Chitimacha baskets in the NMAI collection, all from Louisiana and made with cane and dye. Left: ca. 1920, 8.3" x 4.3" x 5.4". Purchase. (11/8264) Middle: ca. 1900, 7.1" x 7.1" x 3.9". Joseph Keppler Collection. (9558) Right: ca. 1890, 5.1" x 5.1" x 5.5". Gift of Dr. Margaret J. Sharpe. (22/5207)


of folks on the Island are currently living in substandard housing.” “Lots of resettlements actually displace


tribes,” Comardelle explains. “We’re being displaced by the environmental changes and things happening inside our community. When we get to the resettlement, it will actu- ally bring the tribe back together. People who left can come back to the community. You’ll be able to walk next door and it will be your aunts and your cousins, like it used to be. And then we can get our culture back. Kids can learn how to weave baskets, make cast nets, build boats. And we’ll have our commu- nity back to where it is self-sustaining again: if someone was sick, the neighbors of other members of the community would cook and feed them. But now they might be 45 minutes away. We’ll be all close to each other again.”


WEAVING TOGETHER A COMMUNITY


Comardelle is now planning a tribal museum and has acquired a museum studies degree to learn about collecting. “We want a part where we show our history, but we also want an interactive part where we teach our history. Here’s how you weave a basket. Not just for us, but for the outside community. The museum on the resettlement plan is not just a building, but a heart, pumping and circulating our past into the present and on to the future.”


“We can demonstrate how to make a


pirogue,” Billiot adds. “I have a blueprint for it. I created it in AutoCAD.” “We have only a few things for the col-


lections,” Comardelle remarks. “Right now, we can’t collect because we have no place to put things. So, we’re looking at how we can start a digital archive. A lot of people still have old pictures; we want to be able to scan them so not only do we have them, but the people themselves can get prints back from us if the originals are lost. We can have an archive for private use and also to show the outside com- munity – with permission.” This cultural detail is being brought into


the second phase of master planning with the State to ensure the new community retains the Tribe’s cultural identity. The process aids in producing a model for all communities across the coastal region. “We’ve proven that you can take and adapt to


whatever land you’re in, and still retain your cul- ture and your identity,” Comardelle adds. “I have no doubt that we will be able to do that here.” The writing is on the wall not just for this


tribe, but for other Louisiana tribes. As early as 1987, scholars sounded a warning: “Today, the decline in Louisiana’s Indian population is matched by the deterioration and outright destruction of the state’s once magnificent natural environments. Many tribes have dis-


appeared; the rest are decimated. The likeli- hood of their eventual demise is strengthened by environmental ruin. The problem is one for all Louisianans.


Irreparable ecological


damage can be tolerated no longer, and the Indian, like his neighbors, have begun to de- mand protection.” Now that demand has manifested itself


as action. “We understand the ramifications of our work, relative to others who are going to be going through this,” Forbes says. “So, there’s the importance of getting it right and learning from it, so other people can learn from our experiences and do it better than we have on the first pass. It’s so new; it’s going to be a constantly improving approach.” “Nobody is really dying to leave the place


where they grew up, and where they live and own property. Every resettlement project is going to face this,” he says. “Louisiana is going faster than anywhere else in the U.S., between sea level rise and ground subsidence making for a higher, relative sea level rise. So, we are the vanguard of this experience.” X


Douglas Herman, Senior Geographer at the National Museum of the American Indian - Smithsonian, specializes in the cultural knowledge of Hawaii and Pacific Islands.


Copyright 2018 Smithsonian Institution. Reprinted with permission from Smithsonian Enterprises. All rights reserved.


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 27


PHOTO COURTESY OF NMAI PHOTO ARCHIVES


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