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Article

15 Jun 2010

Author:
Jordan Flaherty, Louisiana Justice Institute, in Huffington Post

Fears of Cultural Extinction on Louisiana's Gulf Coast [USA]

As BP's deepwater well continues to discharge oil into the Gulf...many fear this disaster represents not only environmental devastation but also cultural extinction for peoples who have made their lives here for generations...[For example, the] Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe is a small band of French speaking Native Americans along Bayou Pointe-au-Chien...on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Their ancestors settled here three hundred years ago, and current residents describe the ongoing oil geyser as just the latest step in a long history of displacement and disenfranchisement...Walking along the bayou here, where generations of people have lived off the land and fought to protect their territory from corporate theft, you begin to sense the gravity of what will be lost.