Donna Dardar wraps her granddaughter, Briley Naquin, in a quilt donated by Plenty's sister organization, More Than Warmth. Briley's cousin, 10-year-old Kandi Dardar, stands with Plenty volunteer, Elaine Langley.

DOWN ON THE BAYOU

Since September, Elaine, who is an RN and works at the West Jefferson Medical Center in New Orleans, has been bringing relief supplies to the indigenous Biloxi-Chitimacha communities in the Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes southwest of New Orleans. These communities were clobbered by hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the early fall. Plenty’s relief work continues in the Gulf, focused on the most vulnerable: children and the elderly. Plenty’s crew is made up of Elaine and her husband Calvin who is a professional carpenter and Gulf Recovery Program Director, Tony Sferlazza. Calvin and Tony are helping people repair their storm-damaged homes. In partnership with United Peace Relief, Plenty is supporting Jim Selin’s Books To Kids project which is distributing children’s books to schools and community centers. Hundreds of thousands of books were destroyed in hurricane floodwaters.

When the first European settlers moved into southern Louisiana around the end of the 17th Century, they found the land populated by several bands of Indians such as the  Chitimacha, Biloxi, Choctaw, Acolapissa, Houma and Atakapa. Either by European diseases, attacks by the newcomers, or by the periodic hurricanes and floods that occur in the region, these original Indian bands were decimated, some disappearing altogether. Today, several thousand descendants of these native bands identify themselves as members of the “Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogees.” Their present day communities are located in the sprawling Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes of southern Louisiana southwest of New Orleans. Much of the land is flat and near or below sea level and covered in swamp, rivers, wetlands and lakes. We first met some of these folks in the fall of 2005 after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Plenty volunteers assisted with primary medical care and the distribution of relief supplies, and helped to clean and repair some of their homes. Recently Plenty has returned to assist the Biloxi-Chitimacha communities after hurricanes Gustav and Ike battered them again. For more on their history visit: www.biloxi-chitimacha.com

Delivering supplies in Pointe aux Chenes

Destroyed house, Isle de Jean Charles

Earl and Brenda Billiot getting supplies in Pointe aux Chenes

Ebro Verdin's house, Pointe aux Chenes

Levis and Brenda Dardar's house, Isle de Jean Charles

Margaret Verdin at her house in Pointe aux Chenes

Theo Dardar in front of his house in Pointe aux Chenes