Isle De Jean Charles: Resettlement and Survival

The overarching vision is to maintain and strengthen the tribe’s safety, collective identity, social stability, and contribution to the region throughout the resettlement process. Traditional ways of life will be rekindled and reinforced with tribal members living in one community rather than scattered, as they are today - some on The Island and others living in surrounding villages and towns. The design and layout of the new community is inspired by the tala, Choctaw for palmetto, because of its symbolic and functional importance in the tribe’s traditional lifeways. A successful resettlement will integrate historical traditions, novel technologies, and state-of-the-art resilience measures to create proactive solutions for this time of change and into the future. These efforts will not only benefit the Isle de Jean Charles community, but will also inform other communities that decide to relocate as the most sensible response to increasing coastal environmental hazards. This effort of utilizing tradition roots, innovation, and teaching and sharing activities will further enhance tribal livelihoods and build upon their resilience and social capacity. The new site will be a self-sustaining, practical, affordable, living demonstration of a community-led resettlement, with residential, agriculture, agroforestry and aquaculture uses.