United Houma Nation faces biggest challenge to its livelihood

[highplainsdem]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Monday, 05.31.10

United Houma Nation faces biggest challenge to its livelihood

By Joseph Goodman


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The Houma's English is saturated with a French-Indian culture all their own. Tiny Pointe-Aux-Chenes and nearby Isle de Jean Charles are home to members of the Chitimacha tribe -- whose ancestors moved into the area 2,500 years ago -- and the Houma. They work the waters of Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes and its nearby bays and lakes for shrimp, fish, crabs, oysters and crawfish.

Their way of life likely will soon change. On Saturday, oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the spill that began April 20 was three miles inside Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes. It has already ruined oyster plots, soiled crab traps and cut off shrimp trawlers from some of this area's best fishing grounds.

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BP's oil could be the end for the current livelihoods of Dardar and many other Houma, but the beginning of that end for Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes began long ago. The oil that moves deeper into the bayou each day is being hurried along by saltwater currents that rush unabated through an eroding landscape destroyed by the actions of oil and gas companies over the decades.

Saltwater intrusion into areas like Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes began in the 1930s when oil and gas companies acquired land in southern Louisiana. Over the years, businesses like the Louisiana Land and Exploration Company dug ditches and dredged canals through the swamp to pipe gas, explore for oil and mark property lines.

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Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/31/1657504/united-houma-nation-faces-biggest.html