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Native Americans awarded $48 million to move from disappearing Louisiana island – First climate refugees in the lower 48 states http://bit.ly/1KtlCiV

It has taken well over a decade of advocating on behalf of his tribe to keep his scattered community intact as their island on Louisiana’s Gulf coast disappears under Gulf of Mexico waters, but now Chief Albert Naquin of the Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw is high fiving.

That’s because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in January that it had awarded the state-recognized tribe $48 million to pay for a move, most likely farther north inland, making them the first community of official climate refugees in the United States.

Chief Naquin is ecstatic to have gotten the funds.

“I’m very, very pumped,” Chief Naquin said. “I’m very, very excited. I’ve been working on this for 13 years. I’ve taken some pretty big hits for doing that, and not just locally.”

Naquin said the tribe’s standard of living should improve as well.

The monies are part of $92 million awarded to Louisiana as part of a National Disaster Resilience Competition the state won. HUD’s copy billion competition awarded funds to states and communities nationwide.

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