Television: Lowland kids, the first climate refugees in the United States

They are known, much to their chagrin, as the first climate refugees in the United States. They live in southern Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico on a peninsula, Isle de Jean-Charles, connected to the mainland by a single asphalt road that is increasingly submerged under water. This once beautiful and prosperous place used to span 8,000 hectares. Today, it has been reduced to 130 hectares.

The inhabitants are not just anyone, they are Native Americans, part of the Houma United Nation and the Choctaw Nation. These tribes, referenced by 18th-century French colonizers, had chosen to collaborate with the French rather than the Spanish or English. They learned French through this interaction and still speak it today for the most part.

This moving film, broadcast on france.tv, tells their story through the eyes of two teenagers, Howard and Juliette Brunet, from 2018 to the present day. The last to live on Isle de Jean-Charles with their uncle Chris.

In the 1970s, this land was still flourishing. Here grew forests of large trees and the Indians raised cattle in pastures where muskrats roamed. They had horses to till the land, which produced enough to feed them.

However, the situation began to deteriorate when oil and gas companies chose to dig channels to reach oil and gas pockets. They opened real avenues that allowed saltwater from the Gulf to intrude on the land which was eventually engulfed. The annual storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes did the rest.

Yet, the Houmas and Choctaws persisted in residing on the peninsula, the land of their ancestors which was reducing visibly, until 2016, the year when Louisiana received a federal grant of $48 million to relocate the Indian community 60 km north to Schriever. Those who had refused to leave finally agreed to move, as it became unsustainable to stay, such as Catholic priest Roch Naquin, and eventually all the residents of Isle de Jean-Charles, including more recently, Chris Brunet and his nephew and niece.

The two teenagers were taken in by their uncle after their parents’ deaths and they formed a reliable and safe family unit with Chris. They lived in his stilt house, elevated against hurricanes, equipped with an elevator since Chris could no longer use his legs.

Their testimonies are all heart-wrenching. They recall the happy days, their games, and communal life. While the residents of Isle de Jean-Charles will be relocated to a new housing development, they express how much they will miss their ancestral land.