Post by Okwes on Jan 11, 2006 15:33:58 GMT -5
American Indians Continue to Rebuild After Katrina
News Report, Amanda Robert,
New America Media, Jan 08, 2006
news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?
article_id=92f3c295cb5faf19b5f45ed9bf36b9ce
POINT-AUX-CHENES, La. When the Isle de Jean Charles Indians did not
receive any immediate aid from the federal government after
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept their island, experience had
already taught them what they needed to do. They took matters into
their own hands and initiated their own cleanup process. They removed
ruined mattresses, refrigerators and stoves and started to rebuild
their lives once again.
Mary Dardar, a disabled Biloxi-Chitimacha woman who lives alone on
the island, has been through all of this before. The wooden bridge
across the bayou to her home is still rippled from Hurricane Lili's
passing in 2002, and a cluster of deserted houses surrounds her small
home.
"There are camps around but whoever was living there relocated after
Lili because it was too damaged to be livable," said Dardar. "It's my
home, it's going to take a lot more than that to run me off."
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita dumped 40 inches of water into Dardar's
house, caving in her bathroom ceiling and destroying personal items,
clothes and appliances. She said that she lost everything from the
ceiling down and will make the repairs on her own.
"I have to strip my whole house up walls, insulation," said
Dardar. "It's a slow process and not something you can do overnight.
It takes time, especially when you are living in it."
Fifty-four-year old Andrew Chaisson Jr. has also lived on the island
all of his life. A blue tarp covers where his roof was before and the
wooden skeleton is all that remains on the left side where tan siding
used to be. But that's not the worst of the damage.
"In my house, I had almost 44 inches of water. That's almost four
feet," said Chaisson. "We had to spray for mold and all that, but I
can't work on it every day. I work on oyster fishing, sometimes all
day and night."
Like Dardar and some of the other island Indians, Chaisson is
continuing to live in his moldy home. After the hurricanes, five
houses on the island needed to be completely torn down and rebuilt.
Most of the others have been seriously damaged and require
renovations.
"A lot of us are tired of living in the condition that we live in,"
said Dardar. "It makes you sick."
Three months after Hurricane Rita struck, FEMA trailers had still not
been delivered to the island. A FEMA representative in Baton Rouge
said that according to her records, four trailers had been delivered
to Point-aux-Chenes, but as of early December, Chief Albert Naquin of
the Isle de Jean Charles band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha Indians said
that none had shown up. Instead, non-profit organizations have
stepped in to aid the Indians. Mennonite Disaster Services is one
organization that is helping the Indians rebuild their community.
Right after Hurricane Katrina, Mennonites Fred and Sue Kathler opened
up a volunteer project location, working out of Live Oak Baptist
Church in Point-aux-Chenes. They have gutted homes, repaired roofs
and removed the lower part of the interior walls of flooded homes.
"We take out the bottom, let it dry, clean the insulation and let
that dry," said Fred Kathler, as he demonstrated with recently
cleaned panels in the church. "We then spray for mold, let it dry,
then put the panel back."
Since October, the Kathlers have overseen 66 volunteers and have
started 24 clean-up projects in the area.
"We have groups from all over," said Sue Kathler. "The generosity of
people and their time is marvelous because we are never at a lack for
volunteers."
The Mennonites' goal is to give Island residents safe, dry and
healthy places to live temporarily. Other plans in the works would
bring volunteers for up to three years to help the Indians solve the
long-term problems caused by human and nature's destruction of their
environment.
According to Naquin, the Isle de Jean Charles did not historically
flood. After years of oilfield digging, pipeline canals and
hurricanes, the marshes that protect the island gradually became
weaker and have now all virtually disappeared.
"Every hurricane takes a toll," said Naquin. "So now Rita brought a
foot of water more than Lili, three years ago. Hurricanes in
the `50s, `60s never flooded. We never even flooded until Hurricane
Juan in 1985, but Juan put water everywhere."
Looking out over the bayou, Naquin said that land used to separate
the water into many different lakes, but now all of the land is gone.
"You can't tell the difference between the lakes and the bayou,
there's nothing there," he said.
Building rock walls on the barrier islands or levees on the sides of
the island could alleviate the flooding. Others of the five tribes in
the area have tried these solutions.
Chief Randy Verdun of the Bayou Lafource band of Biloxi-Chitimacha
Indians said, "Bayou Lafourche was not flooded, fortunately, because
we have a levee system and it helped. Grand Caillou/Dulac also has a
levee system, but it failed."
In the attempt to save his shrinking island, Naquin has a different
idea in mind. He is hoping to team up with the Mennonites to raise
all of the Isle de Jean Charles homes up on pilings, 13 feet above
sea level.
"They will raise houses, scrap houses and build houses," said
Naquin. "The Mennonites have money, but they want us to match their
money. They want $75,000 from each tribe to match their funds."
On Nov. 26, the tribes in the area met with members of the Mennonite
Disaster Services to discuss these future plans. Naquin said all of
the different tribes will join together to form a non-profit
organization so that they can begin to raise money for this endeavor.
"We want to form this organization where Indian tribes can deposit
money so we can start doing things," said Naquin. "There is money
available, we just need to put it all in one place where it can help
everyone."
Naquin's tribe only had $500 to put toward the $75,000 that is
needed. He hopes that the rest of the money will be raised through
the new organization.
Of these plans involving the Mennonite Disaster Services, Sue Kathler
said, "All of this is still in the conversation stage, nothing has
been developed yet."
If the Isle de Jean Charles Indians cannot come up with the money or
if they cannot develop a way to stop their island from flooding, they
may have to move from the homeland that their people have lived on
for over 200 years. They were already once given the chance to move
as a community, but did not accept the offer.
"At first I was against the move, because it reminded us of a modern
day Trail of Tears," said Naquin. "And then I realized what was
happening over here. It would probably be better that we could keep
our community as a whole if we relocate."
News Report, Amanda Robert,
New America Media, Jan 08, 2006
news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?
article_id=92f3c295cb5faf19b5f45ed9bf36b9ce
POINT-AUX-CHENES, La. When the Isle de Jean Charles Indians did not
receive any immediate aid from the federal government after
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita swept their island, experience had
already taught them what they needed to do. They took matters into
their own hands and initiated their own cleanup process. They removed
ruined mattresses, refrigerators and stoves and started to rebuild
their lives once again.
Mary Dardar, a disabled Biloxi-Chitimacha woman who lives alone on
the island, has been through all of this before. The wooden bridge
across the bayou to her home is still rippled from Hurricane Lili's
passing in 2002, and a cluster of deserted houses surrounds her small
home.
"There are camps around but whoever was living there relocated after
Lili because it was too damaged to be livable," said Dardar. "It's my
home, it's going to take a lot more than that to run me off."
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita dumped 40 inches of water into Dardar's
house, caving in her bathroom ceiling and destroying personal items,
clothes and appliances. She said that she lost everything from the
ceiling down and will make the repairs on her own.
"I have to strip my whole house up walls, insulation," said
Dardar. "It's a slow process and not something you can do overnight.
It takes time, especially when you are living in it."
Fifty-four-year old Andrew Chaisson Jr. has also lived on the island
all of his life. A blue tarp covers where his roof was before and the
wooden skeleton is all that remains on the left side where tan siding
used to be. But that's not the worst of the damage.
"In my house, I had almost 44 inches of water. That's almost four
feet," said Chaisson. "We had to spray for mold and all that, but I
can't work on it every day. I work on oyster fishing, sometimes all
day and night."
Like Dardar and some of the other island Indians, Chaisson is
continuing to live in his moldy home. After the hurricanes, five
houses on the island needed to be completely torn down and rebuilt.
Most of the others have been seriously damaged and require
renovations.
"A lot of us are tired of living in the condition that we live in,"
said Dardar. "It makes you sick."
Three months after Hurricane Rita struck, FEMA trailers had still not
been delivered to the island. A FEMA representative in Baton Rouge
said that according to her records, four trailers had been delivered
to Point-aux-Chenes, but as of early December, Chief Albert Naquin of
the Isle de Jean Charles band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha Indians said
that none had shown up. Instead, non-profit organizations have
stepped in to aid the Indians. Mennonite Disaster Services is one
organization that is helping the Indians rebuild their community.
Right after Hurricane Katrina, Mennonites Fred and Sue Kathler opened
up a volunteer project location, working out of Live Oak Baptist
Church in Point-aux-Chenes. They have gutted homes, repaired roofs
and removed the lower part of the interior walls of flooded homes.
"We take out the bottom, let it dry, clean the insulation and let
that dry," said Fred Kathler, as he demonstrated with recently
cleaned panels in the church. "We then spray for mold, let it dry,
then put the panel back."
Since October, the Kathlers have overseen 66 volunteers and have
started 24 clean-up projects in the area.
"We have groups from all over," said Sue Kathler. "The generosity of
people and their time is marvelous because we are never at a lack for
volunteers."
The Mennonites' goal is to give Island residents safe, dry and
healthy places to live temporarily. Other plans in the works would
bring volunteers for up to three years to help the Indians solve the
long-term problems caused by human and nature's destruction of their
environment.
According to Naquin, the Isle de Jean Charles did not historically
flood. After years of oilfield digging, pipeline canals and
hurricanes, the marshes that protect the island gradually became
weaker and have now all virtually disappeared.
"Every hurricane takes a toll," said Naquin. "So now Rita brought a
foot of water more than Lili, three years ago. Hurricanes in
the `50s, `60s never flooded. We never even flooded until Hurricane
Juan in 1985, but Juan put water everywhere."
Looking out over the bayou, Naquin said that land used to separate
the water into many different lakes, but now all of the land is gone.
"You can't tell the difference between the lakes and the bayou,
there's nothing there," he said.
Building rock walls on the barrier islands or levees on the sides of
the island could alleviate the flooding. Others of the five tribes in
the area have tried these solutions.
Chief Randy Verdun of the Bayou Lafource band of Biloxi-Chitimacha
Indians said, "Bayou Lafourche was not flooded, fortunately, because
we have a levee system and it helped. Grand Caillou/Dulac also has a
levee system, but it failed."
In the attempt to save his shrinking island, Naquin has a different
idea in mind. He is hoping to team up with the Mennonites to raise
all of the Isle de Jean Charles homes up on pilings, 13 feet above
sea level.
"They will raise houses, scrap houses and build houses," said
Naquin. "The Mennonites have money, but they want us to match their
money. They want $75,000 from each tribe to match their funds."
On Nov. 26, the tribes in the area met with members of the Mennonite
Disaster Services to discuss these future plans. Naquin said all of
the different tribes will join together to form a non-profit
organization so that they can begin to raise money for this endeavor.
"We want to form this organization where Indian tribes can deposit
money so we can start doing things," said Naquin. "There is money
available, we just need to put it all in one place where it can help
everyone."
Naquin's tribe only had $500 to put toward the $75,000 that is
needed. He hopes that the rest of the money will be raised through
the new organization.
Of these plans involving the Mennonite Disaster Services, Sue Kathler
said, "All of this is still in the conversation stage, nothing has
been developed yet."
If the Isle de Jean Charles Indians cannot come up with the money or
if they cannot develop a way to stop their island from flooding, they
may have to move from the homeland that their people have lived on
for over 200 years. They were already once given the chance to move
as a community, but did not accept the offer.
"At first I was against the move, because it reminded us of a modern
day Trail of Tears," said Naquin. "And then I realized what was
happening over here. It would probably be better that we could keep
our community as a whole if we relocate."