Deme Naquin was named the new chief of聽the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation at a time when only a handful of the tribe鈥檚 members remain on their namesake island in south Terrebonne Parish. Storms, rising seas and erosion have since the 1950s.
The tribe鈥檚 700 members have scattered near and far. Thirty-five members were in the New Isle development near Thibodaux. As the first federally-funded resettlement of a community threatened by climate change, there were hopes that the project would serve as a template for other managed migrations.
But Naquin, who became chief in late 2022, says the state Office of Community Development-led process was fraught with problems. According to a federal civil rights , OCD committed 鈥渆thnic discrimination鈥 by pushing tribal leaders out of the decision-making process and producing 鈥渟hoddy鈥 homes that took several years to build. OCD has declined to comment on the complaint.
Naquin spoke to The Times-Picayune | The Advocate about his role in the tribe and the challenges it faces. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your background and connection to the island.
I was raised on the island and was the son of a commercial fishermen. He was an oyster fisherman, and a shrimper, trapper. Whatever it took to get by, he did. I started with him at a young age. When I was off from school, I'd go with him and that's how I learned. If I had to do it, I could do it again. But I didn't want to. Oystering is rough.
I lived there until I was 20 years old. And I didn't move far -- maybe 15 minutes from there.
I had a few jobs. I went on a tugboat and worked as a deckhand for a while. Then I was in the shipyard. In the early 80s, I started taking care of a hunting and fishing camp in Terrebonne, and I stayed there until 2021.
When did you start to notice that the island was changing?
When more water was covering the road to the island. It was happening more frequently.
And you could see the erosion happening. You could see that yearly. And when a storm comes, it was even worse. It'd roll that marsh up.
But the flooding was the main reason I moved off. Sometimes you couldn't get to work. The water was too high. And that was rough on the vehicle with all that saltwater. You'd get a south wind blowing, and even that would cause flooding.
On the island, there are four families left. Others have moved, and took opportunities to relocate. It couldn't have been an easy thing to do 鈥 to leave where you were raised, and where your parents and ancestors are from. We wish we could save the island. We always called it paradise because, to us, there's no place like it.
Why鈥檇 you accept the position of chief?
I thought I could help. It's pretty simple. It wasn't a hard thing to accept.
I want to make sure all the members are healthy, and keep them focused on their heritage. The younger generations have too many electronic gadgets to play with and distract them from what their ancestors built. We want to make sure the kids know their culture and acknowledge it.
The impacts of Hurricane Ida are still a challenge for your members. How鈥檚 the recovery going?
Things are better but it's happening very slow. It doesn't take long to destroy something but boy it takes forever to get it fixed. We're dealing with insurance, like a lot of people in Louisiana. But down here, it seems like it took longer.
The tribe recently filed a civil rights complaint about New Isle and is trying to find another resettlement site.
Hopefully it goes better than the first one. We thought we had all the right ideas but they didn't feel that way. There are going to be other resettlements. It'd be a shame for them to endure what we did and still do. If we can stop that from happening to someone else, we'll try.
