The Precipice

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With support from viewers like you, Bellamy will start from cutting.

Well, that's over here to the Devon and then just canal Warren is this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The big old tree is right on top of the cemetery.

They actually have people who were buried in this mound, like as late as the fifties.

I see cemeteries right here to the street across.

It will run right.

Cut right through it.

Not too long ago, there was a oil and gas company trying to cut through one of our cemeteries.

Are you on the cut this way?

I would have been right here.

Yeah.

Then we filed a lawsuit stating that this land is our Aboriginal land.

The judge there said, Well, we're going to wait to see what the Federal Government says as to whether or not you should be federally recognized.

Federal recognition would give us support to be in the Louisiana Master plan and to protect our land and our resources.

This land is a reflection of us, our ancestors.

And that's why in the song it says My heart is in the land of my people because this is who I am.

Impossible not to decide.

I'm going to go with you.

I'm going to leave you.

We have been seeking recognition since the mid-nineties.

The federal government is saying is you need to prove that you're an Indian.

Well, I'm there on about for the government.

Your daughter to be fairly recognized means that the government recognizes that you are an indigenous community and that you have a government to government relationship with the United States.

That is what federal recognition allows you to do.

It allows you to have that seat at the table.

You vision from.

If there's a storm, for example, right now, everything goes through the parishes or the state.

And basically politicians are after thought that this concludes the suppression of the the reality of the realities on the Benevides.

I remember telling my friends how we're so close and how we get hit by hurricanes and we flood.

And I tell them one day we're going to be the islands out there and you're going to be us.

And it seems like that's what's happening.

And so to put it up this high, you know, I'm like one of the had partition is what we now refer to as a frontline community.

The buffer climate change is affecting all of us.

What happens?

Deportation happens to us and it's in our interest to have them succeed.

Poorna Sharma is one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the state of Louisiana.

Our ancestors have toiled this land.

They've lived here.

They're buried here.

This is part of who we are.

But the federal recognition process is a really long time consuming process.

One of the themes that you see happening through the documents is that of land and different ways of trying to dispossess the tribe of their land.

That is part of the federal recognition story because it is about reclaiming what is theirs.

Okay.

So first, Donald.

Mm hmm.

Okay.

I use my feather.

Don't even need it.

The wind's blowing the way.

Yeah.

Okay.

You need a feather?

No, you're good.

I'm good here.

Okay, fella.

Edmond Cattell by Lucien Cousteau.

Margaret.

Okay.

You're going to follow by like some of those old pictures.

Hezbollah.

There are still people living here because there was a baby shower, I think, in the seventies that people came to for someone.

Some of the people from here went to buy you a food shop.

Yeah.

When I was young, I had a bunch of houses on this side.

You had a couple of them would just say, Oh, my God, I Bala No pula, no more.

There Nothing left.

No, it wasn't that Fatty Bayou La ville.

This is part of Alexandria.

You know what we got?

80 acres on the backside of this, I think.

I think they should be able to claim it by just giving this a list.

And we have a lot of people who lived there, too.

Yeah, Paddy, we got 40 acres on this side, and then it crosses over this side.

Yeah, but not supposed to be ours.

It's supposed to be to into that, Matt.

You had this quest all along pointed out by you right here in Louisiana and come landed it dig where the people were living.

You just took everything else, but not really a square.

We do estate as Louis Castle's camp.

Louis?

He wasn't the Louis, I believe.

Why they didn't in French is Louis calling the again?

But it was Louis.

It felt equal to say, Oh, Felix was right here.

Theresa's grandpa.

Okay, Yeah, let's get that, because then we can get right across from on from here.

Okay, so this is Louis Jessel.

So different.

Louis share.

Someone has some post, you know, Felix, John and then Louis Parcels.

Captain Felix was a million.

Right.

Hey, guys.

So pretty, huh?

Yeah.

They both.

They did like us.

They adjusted that.

Do you remember how many miles out of here, you know?

Yeah.

There's a cluster right here.

There's one right there.

There's one right here.

There's one behind there.

And I think there's one right here.

You can tell because that's where it's green.

That's one right in here on the water.

Ventura Here, That's a big one.

And there's one, I think one back there.

You get there are people live here because this where the through the oyster shells you see it, Oysters.

Oh, yeah.

Look at the house.

What do they have post right here?

Like they had a fence.

Yeah.

And then the other mounds, you can kind of see them up here, but they probably all there or where they used to live, they probably had a fenced in because you had cows running loose all over Sydney, Vernon, Sydney, Vernon.

People planted down here too.

Could you imagine?

This was all hard.

They planted all this places where people used to live, places of importance, places for the tribe where certain things happen.

That's part of the community's memory.

We're submitting the whole area as a landscape.

Then if they're trying to get permits and they would have to look to see how these sites would be impacted by the work that was proposing to be done.

And it doesn't mean that they wouldn't approve it, but we would know about it and we should be able to have a say.

I mean, that's our goal.

This area is historically shit a macho washer and car washes.

So when the first Europeans came to Louisiana, this was inhabited.

The Mississippi River deposited into different tributaries.

So by the first, when the French first came was called Lafourche.

They to the marshes and freshwater would come through the bayou and then we would have topsoil redevelopment.

So it was very fertile.

You could catch food to eat.

You made your houses from the palmetto for the roofs would for the sides of your house, or you could have a mud and moss house and you could have a mud and marsh chimney, but your houses were on the ground.

There was a great risk of flooding.

You had fresh water, so people had big gardens, so you were able to provide fresh water for your cattle.

Everything you needed you had available to you.

So Pontchartrain was a self-sustaining community.

That's my son right there, Ryan.

That's our pile down drop out of the made then that's what right there.

Look at the alligator right there in front of you, way down.

I like when they say That's that tray shack.

They make them shake them and you can't delegate it when you pull on.

You got to roll everything out.

My dad, I'm just killing Dick with a hatchet.

They use to call it cuts that a hatchet when they come on down, split it hard like they do shoot them and all that.

That's all they make money.

I try to check on That was a cemetery that if we read these oral histories from some of our elders, people caught what they could eat and then they would share.

Or if they killed a pig, cook it and they share for people or they bring it over and share it with people.

People down here, lower portion.

It just so happens the line between two parishes is are by this side is terrible on the bayou splits us and the other side is the food.

CORNISH is the center of our community.

And even though everyone descends from CORNISH and not everyone lives here, we have about 850 tribal members.

I don't have to call someone and say, you mind if I come over?

We don't do that.

Here.

We go to someone's house.

Come, let's have some coffee.

Let's talk.

My grandma raised on cows.

We go to our house on Saturdays, and my brothers and uncles would go in a chicken pan and she point out what chicken she wanted did run around the chicken.

And the next day that was our lunch.

We have Billiat and Bird and Dadas.

And then from the island there are not cans.

So Alexander Billiat was chief of the chain of matches and he lived further down, put a, shall we call it on both.

He had 12 children and a lot of people from CORNISH and descend from one of his children.

I grew up doing it, watched my relatives.

Well, there's they all done it lived off the land.

My great aunt used to tell me how they used to almost jump across the bay, and now they start a shrimp.

And my uncle owns the shrimp shed, my parents house.

This community was built on hardworking people.

They didn't have a lot, but they built it up.

One of the big issues for the tribes in Louisiana is that there's not a lot of good research that has been done on primary documents.

They jumped from the early French colonial period to after Louisiana was purchased by the United States.

So there are gaps and that history, there's a whole dynamic that's at play in this thing that we call the Louisiana Purchase, which if you stop and think about for one moment, Napoleon doesn't sell actual title to land.

What he does is sort of sells the idea that you can now go into this land and try to claim it for your own.

So they're sending surveyors out 1830 1840s to mark certain features.

But also people oftentimes when you look in this part of Lafourche and Tabone, they call it the tremble ing prairie trembling land and with almost no waterways even noted.

So the surveyors went so far and then they were like not going any further.

They just didn't go far enough to capture that early history, which is what the federal government is looking for.

Yeah, we've got about a 20 minute boat ride before we get to the first trip.

My whole family, some stuck with it, some came back to it.

I don't see too many younger ones like Generation after me.

You got to have a love for This was actually a growing basin.

So when my grandparents were growing up, we had freshwater flow from the Mississippi River, which brought topsoil redevelopment.

On one end.

You could saltwater fish, which was a few miles down and on the upper end, like in this area over here, you could freshwater fish.

They had fruit trees of any kind.

And so the landscape was different because it was being supplemented by the right nutrients that would come naturally and it would provide for the survival of people.

That's a shrimp boat, shrimping.

There's a time of the year where you water levels get low, you migration, your seafood starts, so everything leaves out of the shallow water and getting that deeper water.

And then when springtime starts again, the seafood starts showing back up on the inside and the shallow in the market area and you don't have that estuary for them to go and just protect and reproduce dies off slowly.

Like my boy.

The same Mars that I'm fishing in today is not going to be there when he's ready to do it.

It's kind of hard to believe just in a generation how you land went from cattle roaming, grazing land to marsh.

Some areas you can see the land change on a yearly basis, not just over times or after a big storm.

There's nothing out there.

There are a number of factors which have caused the erosion and land loss importance.

And the first is the living of the Mississippi River.

That decision, they knew there wouldn't be any topsoil redevelopment.

The second is the discovery of oil and gas in terrible Paris in the 1930s.

The Orleans pipeline back in the fifties.

No, it wasn't that wide because over the years they ate up.

There was just, I guess what I would say, a great exploitation of discovery and cutting boundary markers by different oil and gas companies.

They dug these little fences, the little waterways that were probably just wide enough to to put a shallow or like a little boat to bring things.

But it was never closed up.

So these little narrow waterways became wider and wider and wider than your land is in pieces, which makes it much easier to you.

Road I can't say like, Oh, when they created these canals, it was a malicious thing to erode the land, but they definitely didn't have any care or accountability even now, to go back and say, Hey, let's backfill those canals and fill those in.

They just come to airport pipelines.

That's everything they talk about.

The wetland did okay well into the 20th century.

People and punish men are living in Palmetto houses by choice.

This tribe can continue their traditional life and then a sudden this land that wasn't so valuable for huge plantation economies became very valuable here.

Lower Pontchartrain is not where we began.

We began paths that Alexander was a sugarcane farmer.

Enough to harvest and to bring to New Orleans to be processed.

And so to us, it's still our land.

That's that's our ancestral land.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Charlie.

When I'm joining you in the Lpv studios for this very special broadcast of the first Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

If documentaries like this are important to you, a reminder that it is members support your support that makes sharing this story possible.

You can be part of telling these unique stories when you pledge your support by calling us or texting, give to 888, 769 5000.

Or you can make your pledge online at LTP dot org or simply scan the QR code on your screen to thank you.

We have chosen membership gifts especially for you and available during this broadcast.

Let's have a look at these gifts options.

Right now.

When you become a member, you help LBB Share important stories about Louisiana as our way to say thank you.

We invite you to choose from these incredible gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell, and the oyster mug.

Plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15 the month.

Receive the Waterman Pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10.

So month receive Ain't There no More.

Louisiana's disappearing coastal plain winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month Choose the Oyster Mug by Waterman Pottery.

Or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

I am now joined by Linda Midgette, the executive producer of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, as well as Ben Johnson, the senior producer here.

LP is also the film director of The Precipice.

It's so nice to have a chance to talk to you about this fabulous project.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Linda, let me start with you.

Is this a new way of storytelling that we're going to see maybe more of that?

OPB It is.

Of course, documentaries are not new at OPB.

He's been doing amazing award winning documentaries for decades.

But the precipice is unique in that it is the first Louisiana Spotlight film that we have done.

Louisiana Spotlight is our public affairs show that our audience is familiar with, and our idea is to take every so often one of the topics that really resonates with viewers and turn it into a fully stocked documentary.

So in this case, we did a Louisiana spotlight on the plantation community a couple of years ago.

People really responded to it.

They saw the importance of that story.

And so we have turned that into this whole feature length film.

So you received a lot of feedback, positive feedback.

And then when you then probably had the conversation with Linda, this was the the next story we're going to dig deeper in what what kind of things were going on in your mind as a film director?

Well, the first thing that brought me down the plantation was the closing of their elementary school, and that was in April of 2021.

And so it was a theme in the plantation story of fighting for education that I would later find out.

But that was the catalyst for bringing me down the point of shared.

Well, it is an incredible documentary.

Kudos to all the efforts that has continuing to go on with Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and we want to let everyone know this is a corporate challenge.

And thank you so much.

The Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary Program, they are challenging all viewers to donate right now, and they will match dollar for dollar to the first 1500 dollars called in during this program.

Only, in effect, it will make your donation worth twice as much.

Guys, this really tells us about what how important Louisiana Public Broadcasting is to the state and what a community builder that it really can be.

There are important stories to tell and that community essence is alive and well, right, Linda?

That's so true.

There are so many small communities who are really overlooked in our mainstream media.

I wasn't familiar with them before we started telling the story.

And so many communities that have just a rich heritage.

Yeah, yeah.

I think, you know, Louisiana has one of the most, if not the most unique history in the in the country.

And the stories that come out of Louisiana are unlike any other.

And this is just another example of that.

This is a a community that is rarely heard about or heard from.

And I think it's important to highlight how special they are.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting A long legacy of telling you those those stories that matter and those those stories that are just under told.

And so, once again, as someone who is a former employee of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, it brings great pride in seeing exactly how the torch has been carried forward and telling those new stories.

And now new filmmakers such as Ben coming into the fold.

He's a talented guy.

Glad to have him.

I want to tell you, there are some gifts that we want to tell you about to anyone that is thinking about making a very important donation.

So let's take a look at those gift options right now for $30 a month, receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell and the oyster mug.

Plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15 the month.

Receive the Waterman Pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive Ain't There No More Louisiana's disappearing coastal plain winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month Choose the Oyster Mug by Waterman Pottery.

Or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

So once again, call us at eight, seven, six, nine, 5000.

Or you can go online at Lpv Dawg to make an important contribution of support right here for Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

Linda Midget, executive producer of LTP, and Ben Johnson joins me, the film director of the press office.

You know, this is a story that just wasn't already known.

It was something that unfolded over the course of a couple of years.

So once again, that's pretty something that's a storytelling aspect that not everyone and in fact, I can't think of anyone else in Louisiana can actually pull that off other than me.

Yeah, this has been a really interesting process of filming throughout the past two years, up until maybe a couple of weeks ago of kind of uncovering more and more of the story and kind of wrapping my head around more on the story.

And it's been a labor of love.

And I think the product shows that, you know, this is a this is an important story to tell.

And Ben makes a great point for story so complex, it takes time to just wrap your head around things, let alone figure out a shot sheet and writing scripts, right?

Absolutely.

And in Louisiana, you have the extra challenge of filming through hurricanes.

So not to have a spoiler alert, but right in the middle of this filming, you know, there were four or five hurricanes that hit Louisiana and that became an important part of the story.

So the story changed after we started filming.

It evolved and throughout the process, which was which was fascinating.

And we are lucky to have the time and the resources and the support here at OPB to be able to follow it for that long, without a doubt, willing to set it right.

We need your support, and now more than ever, to help promote Louisiana and tell these important stories, because these stories not only get shared around the state, they get shared to our next door neighbors in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama.

They go throughout the country and then get picked up, sometimes even all around the world.

So the stories that we tell matter.

And I just want to again, thank you for that support for the community of Louisiana to go ahead and tell important stories.

And we're going to talk more with Linda, as well as Ben and even some folks with portion tribal community as well.

So don't go away and enjoy the next part of our program.

Alexandra, Amelia, Felicity Island Now, yeah, that was in the 1850s, at least when they were selling Sugar Cane by you.

Trevor Right.

It goes all the way to Golden Meadow.

That's all you need is actually underneath.

Wasn't even born.

Oh, look how pretty these are.

You got some berries over here, too.

Oh, okay.

The cactus.

Yeah, that could help with that.

Are these, like, desert plants?

Like a yucca shop?

Chop, chop, chop, chop.

Yeah, That bigger koala.

He got a koala?

Yeah.

Yeah, that is.

And you cover that up.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, it's still small.

It's like this right here is getting wider and wider here with all the current.

Yeah, that's bad.

You got a maori here along long.

Goodbye.

As I write this going in Washington that went out doing Listen to the birds.

There's a bird nesting place right here.

I'm not going to disturb the birds.

What is this, Donald?

What is all this stuff?

Take a picture of it.

Your phone's going to tell you what it is.

Oh, my gosh.

Look at that.

You see that, Donald?

I see it.

The post.

If there's one post, there has to be more.

Somebody was here in this island.

They said they used to walk all the way to the Gulf.

Yeah, they were able to along the bayou.

This is where our old lady Felicity lived.

Yes, ma'am.

This island, you know Donald.

And that'd be among the high.

It is, is the tippy top right here.

Oh, my gosh.

This is high.

And it slows down.

You can see somebody coming from any direction.

Nobody knew you was here.

Yeah.

Everything you need is area.

Because you know what?

Like over here and it would have been maybe 30 miles that way.

They will find some rabbits over here by yourself, like greens.

And you didn't have mustard.

There you see that stuff?

We don't pass bill.

They had an owner studio here too, but.

Oh yeah.

Still.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

Have flowers that we don't just still wow a business It will be a good experience but do not come across here.

Oh yeah.

Look right here I come check that out in the near future on Bala plant, the ridge they grew sugar cane over here and they wouldn't paddle to sell it.

Patty Ferguson.

Bonnie is a member of the an Indian tribe.

She's also the director of the Indian legal program at Arizona State University.

Patty today is going to talk about the larger consequences to tribal nations when you do not have federal recognition.

I am a tribal member and I'm also one of the attorneys for the tribe in the 1930s, which was about the same time as oil and gas development.

Our people were not allowed to attend school.

So there were schools for African-Americans and there were schools for whites, but they did not have any schools for the native kids.

The terrible Paris School board said, No, we are not going to accept Indian kids into our public schools.

So we had to fight to go to school.

This is a letter from David Billiat, one of our tribal leaders who advocated for education even though he cannot read or write English himself.

Children of Indian race have no school over here.

Over 100 children can have no school.

If you care to hear the amount of decent Indian children, I would gladly take the name of all of them.

Please excuse me.

I can't speak so well.

We're not educated more than animal.

The agency by tribal members seeking support for their tribe, their community.

And you witness it in these these letters.

President Roosevelt, Dear sir, kindly look into this matter.

It has come to you that it's very hard for us to make a living.

The people here do not treat us just instead of regarding us to our race.

They are trying to pass us as colored.

Those that are Indian are not allowed in the same school with the white, nor can they go into any public place either.

Do you think that is right?

Please answer no matter what the results may be.

David Billion Indian Partnership.

But finally there was the Baptist missions that opened a B&B, the School for the Children portion.

And what's really interesting is they're teaching in English, not French.

So whole nother reality for the children who went to school there.

And it wasn't until the late fifties that, well, First Parish opened a school.

So when my mom went to school after seventh grade, she had to cross the bayou in a boat, catch a ride in a drive to Grand Bois, and then catch a bus from there to go to La Rose cut off.

And then when she went to high school, they were very racist to her.

She was spit on.

She was called derogatory name.

She got in fights.

So it's another story of the civil rights movement in a very recent time.

In 1968, Louisiana changed it to allow educational instruction in French.

They could have been learning in French, but Here they punished kids for my mom was put on her knees on rice.

That really hurts like it's okay for these other people to speak French in these other parishes, you know, for maintaining their culture and language.

But not you Indian kids.

You need to speak English.

These are the seven criteria for federal recognition.

You have to be identified as an Indian entity, be a distinct community socially.

You have to have a political community.

You have to have a governing document to say how your tribe is organized and runs.

You have to have a distinct membership descend from a historic tribe, and you could not have been terminated.

One of the very first tribes to get federally recognized under the seven criteria were the Tunica Biloxi.

They kind of thought, put things together, turn it in, then be federally recognized.

And it was envisioned to be six months.

Very quickly, the process got in through the 1980s, got to be very slow moving.

Where you start what's required, what kind of evidence, how much evidence you have to let them know that you have the intent to enter this process of federal recognition.

You need historians, anthropologists, genealogy, judges, attorneys.

Since the time the federal acknowledgment process started, 52 petitions have been resolved 18 have been recognized, and 34 tribes have been denied the punishment.

Indian tribe there notify the time it takes for them.

The early.

You don't just in transcripts of interviews and do some kind of analysis so that they would feel the evidence is good, strong evidence.

But now it takes them about a year.

We don't know why they don't have the right.

All these companies have a genealogy website, and that's the they enhanced it to be.

We need conclusive proof it's an all or nothing process.

You need all seven criteria or you don't get it when you got a gear coming up that looks like this.

If you love the water, that's not enough.

People want to do the scoop with them on the.

Yeah, I did a couple other things.

All feel for a little while, but always came back to my roots.

I learned most of it from old man patterns that the deceitful takes.

What time of the year you finish certain areas, how to set together a lot of our tribe.

That's what they had to fall back on because of the lack of education.

So this maybe some of them didn't want to do it.

And so what they had to do, we pull it and it with a rake.

We ice to keep the crabs alive.

They chilled out and hang on to tear.

You out.

When you start doing that, we leave you crabs upside down like this.

Go dive.

You can grab that patch of and we separate all the males from the females, the small from the big black.

That's a virgin in here.

That's an immature crab.

And it's illegal to have any on the market That's a mature crab.

And if you put them on the market without them reproducing, you killing off your population, sometimes they'll be they'll be pink and blue and about the change.

So our demand for the seafood this time of year, especially blue crabs, really goes up because the northern states that's producing, they made to freeze up or they shut down.

So the demand goes up.

So our seafood start starts going on the East Coast.

They call Maryland the blue crab capital.

But again, Louisiana product what time?

It is about nine 3914 will go round another 200.

My youngest loves to be out here.

He told me the money he makes when he comes with me, saving at the bar my boat.

He don't want a full world.

He don't want a dirt biking on on that.

You want to buy him a boat?

What do I say to someone who's a people shouldn't live here.

People didn't want to stay here.

You wouldn't see people here and you wouldn't see all the sports fishermen trying to come in and buy camps because it's a really great place to fish.

I think I was an undergrad.

I was researching federal recognition and someone showed me this bill that's going to Congress that was introduced by Billy Tauzin to recognize another tribe in exchange for all land claims, which would have included our land claims, because that includes anyone who descends from any of their shared progenitors.

And I thought, oh, my goodness, this is not good.

Maybe they don't want us here because it would just be a sportsman paradise to go fishing.

But this is our land.

Even if there's not a ton of it left, we're basically offshore.

Here you have the vanguard and so on what's left of our coast.

And then when you look to the south, there's absolutely nothing left.

There used to be islands out there.

Just one word.

My dad used to tell me the stories of how they used to have closed down lakes out there.

I don't have anything.

This one, I dropped it in the wrong spot.

Oh, it ain't fun anymore.

So the tribe sent a letter to say we oppose this legislation.

The government has a long history of trying to take indigenous land.

1850s.

You get the Swamp Land Act that, oh, you have all this land where people don't live and therefore government can do with it what it pleases, and that is then used later to dispossess with oil and gas those dams that they built, the eroded out, the water flow just kept getting worse and worse, made shrimp and down this canal a whole lot worse.

The Swamp Land Act was meant to drain the water you have it become where you could grow crops, have a house, all of it ignoring the fact that there are all these people that are living there.

These first peoples of this land who were here before 1492.

I teach at Tulane courses about tribes of Louisiana.

I teach about Louisiana history and.

January 2005 Heidi Ferguson reaches out, and my role was to help do the research for the history section for federal recognition.

I was originally attracted to Louisiana because it was technically American history, but it was the most un-American history that I could think of, the history that was different than the 13 colonies, all those different tribes and all the different nations that that should be so concerned about your ancestors.

Why can't you tell your mom your name and my heart is in the land of my family, all my family's name.

So my call is your aunt.

We felt that it was time that we start bringing back culture to our community just to show them how our people lived and what kind of homes they lived.

And everybody go, So this is actually the news.

And then when you look at the flour, that's also how you've been told of it's the elder berry or not is not got the white flour.

You know, this one doesn't have the berries yet, but it can be used to make orange and some people use it to make sirup.

So we made the cracker order.

They believe that was Yes.

How dark that's necessary.

So you go home and ask your parents and grandparents to have.

They will know who they were.

No, Joseph, not can.

Yeah, I know where they got to tell us if I marry foul goo.

I love culture camp because it provides an opportunity for us, for the young tribal members of your Dada to interact your victor not with of different generations down by reading our camp which they may not get to do, especially if some are moving out because of hurricanes or flooding.

Okay, so what now?

You have it all right here.

I'm having a real hard.

Real hard.

Okay.

I got lots of right now.

I it came out right here.

Right here.

You still share journey.

Like if you are not in the north and the rain, the start is the hardest part.

Like this.

Oh, my gosh.

You're good.

So the willow tree is very flexible.

You can twist it so you can use this to weave baskets or you can come on with this one.

And when it dries, it stays really firm.

And so it's really very good for building structures.

Yeah.

And then that other one's going to go behind.

Yeah, you come back alone.

This is one of the plants that have salicylic acid which is used to make aspirin planting.

It will help reduce loss just to try to instill pride in them as to who they are and that they can be proud of being Indian.

Yeah, that's the one you need.

That's the other piece.

Some of it changes.

Life isn't static.

Indians aren't static.

No cultures are static.

But to be forced to have to change that because you don't have the access to the fresh water or the land makes a difference.

And it's something that they should be aware of.

I remember when you were growing up, there were three right, like a forest over here, which I think caused that.

Oh, when they left off, yes.

They have no more fresh water coming down.

What else?

That was not about, you know, oil company now.

So sooner or later we all water.

What do you think.

Yeah.

What's down here?

Yeah.

Anybody know What.

Yeah.

What kind of crops were you over?

Sugar cane.

Sugar cane.

When you are saying that for so long, grams here won't like mine.

I think that was here, Grandpa Alexander.

And I think there's 373.

Hello and welcome back.

I'm Charlie Winn.

I'm a volunteer and friend of LPI.

Be joining you for the precipice, an original documentary produced by your public television station, Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

We are going to introduce you again to the film's director, as well as a member of the Point or Shine Tribe who is featured in this film.

But first, now is the time to show us this story matters to you.

By supporting LPI with your membership, you make productions like this possible.

Call us or text give to 888, seven, six nine 5000 pledge online at LTP dot org or scan the QR code on your screen with your smart device.

Let's hear once again about the thank you gifts we have chosen so you can show your support for our fragile coast.

When you become a member, you help LBB Share important stories about Louisiana as our way to say thank you.

We invite you to choose from these incredible gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Wartman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell and the oyster mug.

Plus the signed photograph and print collection by America's photographer, Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15 the month.

Receive the Portman pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive.

Ain't there No More.

Louisiana's disappearing coastal plain winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month Choose the Oyster Mug by Wharton Pottery.

Or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

I am now joined by Patti Ferguson.

Bonnie, who is an attorney for and member of The Point L'chaim Community, as well as Ben Johnson, senior producer and film director of the Precipice.

And Patti and Ben, thank you so much for sharing a few moments.

And tell us more about this wonderful documentary on.

Patti, when was it your calling to help part of your community and get a message out much further than even south Louisiana but the entire country when I was in college, I recognize that we're we're not I didn't have a legal status with the federal government, and that's something I didn't know before I went to college.

So really, those differences were transparent and out front.

And I thought, why are we not recognized?

Well, why don't we have recognition and at the same time, our tribal members were fighting to defend the land.

So my dad brought me over to some of the tribal leaders to talk about these land issues and I just spent a lot of time trying to figure out why we don't have federal recognition.

And then I had a goal of working towards federal recognition with my tribal community.

That's an interesting answer.

So when you thought that were you the first one kind of in the community asking that question out maybe on a more of a public level within your own neighbors?

Well, our tribal community didn't have access to education until the late 1960s and I think because of that lack of education, people were fighting for things but may not have realized all the legal processes that are holding us back.

So that bigger picture of a question did not necessarily even have a chance to to take on Ben.

So you and Patty and others get together, by the way, over a two year process to tell you the story that you're seeing right here on LP.

How much of a help was PAC go from the film?

You can tell Patty was vital to this film and not only just in terms of me following the story, but helping me understand the story.

And it's, you know, we start this film, The Tribe, there's artifacts dating back to the year 900.

So there's a lot of history to cover.

There's a lot of information to cover.

And I couldn't have done it without Patty, that's for sure.

And I think it's clear through the film as well that Patty is vital to this fight for federal recognition.

And you can see it through her work and the effort she puts in to make sure that their voices are heard.

Yeah, and we are hearing those voices on LPI.

Thanks to Ben's efforts and Patty's efforts, I want to let people know that right now we're in the middle of a corporate challenge.

Well, that means the good friends from Barataria, Terrebonne National Estuary program, they're challenging all of us right now, your viewers, to donate and they will match dollar for dollar up to the first 1500 dollars during this program.

Only, please, if ever there was a time to support incredible award winning programing and local programing, that time is now.

The number is 888, seven, six, nine, 5000.

There are a number of thank you gifts we want to tell you about right now.

So let's have a listen.

For $30 a month, receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman pottery handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell and the oyster mug, plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer, Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15.

The month received the Waterman Pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive eight.

There No more.

Louisiana's disappearing coastal plain winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month Choose the Oyster Mug by Wharton Pottery, or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

Patty, In spite of so many obstacles, we see adults teaching children the language and customs in your community.

How heartwarming.

And what's that dynamic like?

Yeah, so we are a community that's existed since time immemorial, but we've adjusted and adapted to what's happening around us, and it's really important to maintain our culture, our tradition and our histories.

And the tribal members are very dedicated to maintaining that means their way of life.

But some tribal members have had to move away.

So ensuring and facilitating the transmission of that knowledge is important to the survival of the community.

And then part of the storytelling and sharing of that deep rich history means, you know, Patty and others are on a boat and going around to where areas were actually land and sugar cane fields and again, what type of a moment that you were able to share with Patty and others in in part of putting your film together?

Yeah, a lot of the research Patty has done is kind of finding the documentation and then creating the documentation that the federal government needs.

And so throughout that process, it's, you know, you'll see in the film we go out and find locations that were, you know, it's of an oral history of where people lived and and pinpointing where people lived to show to the federal government.

And that's a unique process that I got to kind of get firsthand of and watch Patty kind of do the magical work that she does.

In addition to that magical work.

Tell me something that you also maybe stumbled across, maybe some of the food along the way.

Oh, well, I have plenty of good food at this point.

And we were just talking about the part fried crabs and plantation.

And you won't find anything like that in Louisiana.

It's a unique dish to point to.

Again, nowhere else in Louisiana right now.

We have the best food.

We have the best.

I can attest to that love.

I love to eat and we love to eat and we love to share.

And it is different.

It's not any food you would find in a restaurant.

And there is a big sharing aspect in partnership.

Every time I've gone down there, I'm invited into someone's home.

They say, Let me cook your meal.

I mean, it's it's a it's a sharing community.

It's a community that likes to, you know, have everyone come and visit and spend time together.

You find out, you know, the traditions of the portion tribal community aren't very often similar to a lot of Louisiana as well.

Speaking French, talking about what the best food is, whose mama makes the best dish over here and there.

It's very special and universal telling your story and how it also applies to the rest of Louisiana doesn't.

Yeah, it does.

I'll let Patty on that one.

Yeah, I think it does.

And we're very proud of who we are.

And I think Louisianians are proud of who they are.

And I think that you're right across Louisiana, there's a big sharing culture and it's good to learn from each other.

We're going to hear more, but we're going to go back to our program and join.

We have numerous sacred sites.

Some are mound complexes with plazas in the middle.

Some of them have been cut through in 1977, right here, very, very buried there.

Grandpa Gillam, Grandpa is over here.

There's a couple more further down because of that.

But the smell was falling into the water, like are going to pull in there and make it on right now.

We learned how to do it.

Own protection.

Yeah.

See all the oysters?

That's cool, huh?

Yeah, They went all the way up.

That was from a nonprofit who had restaurants in New Orleans, saved the oyster shells for us to 18 wheeler loads here, put them in the boats, drive them, turn them down and drop them to try and stop DeRozan and.

Hey, hey, hey, look at place names.

Next time you drive down Highway, Alabama, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Opelousas, those are all tribes when it comes to what does it mean from the heart about this area?

It's about the preservation and the preservation of what it means to you.

Begin by how it was given to you, and that comes from the generation before you, that comes from your parents, it comes from your grandparents.

And if you're fortunate, even your great grandparents, or you speak to a stranger and were told a story about where you come from.

The federal recognition process demands paper sources.

So many of these letters are by the colonials that are here, by the post commanders.

You see, this is where the villages are.

This is where they're growing their crops.

This discussion about respecting hunting grounds members from different tribes come into a post and they're like, Hey, y'all are encroaching.

You know, you're looking at setting up the house.

And that's on our hunting grounds.

And the post commander saying, I'm sorry, we'll make sure to move that members of these first nations are very freely and easily going out and within the very narrow world of French, Louisiana, Spanish, Louisiana, of Creole, Louisiana.

It was mostly La petite nation, small tribes.

And they spoke different languages.

Indian French is an older dialect of French from the 17th and 18th centuries with a mixture of Indian words.

So it's Cajun.

French.

Cajun is separate from Indian French because we had French people who weren't Cajun, so intermarried with our tribe earlier on, non-Native men with indigenous women and different tribes.

You have to show family trees of all your tribal members and how they all link back.

You got tax receipt letter from grandma.

That's what they are.

Sometimes they're not organized at all.

So I went to just about every archive you could think of.

That's interesting because French in France has evolved.

I had a French professor in the archives and I was translating and she goes, How do you know this word?

I don't know how I know this word, this.

I wonder why she goes.

This word does not exist in French today.

I was like, It exists in Louisiana, down the bayou every semester.

We ultimately end up doing sort of these different projects.

So one of the projects in the spring of 2010 was to collect recipes.

One of the things that was most striking is how much shrimp was in everything and how much crab everyday dishes shrimp HFA in French, meaning smothered down with different vegetables.

And then we had two different kind of pop fried crabs.

We have some without onions and we had some with onions.

But in the end of April 2010, with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened and partition was pretty much ground zero for that.

It was like cutting the artery of Mother Nature.

So immediately we contacted government to say, Hey, we want to protect our sacred sites.

And they said that they could not consult with us because we're not officially recognized.

Burial sites, village sites.

The oil spill caused faster erosion near fruition.

We know that there were indigenous human remains and other artifacts that were washed up because the landowner called us.

We wanted a tribal monitor to participate in the process, but they actually brought in tribal people from other states.

So there was a push to exclude us from those conversations of what is going to happen with those remains, because they reburied.

I'm like not too far away in an eroding coastline.

Those recipes, because they were collected before the spill, you know, BP couldn't refute them.

They couldn't say, well, nobody eats this amount of shrimp, nobody's this much crab.

But actually it was like, here's the evidence beforehand.

We said, okay, if we want to make this dish with crab, but we have to buy the crab now, how much will it cost versus if we are catching the crab?

It went from like $2 per serving to $43 per serving, but also just giving with regards to your social interactions, which couldn't happen because of that.

So you could see a change and a change in people's moods, I guess because they weren't able to share in the same way.

You know, a lot of things are going away.

People from poor nations voted for this sales tax for the library system because there are a lot of hurricanes and storms.

People need access to a library.

But I don't think anyone realized, look, if we pass this tax, you're going to build a big library nowhere near us.

And they close the library and push.

Yeah.

So that was, you know, one thing down in 2015, under Obama, the regulations were changed to make it more transparent, to make it fair.

But I do need to gather the documents.

So, yeah, 50,000 documents coming across, mentions of direct lineage, actual ancestors was raising some goosebumps.

So you're going to say yes.

George Douglas mentioned we met with the French consulate a couple of years ago.

He said he hasn't had a meeting like that in Louisiana.

The whole community speaking French and engaged in French.

So we have a real opportunity here to maintain the language.

Everyone stands out massive for us and it's actually good for our kids to know more than one language.

It's actually really beneficial to their education, to their future.

Great, great, great grandma.

And it would help instill pride in these kids that their language is respected.

You go We have filed two petitions for French Immersion with Tyrone Power School Board, one in 2018 and one in 2020.

The school board has a duty under the law to contact the parents to ask them if they're willing to send their kids to a French immersion program.

And they never did that.

Then the teachers were told that the school would be closing, and that was before it was even voted on in a committee.

They could do something positive by working with us for French Immersion, and they failed to do so.

Why are you against kids learning their native language?

It doesn't matter how many kids are in that school, they still need to be educated in their community.

If it's taken away, that's one less reason for people to even think we're here.

We don't even have a school.

This is a continuation of assimilation, of discrimination.

Would they do it if it were 70% white school?

It's like same battle, different time.

In the 1930s.

We see this active desire to have a school put in really fully getting it in the late 1960s and now fighting to keep their school open and then there was an application for sports camps on the island.

Whenever you know, all the people were being told you need to resettle, there's not going to be any services, we're not going to do X, Y and Z in your community.

But you know what?

If you have sports, people want to be there, That's okay.

Schools, churches, libraries provide resilience and social networks for people within.

The community, and get them back on their feet.

And very important through Nadia to Nadia, he said it was on the back burner that Nadia the I hate Chris all look got to know that big old tree is all dead.

I was nine foot of an air, nine foot, two inches up in the air who never had a storm like this before, let's say when get in.

I came back yesterday, but only came back to finish.

And today the reporters were saying that it hit west of Grand Isle.

But you never said pointed to it.

But we knew we knew they were talking about to Sally.

That's the hardest when you lose stuff like that.

That's Marilyn Reese and Mountain as Louis when he was little to our boy right there.

What he was saying that it was so good and he gives his chair so many dishes man it was break on broken in right here.

Yeah.

Maybe I can fix it change the board on the get now mildew to you know mildew had a few big alligators in the canal right here.

Kids tie a telephone and a little girl you make out to call me cousin.

Everybody come cook last.

So one of my son used to collect ducks all along.

There, and maybe I can save some.

Who done?

Yeah.

You know, there I got a little bitty one.

This was not my sheet rock.

We had a hurricane, and I went.

Bought me a whole bunch of halibut with us.

And all along cut it took me about seven months to put them all in there like that.

How shifted I have to cut that part.

All right, I'm a try.

You know, you'll take a while to come back.

If I live to sit, I'm going to try.

Will live a better front, I thought did come through my mind like they're not crazy to still plan on coming here.

And then after I had the careers I had, my kid is on my and my cry on Wednesday when my sister came back home and I stayed with my parents in Mississippi by myself and I thought, you know, I need to come back.

I do.

Because if I don't come back like that plan, I don't want someone to say, well, Christine's not even going to follow through what her plans come.

I said, I got the letter right.

Oh, right.

My grandpa let me go plant corn all up in here 50 years ago.

Where are you On my bill?

Melinda, They.

You know, if cleaning it up, So we're going to barbecue it in the front.

But no trees, though.

Not me.

Like all the tree that all they want to buy.

But it installation's nasty.

And I don't see that camp that was over there.

Up here.

Now, can you relocate my.

And your job is right outside your door.

You get in your boat and you go trial and you go crabbing and you go check them out.

Can you do that when you live somewhere else in town?

You can't do that.

How can you come and sit out here and see this view?

Why just so many camps down here?

Because they see the same thing we see.

There's a reason why people come here.

And I don't want to be someone who's not going to come back.

The Marines, they're pretty good.

Yeah, I think that was more like I'd go to Florida.

It had to be a better.

That's like all sports mostly, and all fam on this side.

They're trying to run as I'm saying.

Guess I'll do the sport.

But as long as a few of us stay, I don't believe they got to do it as Barney.

So now right at that Shirley's house and Ron mom and how dusty that's Freddy's place.

He's got his baby in Barney's Now this guy here, Richard, he's a young guy.

He probably moved back as friends, both in South as Mr. Wilson.

Right there.

Everybody.

It's a ghost town.

Mean I don't believe a ghost.

Stay that in live golf apiece.

But alas, I know we had Tyra.

You want to check your trap?

Look.

Oh, my great.

Oh, you got a crab in there.

Thanks, Dana.

Good.

Dana.

Anyway, they're going to want to.

It's like a ruby, a color.

It's still dirty.

Now, today, when we came back here to you, the shrimp was jumping out of the water and the crabs also went on to the water.

I mean, pretty bad ass down and was out.

Put the rope and take care of it.

Lady.

Well, the live when I come home, I. I could be worse.

Nobody got killed.

Thank God for that man.

We lost two lives on here.

They got old pelican one way over there.

You got a broken wing.

Whenever you asked me what the reason for this sign That's right behind me.

Climate change thugs.

It is having to be forced to make a decision to relocate.

That is way too much to hold against any individual or community.

This basin, the terrible basin, is the fastest eroding basin in the United States.

It is that way for a reason.

People have made decisions about who should be protected when they should be protected.

You know, maybe these people should just move.

That's but trailer queens and their beautiful and the reason why I love you.

I love you, too.

You don't have insurance, huh?

Oh, on the house.

Oh, no.

You had insurance in it.

But then after that, when you went to renew the insurance because of the tree here and the tree in the back, they didn't want to shoot it out.

I don't know how it look.

I mean, you don't look good in the eye more.

You look good.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my gosh.

Pungent.

Our parents, they didn't go through storms like this happened.

And then our grandparents when they were growing up, the land was still growing.

And someone should be accountable for that because the land has changed around us and made us more vulnerable and we didn't contribute to that.

Not only materialistic, it's taken a toll on our community emotionally.

It's taken a toll for so long we've been made to feel like we are less less of a people.

Every storm we have, we lose people.

They leave and they don't come back and we really want to stop that.

We know exactly what we need to do in order for the land to stop disappearing.

We need to rebuild our barrier islands, which means that we need to start bringing rocks in here.

My mom and I used to grab water out of the body to wash our clothes because it was fresh water.

Let's get some fresh water diversions coming over here.

Rebuild this land.

It's time for us to push the saltwater back out into where it should be.

We're going from a place where when my mom was born, they were living in Palmetto Houses on the ground where about 75 years later, people have adapted over time.

But you have to have the resources to do that today.

Just today we had people from the Katanning.

We have two young women from New Orleans.

We have people who brought in gas, gas, food, flashlights.

We got somebody like you could where's our government?

You know, it's not that we wait around for government before we start.

And, you know, we cleared the roads ourselves so that our the people can come home.

You see, over here, we don't have the government coming.

We have family that came from Mississippi to help us.

You know, where is our government where is our parish president?

Where is our governor?

Because this is the hardest hit place after the storm.

We are a community.

We've been here since the year 900 artifacts have been found here that dated as far as I So we've been here a long time.

And Maryland in long Greenland.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

That from Mama.

After she died.

It took I mean, I came home that day, they were big already.

My said mom was making my phone come the Native Americans and the land was working in a relationship.

Does one one work the other one one gave to other one.

The world taught engine that in the little space where they live, that's where you belong.

So whenever we finish with you, go back home where you belong.

Can I take these shoes off?

Yeah, whatever you want.

Now, you know, because this is how.

This is how I.

When I'm here, I'm no shoes.

Oh, yeah, that's fixable.

Yes, it was.

It was my mom, my dad, my three brothers and my two sisters and brothers.

Yeah, Yeah.

All right.

We don't want this across the road.

Whoever wants their childhood home, that you would take a pirogue to get to school sometimes to catch the bus.

No one wants their childhood home to be destroyed like mine is right now.

Sabrina.

Trevor, I've got goggles.

In August, we had projects set up, but we were going to do and we pivoted.

What was needed was boots on the ground.

Can you believe that only 14 houses in this whole community survived this hurricane?

Oh, look at all of our mom.

My dad always believed in us traveling.

So we've had people from France.

We've had people from New York, Canada, Belgium come and stay there with us.

Okay.

My uncle could come over and at 9:00 night he would knock on the door and let's sit down and have a pot of coffee.

They got a little drawbridge right here, little guy bridge to kind of sway like this.

We walk over, we all we're dressed alike for Easter, for Christmas.

You know, we always my mom made our clothes.

We didn't wait for people to give us things.

We worked hard for what we had from working at Crab Factory.

Shrimp Factory.

And my brother hated the smell because I don't know if you've ever been around a crab.

Oh, a crab processing plant.

It's faint, it reeks.

And so he would throw soap and towels outside in our clothes.

And so we spray that one, 2:00 in the morning outside.

It'll always be our property, because that's the one thing that all five of us that remain want this.

Our tribal lands.

One reason I'm glad it's being done.

This kind of gives room for me to put a building so I can come back to haunt us and hopefully Christine will build something and it'll have a new life.

But to tear it down, it's a it's a sad, happy day.

The memories of air.

But I still had the memories.

Even though the house is a mess, it's very important to own land down here because this is where we're from.

It was a small community.

Everybody knew each other.

But then as the floods came, people started moving out and they would sell their land, not realizing that they should have kept it because it would have such wonderful meaning at one point in time in our lives, like now, you know, we're trying to be federally recognized.

They built that last summer and I said, Man, that's that's all washed away for Hurricane Ida.

And it stood up very well.

They dug them and then they mad at them and they planted grass on top of they should do that all over Belgium.

No islands.

The natives, we were all pushed to the ends of the bayous.

And this is the end of our bayou.

There's two crab dogs down here.

That's the other that I own one.

And they own one.

I got like six or eight of them that's out of me.

Different boats now buy their craft, their cat put up to four, Crate weighs about seven.

They got about 70, £73 of crabs in the way we put them in 161 got three on the ticket.

How much you had this morning?

You know, we'll have to see what Beau has.

He likes that fish Got it down now.

So he's one they're going through the today.

It went up now 2579.

I'll probably go out tonight.

There's no drop off.

So yeah, we got about a minute.

Yeah.

Thought a foot over my head.

This is our ancestral land and I think it's very difficult to try to tell someone that they should leave when this is, should be a perfectly acceptable place.

But for the damage caused by others trying to change nature, all these decisions have been made without our input.

That goes up to Baltimore, Alabama, on Carolinas.

As far as Seattle, they'll be gone by 3:00 this afternoon.

£10,000 worth of it.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Charlie, went on.

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When you become a member, you help LBB share important stories about Louisiana as our way to say thank you.

We invite you to choose from these incredible gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster Plate, the oyster shells and the oyster mug.

Plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer Carol Highsmith.

The set includes coastal Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15 the month.

Receive the Waterman Pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive Ain't There No More.

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Or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

I want to welcome Patti Ferguson.

Bonnie, the attorney for and also member the point of Shannon community, as well as Ben Johnson, senior producer at LPI and the film's director of the Precipice.

Thank you again for being part of this special segment as we take a little bit of a break for our Pledge drive to join us here on LP.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for having us.

Panelists, let's start with you about the need for documentation that, you know, those three words have so much time.

I can only imagine that is all encompassing to to and almost, if I'm not mistaken, almost a life's work that it really takes two to push this this forward.

Just what how big of a of a challenge are we talking about?

It's a large task to apply for federal recognition.

You have to prove your existence from historical times to the present with paper and to show that you've continuously existed both historically as a political community and that you've had social interactions, and that you descend from historic tribes.

And our people didn't read and write English or didn't read and write at all until the late 1960s.

Very little paper trail in some regards.

And then how was that helpful to help tell this documentary in the story in the teaming up?

IT Well, it was definitely a team effort.

I reached out to Patty all the time asking her for more documentation.

And hey, do you have this?

Is there anything like this that I can show And it's it's helped kind of a montage of different documents that wouldn't normally wouldn't normally think of to identify a community.

But that are vital to this fight for federal recognition we talked about this has been a two year process to putting this documentary together and and during that time, Hurricane Ida swept through the area.

And then I'll ask you describe what you saw during that filming after the hurricane.

Oh, well, it was damage I'd ever seen before.

It was very, very tough to see.

But at the same time, I saw a lot of a lot of the community coming together and clearing the roads themselves and taking care of each other.

But what I also saw was a lack of federal government or city government or any kind of government coming in to help.

And it really opened my eyes to the need for federal recognition and the need for support.

When storms like this come through a town plantation.

And if if the tribe did have federal recognition, I think that that effort to get it back together and the two months I saw them without water and electricity would been a lot shorter, I feel like.

And Patty, I mean, the area is vulnerable to hurricanes, but was it a different Ida Was different.

IDA was direct hit in our community.

A Category four storm wiped out most of the homes in the community.

Only 12 were habitable post Ida.

So was definitely different and our community just hadn't adapted in a way to withstand those hurricane winds category four or five hurricane winds.

And so we have to think forward on how to do that for the future.

Yeah, the implications are are are so powerful not only on the historic aspect of telling the story of community, but what this community can be.

And in the future, I want to say that this is also a corporate challenge.

And what that means is Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary program is stepping up and challenging all viewers to donate right now, and they will match dollar for dollars, the first 1500 dollars called in during this program only.

So, in effect, this makes your donation worth twice as much.

Let's take a quick look at some of the thank you gifts we have to offer for $30 a month.

Receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell and the oyster mug, plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for $15 the month.

Receive the Waterman Pottery collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive.

Ain't there no More.

Louisiana's disappearing coastal plain winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month, Choose the Oyster Mug by Waterman Pottery.

Or for just $6 a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

And once again, we need to hear from you.

a888769 5000 is the number to call LTP dot org is how you can offer your pledge of support for important Louisiana programing like the precipice that you are watching right now.

Patti Ferguson Bonnie, I don't know if many people know French language is is spoken is as much as English and as much as the native language that you are teaching along the way and culture camps in the summertime.

That's that's amazing.

Yeah.

Well, French is our language.

We it's our language.

And in French, my mom's first language is Indian, French.

My grandparents only spoke Indian French.

Many people in the community continue to speak Indian French.

It's an important part of our heritage that been when you spent over the last two years in the area, was that a surprise?

It was, yeah.

I wasn't expecting to hear French as much as I was hearing it.

And, you know, but a town in the United States of America.

But it is very prevalent.

And, you know, I think that's also a part of this piece is showing the importance of the language and how it's tied to the tribe and continuing that language.

Patty, I don't mean to put you on the spot.

I may ask you a question.

What were some of the first words that you remember in Indian French?

Oh, well, the first words I remember have to do with food.

So that makes sense.

And what were those together?

Which is French Universal, and more or more like go to the table, going to eat.

So let's I think that's fabulous because the reason I asked that question was because my grandmother, who of Yugoslavian descent and such, there are little words like, you got a gun and that was what was a comforter.

So, I mean, it's those those basic elements of family that it transcends wherever you grow up and parallels have some wonderful stories that that you can really share with with the rest of us.

And and I don't know, I think that's very special.

Yeah.

And when we would leave, my grandma would always say swine to, you know, take care of yourselves.

O'clock.

Yeah, take care of yourself.

That's wonderful.

That's wonderful, guys.

This is the time to give.

And these are the stories that not only we need to tell, but you need to hear and appreciate and share, because this is an under told story throughout, not only the state, but around the country.

And we will be following the progress of of all the efforts of Patty and the rest of her community to get recognition as a tribe.

So how then how important is getting part of Louisiana Public Broadcasting's production muscle behind this story?

Oh, it's been incredible to have OPB back this, and I've for a long time did freelance documentary filmmaking and it's helped gave me the resources and the the power to kind of go out and follow this story for two years.

It's a unique story that, you know, few other media companies might allow you to follow for two years.

And LBB allowed me to do just that.

And we're going to go right back to the more the program.

Join.

Yeah, there's just no way.

I know I'm right here.

No, what are it going to specify?

You know, you you know, you know.

Hey, did he have a store?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where was his store?

We had a store.

I thought it was a lot of you, and it turned out that my.

No, And it wasn't.

No.

Da da da da da da da da.

I know you said it was a Beale.

Yeah, Yeah.

Video.

Her name is Da da da da da da.

Well, then you said Well, but then again.

No, not.

Not me.

Julia, I. Julia.

Yeah, yeah.

Usually every we out of two people here on the liberal side it Okay, here we go.

Felix Elliott, John Lewis, Cher Song But that was before the sixties.

Oh, okay.

Maybe so earlier this year.

Felix you know, you're with, you know, you wanted to look at how you were doing.

I think anybody you know that might have been a lot of that during the we'll see this like this way.

Yeah, that'd be the copy down this way.

Looking into the wind, the photo recognition process is a long process, and the Government Accountability Office has found that it's been burdensome, time consuming.

All right, Ready to wrap party.

All right.

Going down.

And there have been a number of hearings on the time it takes for petitioners, tribes to submit for recognition and the time it takes for the bureau to review those petitions.

If we had federal recognition with this hurricane, we would be dealing directly with the federal government.

For us to go to any health care place is at least 30 to 40 minutes away.

We don't even right now have a fire department, just things like that that we need in our community.

We could get if we were to recognize this as a living working by you.

And if you don't have a school that also factors in to whether people are going to live there.

It would have been so easy for table parish school board to get a French immersion class going here.

They close the school.

Why not allow us to open up French immersion school there?

It's not being used the school at all.

Kids that learn two languages have more opportunities.

It would be great if they could go out into the world and say, This is what's happening in my community and start connections with other people, companies, whoever.

If they want to come back here and help, you know, they could go to college, become engineers or major in French themselves and, come back and teach at the school.

We want to want to stay out of state and we want them to still be there when we're going and having access to that education.

Just powerful.

That's why David Boycott was writing those letters, because he knew that people who didn't have education didn't have the same opportunities.

It all locks in together.

You have a school, you build the right houses that can sustain hurricane winds.

We can bring industry.

You start bringing back people who are from here.

I think federal recognition would do that.

I believe it's a very strong petition all these years and all that research.

In an ideal world, they receive federal recognition.

They can mitigate all the damage that was done.

And then we start to listen to each other.

There are stories here.

There is a knowledge here about the land, about healing processes that we could all benefit from the state of Louisiana, the parishes of carbon in the food.

The federal government have an opportunity to do something to not only protect the community, but a whole life way for future generations.

Why benefit so that that that this is up to the don't know that these are is one of the French people are very surprised that when they see how people here kept the French for us it's very very moving you know it's like and to to to fight or so to fight to keep this identity and this language.

We feel great sympathy for you.

We would try the best we can to help you.

In my district, there was a school, a blue ribbon award winner, and then the school board decided that they were going to close it for efficiency matters.

This is a bill where I'm honestly trying to write what I believe to be an extreme wrong.

So the idea is to make it a French immersion school and hopefully it starts attracting students from up the bayou to go back down the bayou to get their education as well.

So my name is Wilma Guru.

We view it as the best investment state could make in terms of having a chance for Louisiana French not to die in our lifetime, which is the current trajectory.

It would make the most sense for us to be able to become a state entity.

Then the entity would exist as soon as July.

And we're from Plantation.

We're asking for support for a coal plantation.

Here's a sponsor, Tanner McGee.

Okay, well, good day.

A little too far.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much.

This case and the efforts of the French.

So we're asking for your support for House Bill 261.

Show Indian tribe what I share.

Okay, I want to share.

Yes, sir.

I think is going to be a big day, and I think we're going to have good news.

I don't really see anybody being against personal privilege.

Speaker Pro Tem McGee, thank you.

I have the punishment.

Indian tribe from Terrebonne Parish.

These members represented the hardest hit part of Terrebonne Parish.

After Hurricane Ida, they persevered of them, didn't sleep for at least a month, taking care of one another.

They ran community needs out of their homes.

And I hope you all welcome back to the capital.

Thank you.

For virtually all of my life, there have been efforts to get Terrebonne Parish to have immersion classes.

Well, I commend you for bringing this.

I you Thank you.

Represent forward having a daughter that teaches French immersion in New Orleans.

I'm happy to have this school in my district and I'll support the bill.

Thank you.

People who are younger than me really don't speak it except in certain communities like Point of Shannon.

I think it's a great bill.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

How's it going?

Your fancy.

How are you?

All right.

Donald was out here.

Well, I've got the I got the amendment to put on Maggie.

So, yes, the wheels and all of this stuff, they spin and sometimes they grind.

All you need is a little bit of lubrication and balance.

The other door right back to the bill.

Basically, I want to move for a favorable passage on it, be able to put this French immersion school into business members voting machines, Ill guess voting machines.

Q saying yes it through voting close it up 32 yays and 009 committee support is adopted.

We appreciate you.

Okay.

Thank you so much, sir.

We'll be in touch soon.

All right.

Good morning.

You doing okay?

I'm well, thank you.

Good morning, Governor.

Chucky, are you there or penchant?

Yes, you do.

On the couch.

I heard this tornado.

Did you ever go down to shoot from coach?

Yes, sir.

I work there.

That's why I.

For that area.

Good morning.

Thank you so much.

And So good.

I'm here with you.

Well, good.

So the teachers, they come from France, Belgium, Canada, Canada, Africa.

Any French?

Probably.

I got to get a picture this developed.

It's going bench right here.

Remember, for the first time in a long time, we feel like now somebody speaking to millions.

And we appreciate that.

One of the major obstacle that we had back there was a our French sometimes some of the kids had trouble look down for talking French.

We were somewhat punished for talking French.

And that's what makes this here so special.

We really, really All right how feel to 61 it's not I've already spoken with a lot of people who would want their kid to be enrolled in a French immersion school.

And it's not just the native population.

You will have people from everywhere in terrible parish knocking at the door, wanting to come in our school.

And I would be very proud that it came from the little town upon us and and just think if we can have cattle in the back instead of open water back there, just think of if we can have sugarcane growing back over there where our ancestors had cane forms.

Just think of all the possibilities.

My wish also would be that we start a big seafood market.

Why are we not processing our own seafood over here and shipping it out?

We can be self-sustaining.

The young kids can say, I can be a trawler or I can be a crabber when I get older.

Fish, oysters when I get older and that they'll have pride in it, make the money they need to, but also they can send their kids to college.

You know, we got our first doctor.

We have two doctors, fact in our tribe right now, teachers, we have accountants.

We are biologists.

30 years ago, we had one teacher.

But if we let it continue to go where it's going to be called Sportsman's Paradise.

And that's not what we would be known for.

Everybody sees the land as family property of Indian land, and certain families have rights to live certain places based on custom and tradition.

The Swamp Lands Act did not extinguish Aboriginal title with federal recognition that would make a difference.

We didn't want to turn into another bayou that's just sports fishing camps.

You don't have a community if you don't have a place.

So where's the place?

This building right here survived because of the shape of it.

And Christine is going to build a house like the building right there.

There are two homes I'm looking at built for 160, 65 mile an hour winds, which is what we have to look at now to get in a boat.

Again, you pirogue and go visit your friend.

That's where I want to be.

I've lived a fast paced life because of schooling my kids working.

It's time that I come back and help promote my community myself.

I'm hoping that when we become get recognized, we can rebuy some of our property and make room for young people stronger, longer.

They keep a knowledge and they do that whole thing twice when they got here.

You're like a grandmother.

You just watch.

Wow, The Precipice documentary that took two years in the making right here on Louisiana Public broadcasting.

I have Linda Midget, the executive producer at LP, Patti Ferguson, Bonnie attorney and member of the Pointer Cheyenne Tribal Community.

And Ben Johnson, the filmmaker of the Precipice.

Wow.

Great.

I just want to say thank you.

Thank you so, so much for putting something like this long format story told all around Louisiana, which will also be seen in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and I'm sure around the country as well.

So, Patty, let me let me just ask you a question about is there a renewed optimism to your goal and to your efforts?

Indeed, yes.

I think we've had a lot of challenges.

And as you can see, there is there are a lot of good things also happening.

And so it's very to have hope when there's so much despair.

The story continues, doesn't it, then?

It does.

The story does continue.

It's evolving as we go where the the tribes still fighting for fellow recognition.

And I, I plan on continuing to follow that fight for self recognition.

And I'm hoping we can get this out to a national audience.

And Linda I'm thinking and hope and this is a proud moment for LTV.

It's a it's a wonderful moment.

You know, it's always an honor to tell anyone's story.

It has been our honor and our pleasure to tell the story of the plantation tribal community.

They're just a wonderful group of people.

And we're excited to see if telling the story helps change the course of what happens in the future.

So how important, Linda, is it to say and guess what?

We'll be following up on this story as well.

Absolutely.

And and we really do want to share this with the country.

This is a story that a lot of people are interested in.

We've we've had people from the United Nations reach out winning footage.

I mean, is a story that a lot of people care about, not just here.

Yeah.

Patty, are you hearing that same type of global feedback?

Yeah.

Well, when I hear this, it makes me very happy, proud.

And I think that the tribal members, this is just so important that people know that we even exist.

Yeah.

Then What?

Where do you see your own efforts as a film maker in the next couple of years?

I hope Hopefully it's here.

I'll be telling Louisiana stories and continuing to follow these important, you know, communities and and parts of Louisiana history.

Well, any final thoughts?

Well, I just want to thank L.P. for highlighting our community.

It's very important to have these relationships and to tell the stories of our ancestors to instill pride in our youth and to look towards the future.

This is what Louisiana Public Broadcasting is.

It is the greater community of Louisiana.

And then guess what?

Then those stories go across the country and then they go around the world.

Louisiana feeds your soul.

And it is a way that Louise LP just constantly tells the stories that are worth telling.

That takes time to tell as well.

So thank you for watching.

One more time, we're going to take a look at some wonderful, exquisite thank you gifts you can take advantage of right now.

Goodnight.

When you become a member, you help LBB share important stories about as our way to say thank you.

We invite you to choose from these incredible gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the combo three beautiful pottery pieces from Waterman Pottery, handcrafted right here in Louisiana, including the Oval Oyster plate, the double oyster shell and the oyster mug, plus the signed photographic print collection by America's photographer Carol Highsmith.

The set includes Coastal Marsh, Louisiana Shrimp Boat and Fort Proctor.

The combo also includes the book Ain't There No More Louisiana's Disappearing Coastal Plain and receive a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice for dollars the month.

Receive the Waterman Pottery Collection, the Oval Oyster Plate, and the double oyster shell for $10 a month receive Ain't There no More Louisiana Disappearing Coastal Plain Winner of the 2018 Louisiana Literary Award for $8 a month.

Choose the Oyster Mug by Waterman Pottery or for just dollars a month, choose a DVD of the Louisiana Spotlight film The Precipice.

Plus, at all levels, you receive Visions LP Views Monthly Program Guide and LP Passport, the streaming service for the Best of PBS and LP.

This program is made possible in part by the Barataria terrible National Estuary Program, whose mission is to preserve and restore the 4.2 million acre expanse between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers, the fastest disappearing landmass on earth.

Bitmap works with the community to address threats to the estuary.

To find out more, visit Beaty any P Dawg and by the Atchafalaya National area.

Proud to support OPB in this program documenting Louisiana's unique cultural and natural landscape with additional support from Coatesville and the foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting with support from viewers like you.