Today on Louisiana Considered: We talk to members of Louisiana’s Indigenous communities and learn about the challenges they face while working to preserve their culture and history. This episode of Louisiana Considered originally aired on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022. To hear the full episode, click the “play” button above.
The Houma language was spoken on the land that would become Louisiana before it was colonized. In 2013, the Houma Language Project was established to help revitalize the Indigenous tongue and encourage speaking among younger tribal members by offering internships. WWNO’s Kezia Setyawan spoke with Jace Naquin, one of those interns.
Like many tribes across Louisiana, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe built earthen mounds all over their land in south Terrebonne Parish. Those historic mounds are now at risk of slipping away as the state’s coast rapidly erodes. Still, the tribe is doing all it can to protect them, which includes turning to the power of oyster reefs to curb the land loss. The Coastal Desk’s Halle Parker has the story.
In August, Devon Parfait officially took oath as Chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe in south Louisiana. He recently graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and currently works as a coastal resilience analyst for the Environmental Defense Fund. He sat down with Kezia Setyawan to talk about growing into his new role as Chief.
Today’s special episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Carly Berlin, a reporter on our Coastal Desk. It was produced by Patrick Madden and Alana Schreiber, and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman, Aubry Procell, and Thomas Walsh.
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