ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, La. The Rev. Roch Naquin grew up on this island along the Louisiana coast, trapping muskrats and mink in the marsh beyond his family’s home and cutting firewood from a stand of oak trees.
The trees and the marsh are gone now, submerged under rising sea levels that have nearly engulfed the island, which has been home to the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw for generations. As the island slowly disappears, so, too, does the tribe’s way of life.
Isle de Jean Charles, a narrow strip of land about 90 miles southwest of New Orleans in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, has lost 98 percent of its landmass to rising waters of the Gulf of Mexico since 1955, when tracking began. An island that once encompassed more than 22,000 acres, now is only 320 acres. Scientists predict the island will disappear in 50 years.
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Native American leaders are questioning why Terrebonne Parish officials are considering new sites for fishing camps on Isle de Jean Charles when residents are being encouraged to leave the island as it erodes into the Gulf of Mexico.
Officials from Houma-based A.M. Dupont Corp. are asking the Houma-Terrebonne Regional Planning Commission to approve its plan to create seven adjacent lots to sell to camp owners on the island. The company also plans to improve water and sewerage pipes and add fire hydrants that would serve the camps.
Company representative Keneth Rembert told the board Thursday that it is negotiating with the area s fire department on some of the improvements. The company is also considering deepening the bayou at the front of its property to accommodate new pipes.