News

June 11th 2010

BP Oil Spills Threatens Atakapa-Ishak Tribe

The following video is from a National Geographic report on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and it's affect on a tribal nation in Louisiana

http://64.38.12.138/News/2010/020211.asp

From Indianz.com,

"In the town of Grand Bayou, Lousiana, the main thoroughfare is the water.

There are no streets, no cars. Everyone gets around by boat. Just recovered from Hurricane Katrina, the oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon well now threatens this community. SOUNDBITE: Rosina Philippe, Atakapa-Ishak Tribe “Well this is the Grand Bayou Village and we are a subsistence community. We have been here for centuries. And we live here. We make our living from the harvest of the waterways and this is also where we get our food that we eat.” Rosina Philippe is Atakapa-Ishak, a Native American tribe. Like others, it is not recognized by the federal government. For decades, the Atakapa and other native groups here have adapted to the loss of wetlands, the encroachment of the oil and gas industry, and hurricanes. But the latest spill could be the final straw. Fishing and shrimping is at a standstill, and the oil keeps creeping into the marshes. SOUNDBITE: Maurice Phillips, Atakapa-Ishak Tribe “I can’t even think about leaving it. And the way the economy is, where are you going to go and live?” The largest oil spill in U.S. history is killing wildlife, contaminating beaches and marshes, closing fishing waters and… threatening an entire way of life."