, residents have a small window of time to decide whether they will evacuate. If they don’t immediately decide to leave, FALL 2017 CURRENT 31
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Page 12 and 13: CONTENTS 29 37 FEATURES 29 37 THE F
Page 14 and 15: A CONVERSATION WITH: Printed Doors
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Page 46 and 47: UPWARD AND OUTWARD 46 CURRENT FALL
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