Coastal Erosion
As many of tribal communities are in coastal areas and depend on the swamps and bayous as a source of food and economic resource, they are severely affected by the continuing coastal erosion. It is due mainly to oil companies placing piping under the ground and not properly covering it afterward, as well as salt water intrusion caused by navigation canals dug by those same oil companies.
Currently the community of Isle de Jean Charles is eroding; scientists estimate that within the next 15 years, the island will disappear if nothing is done. The Houma tribe is looking for land to buy in the area to relocate and resettle the community together. Coastal erosion has adversely affected the quality of fishing. The tribe has suffered from a decrease in fish, as saltwater intrusion has destroyed many of the old fishing holes.
Read more about this topic: Houma People
Famous quotes containing the word erosion:
“The new concept of the child as equal and the new integration of children into adult life has helped bring about a gradual but certain erosion of these boundaries that once separated the world of children from the word of adults, boundaries that allowed adults to treat children differently than they treated other adults because they understood that children are different.”
—Marie Winn (20th century)