FILE - Louise Billiot, left, a member of the United Houma Nation Indian tribe, walks around the home of her friend and tribal member Irene Verdin, which was heavily damaged from Hurricane Ida nine months before, along Bayou Pointe-au-Chien, in Pointe-aux-Chenes, La., on May 26, 2022. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed a singular plan to engage more fully with hundreds of Native American tribes who continue to face climate change-related disasters, the agency announced Thursday, Aug.
18. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) The United Houma Nation, the largest Indigenous tribe in Louisiana, has secured a $56.5 million grant to enact a massive plan to deal with growing climate risks that tribal leaders hope will serve as a model, ranging from infrastructure improvements to potential relocations.
The grant to fund the hazard mitigation and resilience plan was announced at a press conference in Houma on Friday organized by the tribe. The money is being awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S.
Department of Commerce. Over the next five years, tribal members and partnering organizations will build resilience hubs across the six-parish tribal area, expand a disaster-ready communication network and ultimately establish a community-led migration plan. The plan is designed to create stronger infrastructure and enhance the short, medium and long term needs of the tribe’s 19,000 citizens.
Lora Ann Chaisson “This funding is a testament to the strength of our community and our people,” Lora Ann Chaisson, the principal chief of the United Houma Nation, said. “It recognizes our rights, our culture and our contributions to this nation. With this funding, we have the opportunity to address critical issues that have long plagued our tribe.
” The $56.5 million dedicated to the United Houma Nation represents the vast majority of a $59.8 million award dedicated to increasing the storm resiliency of Louisiana’s coast, which is on the front lines of climate change due to worsening land loss, sea level rise and intensifying hurricanes.
This “Climate-Ready Coasts” initiative is part of a program funded by the $6 billion Inflation Reduction Act. After more than 900 applicants across the country, the United Houma Nation is one of eight grantees to receive awards. The United Houma Nation will partner with organizations including the Community Resilience Center at The Water Institute and the Greater New Orleans Foundation, as they implement the hazard mitigation plan.
The awardees have five years to use the award. In seeking the grant, the United Houma Nation was assisted by the Greater New Orleans Foundation's The competition had aimed to award up to 10 grants of $100,000 while also providing technical assistance to seek federal money. Rep.
Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, who serves on a congressional infrastructure committee, said that the funding will help set up Louisiana “to lead by example in sustainable, community-focused climate adaption.” Chaisson said “we’re looking to be a model for the state." The first phase of the plan will center around making the tribe’s administrative building – which serves as a community center and shelter – energy independent and storm resilient.
This will include elevating the structure and creating a disaster plan. The second phase will involve expanding these infrastructural advancements to a series of satellite hubs across the tribal area, a region the size of Delaware that stretches across Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, St. Mary, St.
Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. The entire plan extends beyond infrastructure and hazard preparedness. The third phase of the program focuses on strengthening the tribe’s communications network during disasters, but it also centers on oral history, cultural preservation and storytelling, Renee Collini, the director of the Community Resilience Center at The Water Institute, explained.
Members of the United Houma Nation will be at the center of each phase of the project, Collini said. The final phase will be a “community-led migration plan" that will begin with bringing in varying members of the tribe who may have different perspectives on the topic of relocation. The award will also provide funding for the piloting of the plan that arises from these discussions, she explained.
“To tribal citizens, relocation is associated with forced movement because of past governance and actions that were often explicitly intended to cause harm,” a statement from NOAA said. This “community-led” effort is intended to put the power and decision-making back into the tribal citizens’ hands. When Chaisson recalled learning that her tribe won the award, she began to tear up.
“Where my family lived at, there’s no indication that there’s land any longer,” she said. Her family used to hunt deer in the backyard. Now, this is where they fish.
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