Pointe-aux-Chenes

The school board in Terrebonne Parish sold a former elementary school campus, which the district closed in 2021, to the Pointe-au-Chien Tribe last week.

For the past six years, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe has battled to stop its historic earthen Indian mounds from slipping into the sea, looking to the power of oyster shells to protect them. Now, they’ve expanded that effort.

In the humid Louisiana heat, three boats full of children and tribal members traveled down the bayou in Pointe-aux-Chenes to teach the Pointe-au-Chien tribe’s youngest members about their past, a 10-year-old tradition known as the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe Culture Camp.

École Pointe-au-Chien, a public French immersion school, has now been approved to open after a unanimous vote in the state Senate and House at the end of May.

On the same day that Louisiana’s House lawmakers unanimously passed an education bill to create the Ecole Pointe-au-Chien French immersion school, the Terrebonne Parish School Board voted against approving that school’s charter application put forth by Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe members and school parents.

For years, Pointe-aux-Chenes Elementary school parents, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe and other community stakeholders have been working toward establishing a French immersion school in Pointe-aux-Chenes. One lawmaker introduced a new education bill to create a French immersion school at Pointe-aux-Chenes.

Terrebonne Parish School Board members voted Tuesday night to close Pointe-Aux-Chenes Elementary School.

Terrebonne Parish Levee District officials say a second-hand floodgate from Westwego could provide Pointe-aux-Chenes residents with some quick flood…