| excerpted Wrom: GPKYLEJGDGVCJVTLBXFG
Afloat: How Federal Recognition as a Native American Tribe Will Save the
Residents of Isle De Jean Charles, Louisiana, 4 Loyola Journal of Public
Interest Law 1-25, 1-4 (Spring 2003)(132 Footnotes Omitted)
Louisiana is sinking. The state possesses 40% of the nation's coastal
wetlands. The coastal zone within Louisiana is one of the most fertile
ecosystems in North America, providing its people not only a $1 billion
a year commercial fish and shellfish industry, but also a life-saving
buffer against hurricane and tropical storm intrusion. Unfortunately,
the coastal wetlands are disappearing at a rate of 25 to 35 square miles
each year. When a hurricane strikes the coast, the problem is
exacerbated by rising saltwater tides that flood the freshwater
wetlands, contributing to the erosion and ultimate destruction of
marshes, swamps, and the communities that reside upon them.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers has proposed a levee
construction project to protect against hurricane encroachment along a
70-75 mile path running through Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. This
proposal, known as the Morganza-to-the-Gulf of Mexico Hurricane
Protection Project, is scheduled for completion no sooner than 2020.
Implementation of the Morganza levee system is part of the Louisiana
Coastal Wetlands Restoration Plan, a scheme that has been funded by and
organized under the authority of the Coastal Wetlands Planning,
Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA). The Morganza project is one of
several wetland restoration projects, and according to the Corps of
Engineers' Feasibility Report, construction of this levee system poses
no conflict with any other proposed plans under CWPPRA. Once completed,
the levee wall will protect approximately 110,000 residents of both
parishes against hurricane devastation.
Throughout the past year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has held
numerous meetings, all local-based, to inform Terrebonne and Lafourche
parish residents how the implementation of the levee wall will affect
them. The focus has been on where exactly the wall is to be built and
how much it will cost. Left out of the plans is Isle de Jean Charles,
Louisiana. This small island, located in the southeast corner of
Terrebonne Parish, falls outside the planned levee wall's path, leaving
it exposed and unprotected. According to the Army Corps of Engineers,
the additional costs required to include Isle de Jean Charles into the
levee project are extraordinarily high, making it difficult to
economically justify re-routing the levee system's projected path. As a
result, Isle de Jean Charles, an island already facing severe wetland
erosion, is particularly vulnerable to hurricane-induced high tides and
faces total obliteration should a high category hurricane make landfall
at its tip.
Isle de Jean Charles' inhabitants are mostly poor and happen to be
almost entirely Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Native Americans, who have
lived on the island for several generations but currently lack federal
recognition as a Native American tribe. The Army Corps of Engineers has
proposed relocation of the islanders to an undecided area, presumably
somewhere in Terrebonne Parish, behind the levee wall. Despite this
proposal to relocate, which is seen as a significantly cheaper
alternative to extending the levee wall so as to include Isle de Jean
Charles, most of the residents do not wish to move away from home. The
demand for inclusion, so far, has been an uphill battle for this
community of 277, where refuting what the Corps of Engineers views as
economically unjustifiable has become nearly impossible.
The residents of Isle de Jean Charles, however, are in a unique
position that could potentially give them great leverage in their fight
for inclusion into the Morganza Project. Obtaining official federal
recognition as a Native American tribe would, by law, afford these
residents certain benefits and protections from the federal government
they would not otherwise have. The United States government created
federal recognition not only to make available federal services and
benefits, but also to ensure the right of tribal self-determination and
autonomy. This comment will focus on federal recognition and how it
might, and why it should, be used as a mechanism when fighting for
inclusion into the federal levee project. This comment asserts that
federal recognition will provide the residents of Isle de Jean Charles
the necessary bargaining power when confronting the Corps of Engineers
in their struggle for inclusion, as inclusion is essential to save the
island from potential destruction. Part II will provide background
information on Isle de Jean Charles: the island, the people, and the
relationship to the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Project proposal. Part III will
explore the law of federal recognition and its implications for Isle de
Jean Charles' residents. Part IV will conclude that federal recognition
gives the community of Isle de Jean Charles a fighting chance to stay
afloat. |
