Albert White Buffalo Naquin, chief of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, remembers the time when Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana was tens of thousands of acres large. Climate change and oil and gas development have decimated this island, home to members of his tribe, other Indigenous residents and some non-Indigenous people.
For Johnny Tamplet, a white resident of Isle de Jean Charles, the island is a “piece of paradise.” For over 40 years, his family has come to fish here. He moved in. But he is among those resettling because of land loss.
Chris Brunet, a member of the Jean Charles tribe and longtime resident of Isle de Jean Charles, needed more than a decade to make peace with leaving. He’s among those moving to The New Isle, a site built by the state for voluntary resettlement from the island.