United Houma Nation

Hurricane Katrina made New Orleans a media magnet. Since the storm, waves of meteorologists and reporters closely follow any depressions that form over the Atlantic during the dreaded season. Unfortunately, sometimes the media misses the story.

It is still frustrates Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, Principle Chief of the United Houma Nation, that even though her community was equally devastated by the second series of back to back hurricanes – Gustav and Ike – people would say they “dodged a bullet there.” Because reports indicated that nothing happened in New Orleans during those storms, nobody knew the toll they took on Houma communities. What many also might not realize is these recent storms, coupled with current environmental problems, are directly challenging the survival of the Houma people.

“In a sense, our whole culture and way of life is being threatened with coastal erosion and hurricanes. If we lose our community, our culture, then we lose our heritage and who we are as Houma people.” Dardar-Robichaux continues to face these problems head on and plans to make her community sustainable and resilient through media outreach of her own.

While news reports stated New Orleans did not feel effects of Gustav and Ike, it was a different story for Houma communities. They were devastated. After the storm, Dardar-Robichaux and her family walked Jean Charles Island end to end and hardly a home was standing. This time, the storms damaged more than just structural foundations. “When we did outreach and hurricane relief for Katrina and Rita, I never saw our tribal community weary. They always stayed strong in spirit. Their courage was unbelievable. This time everyone was in shock.
I think it was too soon to have two hurricanes again back to back and then be right where you were three years ago. Everybody was in shock, in a daze. I have never seen that before. It was frightening.”

While hurricanes and erosion continue to threaten areas Houma live in, community and staying together is the most important thing to them. “You have a generation, the elders, that are determined to stay. They are not going to move. They have lived their entire life there. They are going to spend their last days there. Then you have a younger generation who sees the writing on the wall. Who see the challenges their parents and grandparents have had to face, year after year, hurricane after hurricane, and rebuilding. What they did is relocate just a little further up the bayou in a mobile home park called Ashland. It’s still in the bayou community. But with this last hurricane Ashland flooded.”

Dardar-Robichaux realizes that the decisions tribal citizens have to make are difficult ones, and that as a leader in the community it is her responsibility to understand and respect peoples’ wishes and assist in that process by educating and giving as much information as possible.

“It’s not for me, as a tribal leader or person to say, you need to get out of here. This is not a good future for you. That’s everybody’s own personal decision.”

If people stay in threatened areas, she is there to help them find resources to elevate their homes. Or if they want to leave, help them relocate as a community.

“They stay as a community and that is what they want to continue to do. For them, to make the decision to leave is a very, very tough one.”

Global environmental and economic problems are also effecting traditional lifestyles of the Houma. Farmers turned fishermen, find it very difficult to make a living doing what they have done for generations.

“My dad is a traditional fisherman,” Dardar-Robichaux says. “He says going out the first day of trolling season is like Christmas…this year he didn’t make his first Christmas.” They are not getting paid nearly anything for what they bring in. “They are catching shrimp the size of my hand and getting paid less than $2 a pound. By the time you pay fuel, and ice and everything that goes along with your boat you can’t make ends meet.”

Financial difficulties have played a large role in evacuating as well, and it is of great concern to Dardar-Robichaux: “We’re able to leave with Gustav but when Ike came we didn’t have the resources” she says of many in her community. As a result, they networked with the Mississippi Choctaws and were able to caravan a group to their reservation where they were taken care of. “When you have to evacuate its like an unplanned vacation. You have to have gas money. You have to have food. You have to have a place to go, lodging. It’s expensive. For the first hurricane, Gustav, people heeded the warning and left. When Ike came they didn’t have the resources to do that again.” Dardar-Robichaux says she never wants people to be in danger because of a lack of resources.

Because the Houma were not allowed to receive an education until the Civil Rights movement, her father’s generation only has that of a 7th grade level, the recovery process is equally hard. Insurance applications are intimidating and pose many problems for elders, and it is not in the Houma nature to challenge such difficulties.

There were some “blessings” that came out of these tragic events however. The relationships Dardar-Robichaux and the Houma made as a result of these hurricanes are those that will help them survive as a people. Networking with other tribes gives them a safe place to go during storms. During Katrina, Dardar-Robichaux saw first hand the goodness of individuals as dozens showed up at her house to help when organizations didn’t. She had nearly 80 tents pitched in her yard at once, all filled by people from various walks of life who came to volunteer their services. It was called tent city.

Post-Katrina was also the period she opened her grandfather-in-law’s general store called ‘the old store’ back up to what it was. Walmart had donated tractor-trailers filled with new clothing and other supplies. Dardar-Robichaux remembers it being the first time her people could go into a store and finally select clothes and other items they needed that still had tags on them.

They also started to work with various not-for-profits and environmental justice groups to help with their relief and recovery and emergency preparedness.

Within a collaborative project also involving the Lower 9th Ward and Carrollton Hollygrove, called “How Safe? How Soon?”, she wants to increase and enhance current outreach documentation. She says they have a colored printer and that is how she is getting important information out. New funding will enable her to change the format to multimedia handouts and CDs. She also plans to focus on interviews with tribal citizens about the importance of communities and why they have such strong ties. The three diverse communities in the project are all trying to attain the same goal of sustainable communities.

With support from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the United Houma Nation will be able to assemble, interpret and disseminate relevant climatic, architectural and logistical information that will enable it to survive.

Website: United Houma Nation

Contact:
4400 Hwy. 1
Raceland, LA 70394
Office: (985) 537-8867