Relocation efforts for Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana proved highly contentious when the Obama administration announced it would give the state $48.3 million for the process and has been ultimately less effective because many residents felt the relocation was something they ultimately had little to no input on. Determining who would be included in the relocation was one of many snags that ultimately left a vulnerable community behind.
Only 37 people will make the move to New Isle in Terrebonne Parish—less than half the population that was living on Isle de Jean Charles in 2016 but still more than the 26 or so who continued to live there this year. It’s hard to assess the full impact of such a relocation when it comes to community ties and closeness to family and chosen family, which in turn can affect everything from health to finances. Centering environmental justice in this process is absolutely essential.
There is much more to initiatives like these than ensuring groups like the Newtok Village move into a place where they are not threatened by coastal erosion. The Interior Department pegs that erosion at a rate of around 70 feet per year and says it found “no cost-effective way to halt this process.” And, of the three groups who received the most funding, there were still eight others who would receive $5 million apiece, totaling $40 million.
Those groups include the Native Village of Point Lay, Huslia Village, Native Village of Fort Yukon, Native Village of Nelson Lagoon, all of whom are in Alaska; the Havasupai tribe in Arizona; the Yurok tribe in California; the Chitimacha tribe in Louisiana; and the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe in Maine. According to the Interior Department, “these communities face significant and widely varied climate risks, including coastal and riverine erosion, permafrost degradation, wildfire, flooding, food insecurity, sea level rise, hurricane impacts, potential levee failure and drought.”
The Biden administration has a chance to get relocations like these right and allow for the type of community input and decision-making that empowers an Indigenous community that for too long has been wronged by the federal government. As part of that restorative process in relocation, the Interior Department plans to begin a 120-day planning period next month to discuss community goals and needs, roles and responsibilities in the relocation process, the projects’ scopes and risks, and timelines and funding.
