Native Lands Wash Away as Sea Levels Rise

Home for generations to small bands of the Houma and Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribes in coastal Louisiana, this island is among the most vulnerable place in America to the effects of climate change. It is on the frontlines of severe coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and intensifying hurricanes and floods. In the 1950s there were an estimated 1,500 families on the island – now only 25 remain. The loss of the people and the land weighs heavy on the community.

“We’re not going to have anything for our children to see, you know, if it keeps on washing away, if they don’t try to stop it some kind of way.” said Theresa Dardar of the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe “So, they will never see what we saw.”