Katrina, Rita and the Houma: A Nation in Recovery

By: Victor Merina

HOUMA, La.—Up the bayou. Down the bayou. Across the bayou.

For a visitor to this stretch of Louisiana, those are the directions you quickly learn while traveling the waterways and roadways of this southeastern region of this Southern state.
For those at home in the bayou, no weathervane is needed to guide you. No compass readings are required. There is the water's landmark, the signpost of the bayou to tell you which way to drive, which way to travel.

Louisiana may be best known as the home of Mardi Gras and the football Saints, as a stirring pot of jazz and blues and zesty cuisine. Thanks to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it may forever be the memory stick for disaster, for images of broken levees and a stifling Superdome, and for tales of heroism and despair in now-familiar places like the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

But it is also Indian Country, land of the mostly forgotten. It is home to the United Houma Nation, nearly half of whose members were displaced up and down the bayou, their homes battered by hurricane winds or flooded by avalanches of water.

"Our people suffered a lot, and many people don't know that," said Brenda Dardar Robichaux, principal chief of the Houma Nation. "We're still recovering, and it's been a slow process."

With 17,000 enrolled members, the Houma constitute the largest tribe in Louisiana. Over the centuries, they have found themselves moving farther down the bayou, historically pressed by the encroachment of European and American newcomers whose appetite for land pushed them on their southward migration and whose later discoveries of oil and gas made the Natives vulnerable to land grabs.

There's more here: http://www.reznetnews.org/article/feature-article/katrina%2C-rita-and-houma%3A-nation-recovery

Reburial on hold for 87 American Indian remains

By: Cindy Carcamo

HUNTINGTON BEACH – A plan to rebury the last 87 American Indian remains found on the Brightwater Hearthside Homes site on Monday is on hold after American Indian officials complained to the state's Coastal Commission that the developer is not appropriately documenting all grave items found on the site.

Officials also alleged that the developer is not being forthcoming about its archeological findings on the Bolsa Chica Mesa site.

"This is so he can hurry up and get a burial and get the OK to finish building and selling homes to make a profit,'' said Gabrielino-Tongva leader Anthony Morales, who lodged a complaint at last week's Coastal Commission meeting. "It's a business. We're an obstacle to him. … Our culture is in his way."

It's the latest twist to plague the 300-home project, which sits on a site believed to be an ancient burial site and village once shared by the Gabrielino-Tongva and Juaneño Band of Mission Indians.

Over the last 30 years, archeologists discovered 174 ancient American Indian remains, half of them unearthed in the past 20 months. Human remains can mean whole sets or a fragment belonging to a person.

Want to know more? Click here: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/grave-site-developer-2020274-commission-goods

On this day in history...

April 21, 1869 Ely Samual Parker/Hasanoanda (Seneca) becomes first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

A Sachem and Civil War adjutant to Ulysses Grant, Ely Samuel Parker was an important figure in the Seneca Indian nation during the first half of the nineteenth century. Trained as an engineer, Parker was deeply involved in the Senecas' land disputes with the Ogden Land Company and he played an important role in interpreting Seneca culture for a white audience, most notably as a consultant for Lewis Henry Morgan.

The Parker Papers include correspondence, manuscripts, and printed materials relating primarily to Seneca affairs, history, language, and culture, as well as politics, education, engineering, and the Civil War. Among Parker's correspondents were Henry Clay, Millard Fillmore, Henry M. Flagler, Lewis Henry Morgan, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Daniel Webster, and Asher Wright. Several letters relate to Parker's service as engineer of public buildings in Galena, Ill., and to his Masonic activities. Among the noteworthy items in the collection are several essays on Seneca history and culture, a fragment of Parker's diary, 1847, and a significant quantity of material on the Seneca language assembled by Asher Wright.

Cherokee Nation Provides Emergency Assistance to Storm and Flood Victims

Cherokee Nation News Release

TAHLEQUAH, OK — The Cherokee Nation is assisting Oklahoma communities in need after torrential rains and high winds caused damage to homes, property and roads in northeastern Oklahoma.

The Cherokee Nation Emergency Management (CNEM) team members are assisting local and federal organizations assess damage and clean up in communities located within Cherokee Nation’s jurisdictional area (Adair, Delaware, Mayes and Sequoyah Counties) after heavy rain and high winds recently stormed across Oklahoma.

According to CNEM Director, Tamara Copeland, members were dispatched to counties in the area and near the Arkansas state line. Copeland says that assessing the damage is the first step to obtaining approval for individual assistance to citizens impacted by the storm.

“In Sequoyah County, we assisted primarily in damage assessment with local and state officials,” said Copeland. “Muldrow was hit particularly hard.”

The results show that in Sequoyah County 224 apartments suffered damage, 477 homes and 11 businesses experienced minor damage, major damage impacted 133 homes and 14 businesses, and 33 mobile homes were completely destroyed by hail.

Get the rest of the story here: http://www.cherokee.org/PressRoom/2551/story.aspx