Last Christmas

Brenda Dardar-Robichaux is the Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation, which represents 17,000 tribal citizens spread out across Louisiana. I met her at her large house in Raceland, Louisiana, which is more like a command center for disasters. After Hurricane Katrina, her yard served as a campground for people who lost their homes, as well as dozens of volunteers who came from all over the country. She provided food in the evenings, and coordination amongst the volunteers. Even now, there is a man living in a trailer in her backyard, still trying to get back onto his feet after the financial devastation caused by Katrina.

We met on the afternoon of May 4th, a few hours after the shrimping season had closed. Brenda had just come back from a week of fundraising at Jazz Fest in New Orleans, and she was coming up to speed on the effects of the oil spill on her community. We talked as she apologetically paused to listen to news coming from the large TV in her living room, while simultaneously fielding phone calls, emails, and text messages on her handheld device. She furiously scribbled notes and phone numbers into her new "disaster notebook," which has all of the pertinent information related to each disaster. She had four notebooks filled with information from the recent hurricanes and this was her first oil spill notebook.

The oil spill will have disastrous consequences for her people, many of whom are fishermen, still recovering financially and emotionally from the four major hurricanes that had hit them in the past four years. One of the fishermen affected is Brenda's father. He is 75 years old, and lives in Dulac, Louisiana. Deprived of a college education, he became a shrimp fisherman like many in his community. After decades, it is the only way he knows how to make a living, but he enjoys the freedom of being out on the water and being his own boss. When he has a good catch, he says it feels like Christmas. But just a month ago, he suffered the loss of his wife so this disaster could not come at a worse time. He is still in mourning, and is faced with bills from the hospital and the funeral home. Nonetheless, he rushed to get his fishing permit and his boat ready for the five day season, only to catch undersized shrimp that were hardly worth selling.

Brenda and the many fishermen have survived hurricanes, and know how to deal with them. Although devastating to houses and boats, the shrimp always return after a year. She fears that this disaster is going to have a much longer-term affect on the marine life in the area, and it could take years for the fisheries to recover. Brenda worries about her father, and because of his age, he may never experience another "Christmas" again.