Rising Challenge
Native American Band Abandons Eroding Home
Isle de Jean Charles Band To Leave Home
PHOTO: COURTESY KAREN GADBOIS
In a move that likely will be repeated by dozens of coastal communities over the next century, the Isle de Jean Charles band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians has decided to move from their home of more than 200 years before it erodes away. Isle de Jean Charles, an island in the wetlands of southeastern Louisiana, has shrunk to just a quarter-mile from four miles wide over the past century because of erosion, subsidence and sea-level rise. In 2016, the island’s remaining 25 families received a $48-million federal climate-resiliency grant to relocate the whole community to an inland Louisiana area that will be protected by a levee system.
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