We reclaim our connection to each other and the planet through our relationships. We draw from the wisdom of Indigenous teachings and sacred relationships, as we look to the future we are creating.
Guest Speakers:
Former Principal Chief Thomas Dardar // United Houma Nation
Bette Billiot // United Houma Nation
Introduction by:
Colette Pichon Battle // Vision & Initiatives Partner, Taproot Earth
Tap into RECLAIM by…
Write a letter to future generations.
What is your wildest dreams for the next generation - how will they be more connected and rooted with the Earth? Or What would you like the next generation to know about what you and your community did to help reclaim our humanity?
Connect with us @taprootearth on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
We reclaim our connection to each other and the planet through our relationships. We draw from the wisdom of Indigenous teachings and sacred relationships, as we look to the future we are creating.
Guest Speakers:
Former Principal Chief Thomas Dardar // United Houma Nation
Bette Billiot // United Houma Nation
Introduction by:
Colette Pichon Battle // Vision & Initiatives Partner, Taproot Earth
Tap into RECLAIM by…
Write a letter to future generations.
What is your wildest dreams for the next generation - how will they be more connected and rooted with the Earth? Or What would you like the next generation to know about what you and your community did to help reclaim our humanity?
Connect with us @taprootearth on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook
Day three, Reclaim. The next fight is going to be about water. You know, water is now a commodity. Welcome back to day three. Climate On Tap, Rituals of Remembrance and Restoration. Today's episode features the esteemed former Principal Chief, Thomas Dadar, and Bette Billiot of the United Houma Nation, the largest tribe in Louisiana that has survived the impacts of colonization and countless climate disasters, always having to recover without the benefit of federal recognition by the United States government. The Houma Nation is composed of very proud and independent people who have close ties to the water and the land of their ancestors. As an inaugural board member and a former staff member, Chief Thomas and Bette's unique experiences in Louisiana offer a blueprint of what reclaiming history's connection and leadership looks like in action. Reclaim. We reclaim our connection to each other and the planet through our relationships. Passing the mic to former principal chief, Thomas and Bette. It's really starting, though, because we identify to the land. And the land identifies who we are, and where we live, and what we do, and what our ancestors have gone through to really preserve and cultivate us into the knowledge of this land and the respect for it. I've been to a few group sessions and meetings with other people and they look at us and they say,"Look, why don't you just move and leave that area? you know, because you always get in different disasters that come through, oil spills, hurricanes, natural disasters, and everything else." But again, if you look, you know, our ancestors now are buried here. My mother and father were buried here now, so the land takes on a whole different meaning for me now. Before it was, you know, preserving for our grandchildren and our children, because the land isn't—we don't own it, We're just borrowing it from the next generation. And if we leave it in a worse shape than what we received it, and what are we saying about our ancestors, and telling our grandchildren when we are not really respecting the land and taking care of it the way that they did, they formed it. We ate a lot of things and they harvest from the sea. Teaching that value, getting back to respecting Mother Earth, is going to take some doing because we went, I don't want to say messed up, but we didn't when we were coming up. People didn't tell us, you know, what we were doing was harming the land. We just saw a way of living. And unfortunately that way of living has really had a detrimental effect on our culture, and on our environment, and our land. And I've been teaching my grandchildren a lot about the environment and how to, you know, what to do to try to help protect it. But as time goes on, then we realize that the generation that's coming up now, we need to get them more involved and get them more activated and realizing that if they don't take care of what we have, we're going to lose it quick, fast, and in a hurry. As we realize now from the tidal rise, and land loss, and everything else that's happened at an enormous speed where our ancestors and our elders didn't realize that we're losing that much land. And then, you know, they told us about taking care of it, and they told, and they showed us how to do it, but we just kind of veered away from all of that. I agree with all of that. And I just want to add that traditionally our people have always—that saying, you know, "You take care of the land, the land will take care of you," and traditionally we—the water, the land, where we are, you know, it provided everything. It provided everything that we ever needed. And families took care of families, with what was given to us and what was cultivated from our surroundings, with gardening, with hunting, with trapping, with tripping, with everything that we were doing traditionally. We moved away from that as time went on, but there's a strong urge and it's a strong push to get back to those traditional ways, and move back, and go back to, you know, how things once were. A lot of our land that we once had, that our people had traditionally in these bayou areas have been lost to the water due to these storms, and the increase of storms into the marshlands, and the sinking, and the subsidence, and the rising of the waters, and everything—and all the other factors that play into that. But, you know, what we have left is precious. And it's a race against time to save what we have left, to be able to try to continue some of our traditional ways. And as it was, a lot of the reason why the culture is so important, because I can remember coming up, you know, we learned our culture from different tribes because my grandmother, my father. And if it wouldn't have been for my mother, we'd have lost a lot of it. But she was very instrumental in making sure that we knew who we were. We went to school, we had no problem in knowing who we were once they started integrating. Because when we first started, we went to an all Indian school and it was all our cousins, cousins relatives, from first grade all the way to 12th grade, I can remember this. And then we went to another school—you know, when they start integrating the schools, I can remember, like, it was'68, '69, and talking about school, that's a whole different subject you can get into, that people fought for us to be able to go to school, because I can remember my daddy never went to school. My momma went only up to third grade and some of the schools, in fact, the tribe just got the school settlement and golden metal. Chief Laurie Anne was able to sign documents on that. So these significant areas, you know, we're trying to preserve and trying to maintain, and the tribe is moving forward to do all this. But as I was saying, they were proud people. And I say this, and I got corrected a few times, and they told me, you know, it's not the culture that they were ashamed of, is just that when we went to places they were trying to fit in, they thought by not telling us who we were, that would help us to fit in better in these places as we were growing up, and as we found out, it really didn't. You know, it really didn't matter because if you went—as soon as you walked in, or you—they knew who we were before we even knew who they were, and they told us that. And it's a shame that many years later now, the same people that told us who we were now, they're trying to deny our heritage and our right to be recognized as a nation. You know, we were Indian enough not to attend the schools and the other things, and we're not Indian enough to be recognized as a nation. Getting back to—the reason it's so important to educate our young people, to let them understand that this land means more than just a place to put your foot on, to walk on. It's your identity. It's who you are, and it defines you. Because when you go places, you know, I was in the fire department and we went to another—a drill. And when we were there, the other people that were there from the other agent— you know, other fire departments, what we did, what we were doing when it was all, when it was getting toward the end of the class, and we were doing this, and they came and they said,"Y'all have to be from Bayou Blue. We know who your chief is." And that's what we need to get back to, is when we go places— I went to D.C. and Lucretia, and her and I went and we were walking, coming out of the Cannon Hall and somebody said,"Hey, Chief! Hey, Chief!" And as we were walking out, she stopped me and I stopped and it was Senator David Vitter. And I came, and we were talking. And I always tell people we may not be federally recognized, but the feds do know who we are because of what we do and how we do it. Other tribes look at the way the United Houma Nation handles their business, and they think that the way that we're moving and doing things, that we're fairly recognized and it really shocks them when they find out all we are is a state-recognized tribe. And we've met with high-powered people throughout the country. In fact, we went to Paris, where just a few years ago, you know, that this climate change is when I really, really got involved with it is to realize that the Gulf South is connected to a Global South and these people are in the same situations that we are when they let the industry come in and really destroy. We found out, you know, they'll come in and take what they want and destroy the land. And they don't tell you the harm and the dangers that are associated with it. A lot of these people, they realize, oh this stuff, you know, it comes in. And we've had discussions with other people in other tribes, even in as close as Alaska. And they'd say, well,"What about this? We want to do this." I said,"They'll bring in the infrastructure, they'll bring in the temporary jobs, but when they leave, they'll leave destruction in their wake. So just hold them accountable and learn the lessons that we have learned down this way, that if you hold them accountable and make them, you know, if they take out, put back, and make sure that they are responsive to the people that live in the communities and get their guidance and talk to them and letting our young people know that there's other ways to make a living." When we were growing up, this was the industry. This was the mega of everything. Even one of our former chiefs, too, Kirby Verret. They used to tell people, "Man, you could be a welder out there on the line." Kirby said, "Why can't we be the guy in the office looking over the guys that are welding out there?" Why we have to be the welders, you know? So it's having that mindset to change the outlook of our tribe, and our people, and let them know,"You don't have to be the guy down at the bottom." And I've always told my children, and if you meet one of them today and you ask them, what is the one thing that I've always told them? I say, "You don't have to be a follower. You can be the leader. It's better to be the leader because the scenery changes." So you can be that person that makes the change and have— you know, trying to pass that same idea to our grandchildren, is that they have to realize that you're the generation, you're not the next generation, you are the generation now that needs to step up and really start pulling this plow, and really moving this more forward. We kind of slipped on our end by letting it slip by us, but trying now to really double down, and really take hold, and show them where their roots are. It's here, you know, it's easy to pick up and go and—but, we're here. We've got to protect and fight for what we have left. And the only way to do it is to be voiceful, join organizations that help foster and, you know, that we can learn some ideas, too, and be that voice for our people. And if we're not, then we're going to go silent and people are just going to walk right all over us and we can't just stand by and let that continue happening like it's been happening. There was a time where people were speaking for us. And when we talk about reclaiming and reclaiming land, and reclaiming energy and water, and it's also about reclaiming identity because we are a part of the land. The water, we are a water people, you know, energy is all around us. It's everywhere. It's industry, it's people, it's everything, and labor. It's about just standing up and taking back something, so that we can be in control, especially when it comes to the land. People have made decisions about our land for us and for other folks and for Louisiana, almost in general, for a really long time. And now we're at this place where we're fighting to restore land, to preserve land, and we're fighting to keep the land alive. When it comes to water, I remember Chief Thomas had said that some years ago, the next war or the next fight is going to be about water. Water is now a commodity— and that's what's happening. There's this huge fight over water. Who has the right to water? Who has the right to clean water? Who has the right to the river ways, and the estuaries, and the watersheds and everything. Who has a right to protect it? Who has a right to pollute it? So when we're talking about reclaiming, we were claiming something that wasn't meant to be owned by one person or being. It wasn't something that was meant to be commercialized. And I think it was something that was meant to give life and to sustain and to grow and to feed us and to nurture us. And so I think this movement that's going on with taking back what is ours, and I think it kind of bleeds into those traditional ways that are passing on to the next generation and all is learning to just be one and to share and to preserve and to keep this fight. It doesn't have to be a fight all the time. What was given to us by the Creator and what was put here to sustain everyone. And now we have to fight to even access what is naturally here for everyone. I've been learning a lot about reparations and climate reparations, and I was you know, I was asked to be a part of the delegation that went to Scotland and Spain. I think it actually started in Spain at COP 25. We talked about climate reparations and trying to really understand it because that was a term that I wasn't used to hearing, and it's something that's come out for me. It might have been something that people have been hearing for a long time in the in the climate activism environmental justice world, but it was something that was new to me. So I've been learning about it and and trying to understand exactly how that fits into my work specifically. I gathering from- what my understanding is, the main thing, material or funding or financing and things like that is acknowledging. That there has to be an acknowledgment that there was something done, that there was actions done against people of this land, people of the South, of the Gulf South. We're fighting down here and we're trying to preserve, and we're going to use that word a lot, we're trying to preserve what we have. There's not a clear acknowledgment from those that are responsible. And then who do you hold responsible that has been done to our homelands, to our traditional lands. Blame it can go many different ways. But who do we hold accountable? And who do we go for these reparations? Those that have given any kind of little bit of acknowledgment I don't know, how do you hold water to that? How do you hold water to that without there being anything done? What comes to mind is the BP oil spill. And any time I think about reparations and our situation in Louisiana and our land is the same folks that are responsible for whether it's the destruction of our marshlands through dredging, whether it's the levee systems that were put in by the Army Corps, whether it was the industries or this it's the same folks that are causing the destruction that are giving pennies on the dollars for restoration plans. There's no altering what they did to damage, and what they're doing to continue to damage. And I'm thinking of the Coastal Master Plan as an example. We're gonna say,"We're sorry" with this hand, but we're going to continue to do what we're doing with this hand. So you can acknowledge all you want also, but where's the change? Yeah, there's a word that goes with you trying to look at - I didn't want to interrupt, but to help you out on some of that right there is that it's called cost-benefit ratio. I know I've been in a few meetings where they look at this and some of the oil companies have been called to task, but the money didn't doesn't go to the people that it affects, it went to the government. They give it to them and they did what they wanted to do with it. And even some, if you go back even to— I can remember the present governor of Louisiana way back when. If you can't do this for us we don't want none of it. And it started with that kind of mindset way back then that if Washington wasn't going to do this, our governor, Huey Long, said,"We don't want any of it." And as you fast forward even to as we went through some of these politicians, the oil companies came in and sponsored their election and lobbied for and lobbied and everything else to DC. Even when we went for federal recognition, these guys, they went up and I don't know how many have lawyers they sent to DC, they went to all the other tribes and they told them that if they get recognized by the law they're going to take money from y'all. When really, they were saying all of that to protect their assets, notice I said assets, so just remember. And it really started harming a lot of our areas where we were because as you see, we know now and going forward, we knew when they dug these location canals, they were supposed to bury them back. They were supposed to close them off. But if you, and I want to take a couple of people up just to let them realize right here out of the Homer airport and I'd like to have a camera in the cockpit facing toward the back of the people that are going up in the plane. And as soon as we clear the tree lines, look at their faces and realize that people have a false sense of security because the land is so devastated. As soon as we clear that tree line water is right there. So people they think that we're - by putting these levees, Morganza-to-the-Gulf levees, they've cut right through our communities, made these ponds all over the place. The Large is a fine example. You go to the island, Pontchartrain you can find these big holes. In fact, we went down to Arlington and we went down to Lafayette, Venice and all that. And you see these big holes that are cut out in the land now because they took the hard dirt from there to make these levees. Even with the last storm, the water came over these levees. How are you going to make levees? How are you going to go to protect, try to protect? And they're good in a sense because they do protect from tidal surge up to a certain amount. But when you get a Cat. 5, Cat. 4, there's just a little break before they devastate the land. I learned this phrase cost-benefit ratio, what we have left, we have to fight to preserve, as you say. But as the thing that who do you talk to? Who's going to back you? And what do you tell them? Because if you bring them down here, the best thing I found is to take them and let them look at some coordinates. In fact, the Corps came down a few years ago, and they brought a study from the sixties. They got in a boat. They said,"We need to go find this place." They stopped the boat. They said,"Okay, this is it." They looked at the map. They look where they were. They look at a land stop way back there. They say, "Well these maps ain't going to do us no good." No, because the people that came to do the surveys in the 1950s and 1960s retired. They did their whole career and retired and did nothing. And now you have a new generation coming in and trying to work with outdated maps and outdated resources and realizing that when you want to go look at what was there 60 years ago, and that's in my lifetime, I'll bring them and I'll say,"We hunt here now." We don't hunt, we fish. I mean, 100 there when I was a kid, and now I'm fishing, catching redfish, drum, specs and all that on the same area that I used to walk. If you go down the island road. and we go down there a lot. I remember we were young, we used to have cattle, horses and a lot of land. And every time we do, when we go down there, he points it out to me. He'll say, "From right here, all the way around there, They grew potatoes, corn, and everything else right there." And now it's all open water. The thing about it is, I guess, to make people understand and hear our plea is tell them, but invite them and show them. It's hard to make someone that lives in the middle of the United States how can you be serious about land loss and tidal rise when they don't experience that? They don't feel that. But when you bring them down here and they actually see that and you get the elders and you get the people to tell them the stories, as you said earlier, our stories and we're telling it and we're telling it from our lives, not some fiction, not some books, not some school where they give you and they tell you, this is what we lived and this is our way of living now. We've had to drastically change because a lot of our land is lost. And our culture is having to adapt to what's left of our land that we have now. You have to have friends and you have to have relationships that people really can feel and be emotionally connected. Because I'm passionate about what I do. And I like to be around passionate people that have the same drive and determination and passion that we have. And with the group that we are in now and the group going forward, they share that compassion. In fact, they not only have the compassion, but the capabilities of getting our voice to be heard. Where, it's not just a cry in the night. You're not just shooting arrows in the dark, and hoping that you hit a target. We've been able to make very detailed, specific connections to a lot of important people that heard us and hear our plight, and have come to understand that helping us to help save our community will benefit not only the United Houma Nation, but it will benefit the parishes that the United Houma Nation reside in. And Taproot has been, from the day one that I've met Ms. Colette, and I'll say, her and I have forged the relationship that is just undeniably... And I have a great, great deal of respect for the people that are surrounded with this group. These relationships that have been made over the years since I had became apart. They have been very instrumental moving forward. And it also is a huge reminder that we are not alone. We've met so many folks across the Gulf South across the Global South who are going through almost identical issues with land loss, the industries with just everything, the economy, everything that has been going on that we have been dealt with. And sometimes we don't realize that there are other communities, there's other folks, there's other Indigenous folks, there's other folks, there's other communities of color just like ours that are going through the same thing, the same fight. And we've been blessed enough to be able to meet all these other communities and leaders throughout and learn from each other and open those communications and keep those relationships going. We have been in touch with folks and maintained those relationships over the years, and shared stories with each other, and learned from each other. And I believe that has helped us because we are not alone. We are not alone. And we may seem like we forget when we're in our own little bubble here for a long time. But there's a lot of folks out there that are going through the same thing. And it's a comfort to know that we have brothers and sisters and relatives all over that have our back and we have their back and we support each other in these efforts because it's not just a one person or one community issue that is going on. We're a family out here trying to survive and preserve what we have—our homes. Thank you, former Principal Chief Thomas and Bette, I'm so moved by all you've offered to our movement. Tap into to Reclaim by writing a letter to future generations. What is your wildest dream for the next generation? How will they be more connected and rooted with the earth? Or what would you like the next generation to know about what you and your community did to help reclaim our humanity? What do you want the next generation to hear? Connect with us @TaprootEarth on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook using the hashtag,#ClimateOnTap. 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