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CALL FOR URGENT RELIEF ACTION
Hurricane Relief Needed in Native American Communities of Southern Louisiana

October 7, 2005 - The Native American tribes of the Houma, Pointe-au-Chien, and Biloxi Chitimacha of southern Louisiana have faced a monumental struggle in channeling relief efforts to their tribal members devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. For many communities, government aid has been virtually absent and supplies are only coming in from grassroots relief efforts.

Though hope and humor persist, the challenge continues to grow. The more populous indian communities in Terrebonne Parish such as Dulac, DuLarge, Grand Caillou, Montegut, Pointe-au-Chien and Isle de Jean Charles escaped extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina but became victims to the storm surge of Hurricane Rita. Another 4000 people were forced from their homes by eight feet of flood waters and a four inch layer of mud.

The rising tides from Hurricane Rita also breeched recently repaired levees in Plaquemines, St. Bernard and lower Jefferson Parishes, re-flooding communities that were beginning to dry out from the 150 mph winds and storm surge caused by Hurricane Katrina. There is concern, that without immediate assistance in the form of elder care, cleaning, and rebuilding of damaged homes, community members may move away from the area fragmenting traditions and culture.

Despite the compassionate aid that has flowed into the these communities, STORM RELIEF IS STILL AN URGENT NEED. Supplies needed include:

1) Cleaning materials like bleach, soap, mops, squeegees, brushes, sponges, rubber gloves, and mold-rated respirators.
2) Sheets, linens, towels and other basic household items.
3) Construction materials including tools, saws, hammer/nails/screws, plywood, roofing materials, paneling, etc.
4) Toiletry items like tooth-brush/toothpaste, tampons/pads, brushes, soap, and other hygeine products.
5) Baby items such as diapers, formula, clothes, cribs/bedding, personal items.
6) Children's needs like reading and coloring books, school supplies, packpacks, bedding.
7) Campers, RVs, trailers and other forms of temporary housing, especially for elders.
8) Gas and gift cards for stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart and gas stations.

In addition to supplies, VOLUNTEER WORK TEAMS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED including:

1) Household cleaning teams to help clean and scrub houses of mud and mold.
2) Construction teams to help rebuild homes, businesses and provide temporary housing.
3) Educators and child-care assistants to help with child-care needs for those who have lost their homes.

Long term FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE is also needed. Many of the those affected make thier living as commercial fishermen. Due to the damage to boats and ports, clogged waterways, pollution impacts, and a lack of processing facilities, a Fishery Resource Disaster has been declared for the Gulf of Mexico. Economic assistance may become an important need for families without reliable income or government aid.

To coordinate work teams across the region and focus undirected relief supplies, please contact Naomi Archer at (828) 230-1404 or by email to arche@riseup.net. Naomi is a non-native organizer who has been working in solidarity with tribal leaders to provide aid to indian communities, primarily through Common Ground Relief (www.commongroundrelief.org). Along with medic Dave Pike, she is organizing the Four Directions Relief Project (http://www.intuitivepath.org/relief.html) to assist in gaining short and long term assistance specifically for these areas.

To send money or material donations directly to individual tribes, please use the contacts below.

Direct Relief to the United Houma Nation
Contact: Brenda Dardar Robichaux, Principal Chief
Phone: (985) 637-3826
Email: bdr@unitedhoumanation.org
Financial Donations to: United Houma Nation, 20986 Highway 1, Golden Meadow, LA 70357
Relief Supplies Send to: Houma Relief Center, 4400 Highway 1, Raceland, LA 70394

Direct Relief to Pointe-au-Chien Tribe
Contact: Charles Verdin, Chairman
Phone: (985) 594-6250 home or (985) 856-5336 cell
Email: pacit@thecowscorner.com
Contact2: Donald Dardar, Chairman
Phone: (985) 594-7916 home or (985) 688-8145 cell
Address: PO Box 416, Montegut, LA 70377

Direct Relief to Isle a Jean Charles Band of Biloxi Chitimacha
Contact: Albert Naquin, Chief
Phone: (985) 594-3725 or (985) 232-1286 cell
Email: whitebuffaloa@netscape.net
Address: 100 Dennis Street, Montegut, LA 70377

Direct Relief to Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of the BiloxiChitimacha
Contact: Marlene Foret, Chairwoman
Phone: (985) 594-6593
Email: mmforet@mobiletel.com
Address: 114 Retreat Drive,Bourg, LA 70343

Direct Relief to Bayou Lafourche Band of the Biloxi Chitimacha
Contact: Sharon LeBouef, Secretary
Phone: (985) 798-7542 (home) or (225) 235-4812 cell
Email: bccmi@aol.com
Address: 317 East 14th Place, Cut Off, LA 70345

Thank you for your support and solidarity with these Native American communities of Louisiana.

Real Reports Returns

Updated: Saturday October 8, 2005
Location: Body in Asheville, NC; heart in Louisiana

FOUR DIRECTIONS PROJECT FORMS, HEADS SOUTH
Working in solidarity with tribal leaders, Naomi Archer (supported by Asheville medic Dave Pike) has created a dedicated relief effort for Native American communities called Four Directions Relief Project. (http://www.intuitivepath.org/relief.html)

Another truck will be heading from Asheville, NC (piloted by yours truly after a week home in the mountains) to the Native American communities of Louisiana early next week. This will continue the trend of grassroots relief being virtually the only assistance these communities have received. Work teams are also being organized to assist with rebuilding. Help is URGENTLY NEEDED. If you want to get more involved, please contact Naomi at arche@riseup.net or call 828.230.1404.


S.S.D.D.
Where are the Feds? Well, to answer that question you have to look at the historic relationship between the Federal government and Native American communities. Not real positive is it? And you know, there is that whole 10 million dollar levee improvement project for Dulac and Grand Calliou that got axed by Bush Inc. And of course the dredging of the Houma Navigation Canal and the numerous other dredging projects that have destroyed the cypress swamps and allowed salt water to travel further inland to benefit Big Oil. Wow, you hate to start pointing fingers but...

I mean seriously, you don't think any community would choose to live in such an exposed location do you? At one time there were hundreds of square miles of swamp between these communities and the Gulf of Mexico. But thanks to channelizing the Mississippi which interrupted the deposition of silt (ie. new land) and dredging canals - much of the the wetlands have been lost.

The Pointe-au-Chien burial ground is now in the salt marsh thanks to these man-made impacts. Just another way the white-man has stepped on the original inhabitants of this land. But hey, we have sports mascots to commemorate their existence, right?


CROSSED UP
Leave it to the Red Cross to further the trend of kicking people when they are down. A news report says they will soon be kicking people out of shelters if they cannot prove they are residents of the disaster area. Forgot your ID? Credentials washed away in the flood? Luggage left behind when they removed you at gunpoint from your home? Guess what - you are now out of luck and out of a home!

I'de laugh at the inhumanity of it all if it didn't make me so @&*$^ angry. Oh, and remember, 70% of hurricane donations have gone to the Red Cross. It's not like they can't afford to house people in shelters. You're Red Cross money at work, aren't you proud?


SCRUBBING BUBBLES
Well, depending on the day, the hurricane death toll hovers around 1300 or so including those in Mississippi. Despite dire warnings of thousands of deaths - we have yet to see this confirmed. Why is that?

In case you didn't see the Tuesday LA Times story, don't worry. There are another 8000 bodies that lie unidentified in a Baton Rouge morgue.

"It's inefficient and inept out there - it's beyond incompetence,"said William Bagnell, a funeral director who said he was refused access to four bodies at the morgue even though officials had faxed him forms inviting him to pick up the bodies.

Why haven't see heard much about this, or seen human interest story after human interest story about loved-ones lost and the true cost of this disaster?

That's because we have Karl Rove's Sanitize the News effort in place to keep those pesky stories that anger and upset out of the public eye. It's just like Iraq. Keep spoon feeding the media stories of rebuilding and Bush's heartwarming concern, meanwhile keeping the stories and the pictures out of the news.

One day this bubble will burst, and the tragic reality of the government's inaction may finally be felt. Meanwhile, don't look for sobbing parents or worried husbands on TV - it's all be scrubbed to bolster Bush's poll numbers.

PARTING SHOTS
Where is Commondreams.org - that progressive news wire that is supposedly providing people with the real news and incisive lefty opinions of the world? Well, right before the September protests hurricane relief efforts plummeted off their list of stories for feel good blurbs about DC and the protests. And even now, we have a full editorial diet of Iraq, Iraq, Iraq - but very little news from NOLA or the rest of the storm affected region.

Now, I know if I can get breaking news and updates on relief efforts sitting here in Asheville talking by phone to friends on the ground, certainly the editors of Commondreams could get these stories too, right? Even taking stories off Indymedia. Right?

Out of sight. Out of mind. Pan$ to Commondreams.org and the gaggle of lefty columnists for supporting the micro-attention span of the left. We have to do better than this.