Flooding hit a home on Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana following Hurricane Isaac in August 2012. Photo by Susie Danos / Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians

The Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi Chitimacha Choctaw in Louisiana will be relocating with the help of $48 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The tribe's homelands are sinking into the Gulf of Mexico due to climate change, chronic flooding and other environmental changes. The only road to Isle de Jean Charles, a narrow ridge of land along the coast, is often underwater, leaving residents with no easy way in or out.

“This award will allow our tribe to design and develop a new, culturally appropriate and resilient site for our community, safely located further inland,” Chief Albert Naquin said in a press release.

The grant was part of $1 billion awarded by HUD's National Disaster Resilience Competition. Since 1955, 98 percent of the tribe's homeland has been lost, according to the department.

The Lowlander Center, a non-profit, will work with the tribe to develop relocation and resettlement plan.

Get the Story:
Losing its land to the Gulf, Louisiana tribe will resettle with disaster resilience competition award money (The Institute for Southern Studies 2/9)