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Fight Against Bayou Bridge Pipeline Continues


By Isabella Moraga-Ghazi

L’eau Est La Vie camp is being built to protect the water, wetlands and ways of life across the coast of Louisiana from the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP), proposed by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). On December 14 2017, ETP was granted a permit from the New Orleans District Office of the Army Corps of Engineers giving it the go ahead to lay this pipeline from Nederland, Texas to St. James Parish west of New Orleans.

There has been a long pushback from many different groups, and with the granting of this permit, L’eau Est La Vie is preparing to resist the construction on the front-lines. Cherri Foyltin, one of the many upstanding indigenous women leading the fight against BBP, with blessing from the Atakapa-Ishak Nation, recently bought a large plot of land on the route of the proposed pipeline. The land will be used as a sanctuary for incoming water protectors.
As tension between ETP and local environmental activists rise, this space provides hope that this resistance will not be in vein. Though pipeline construction has not begun yet, it is only a matter of time before water protectors will be standing in protest in front of large metal machines and police barricades. This fight is not futile, as local media would like you to believe, but more people must be willing to speak up.

This pipeline affects the livelihood of everyone in southern Louisiana; receding wetlands make hurricanes unstoppable; oil spills make waterways undrinkable and toxic to our seafood; crude chemicals spread cancer and disease to our neighbors, and the list goes on. If you feel for this fight, L’eau La Vie Camp is accepting donations and asking for volunteers. Find out more at nobbp.org.
Stand in solidarity with marginalized communities across southern Louisiana being affected by environmental racism and make our government officials hear us when we say “NO OIL IN MY BOIL! KEEP IT IN THE SOIL!”

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Humma Ohoyo Holitopa

by Isabella Moraga-Ghazi

this land is not conquered or broken;
she is living, persisting, and thriving.
curse to the nay-sayers
for I talk to her everyday.
she dreams wildly.
so wildly, and so vividly that she sees her destruction and rebirth, emulating the resilience
of the phoenix, continuously stream in the consciousness she holds.
why do we stop her dreams?
dreams that are much more valid than me’s or you’s.
the ancestors sing through her.

in the moss, in the cypress.
in the pelicans, in the possums.
her song is quiet but strong.
if you listen closely, she says “yakoke” and “si vous plait”
to me and others like me.
but a vengeance she has.
a vengeance so strong it makes Katrina look weak.
a vengeance so strong it makes Andrew Jackson’s knees tremble.
a vengeance so strong it makes the BP oil spill look far from a disaster.
a vengeance so strong it makes Marie Laveau startled.
and that vengeance lives through me and others like me.
for the obligation we have bestowed on us is a tall order of demanding respect.
when it is quiet, tohbi ofi need be afraid.
for you shall know, that vengeance is no longer resting.
it is living, persisting, and thriving.
and it will not rest until she is doing the same.
“vee wan cee,” she says, “and do not betray me.”
she believes in us.
it is time we believe in us.
and it is time we believe in her.

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Local Indigenous History: United Houma Nation


By Isabella Moraga-Ghazi

Strength and resilience is exhibited throughout Houma history.

The Houma people were first “discovered” by white settlers living in the area we now call Baton Rouge. Thanks to the Indian Removal Act, signed into law by Andrew Jackson in 1830, Houma people were forced out of their homelands and into diaspora. Many were pushed to the west on the Trail of Tears. Houma people who were caught escaping the removal were sent as slaves to Cuba. The remaining Houma people settled on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and began to build their communities back up. Some Africans who escaped their slaveholders found refuge with Houma people.

Houma children did not have access to education until the late 1940’s because under Jim Crowe law, they could not go to school with either Black or white children. Schools only went to 7th grade, and there were no certified instructors. Subsequently, native children had to let go of any cultural identity they had. Having long hair, wearing anything related to one’s tribe, and practicing tribal spirituality were all prohibited. “Kill the Indian, save the man” was the government’s genocidal mentality.

Louisiana’s booming oil industry hit Houma people hard. Rich settlers profited off of the resources that this land offers. However, Houma people couldn’t get any of those jobs because most of them didn’t speak English. Houma people mostly spoke French with small bits of their native language.

Right now, Houma people still face a plethora of issues. The effects of Katrina can still be seen in many native communities. Environmental racism penetrates the lives of Houma people. The erosion of wetlands caused by climate change threatens their communities, and clean drinking water is scarce for many native households. The proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline will further coastal and wetlands erosion and directly affect native people along the coast.

The federal government refuses to recognize United Houma Nation as a sovereign people. This allows the oil companies to extract oil from Houma land without compensation further impoverishing the Nation.

This is only a summary of Houma history. There is hope for the future because we, as Houma people, will continue to protect and defend our homelands. If we don’t, then who will?