{"id":2487,"date":"2013-06-10T17:52:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-10T17:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gnof.org\/?p=2487"},"modified":"2013-06-12T19:10:35","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T19:10:35","slug":"its-our-life-its-our-heritage-its-our-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/gnof\/its-our-life-its-our-heritage-its-our-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s our life, It\u2019s our heritage, It\u2019s our tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F96289732\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A community center might sound like a pretty common neighborhood amenity. But then there\u2019s the Dulac Community Center, a nonprofit with a long history and an indelible impact on the lives of Native American Houma people living around the edges of Terrebonne Parish. The center is a hub of Houma Indian life for many in these small, isolated towns arrayed in the deepest of Louisiana bayou country, including Louise Billiot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the Dulac Community Center, whenever you\u2019re talking about the Dulac Community Center, as far as I\u2019m concerned, and as my family is concerned, it was our lifesaver,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was our way to able to function, as everybody else would.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Louise first came to the center 50 years ago to attend kindergarten and begin an education her parents could not have taken for granted. Through the first half of the 20th century, Native Americans in this area were denied a public education. In response, United Methodist missionaries provided their own formal classes for Houma children through the center, beginning back in 1932. Education is still a focus for the Dulac Community Center, especially tutoring, GED courses and computer classes, but services have also evolved with the local needs. And lately, this has meant dealing with life on the front lines of Louisiana\u2019s coastal erosion crisis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou look at the last 25 years, we\u2019ve had seven major hurricanes that have come through our community,\u201d says John Silver, executive director of the center. \u201cWe\u2019re only about 12 miles from the Gulf and the land has changed so much. A lot of where we had land is actually now open water, and so the fabric of the community is changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Census data shows that Dulac alone lost 40 percent of its population between 2000 and 2010. The center has been helping those who chose to stay build their homes back higher and stronger, part of an effort to make the community more resilient to future storms. At the same time, the center is working toward a different sort of resiliency, one rooted in the culture of the Houma people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe same way that the Dulac Community Center goes out and builds people\u2019s homes and rebuilds from the bottom up, we do the same thing with the children,\u201d says Betty Billiot.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s the youth coordinator for the Bayou Eagles Native American Dance Group. This multi-generation group was formed to pass on tribal customs and it performs at powwows and events around the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not only about teaching dance and singing and things like that, it\u2019s about teaching strength and how to be confident in who you are, in your culture, in your community,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s our life, it\u2019s our heritage, it\u2019s our tradition, it\u2019s something to keep with us. This is ours, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Bayou Eagles Dance Group is just one cultural expression for young Houma people now, but Betty\u2019s aunt, Louise, says it\u2019s a powerful example of what keeps her community together as the tribe\u2019s homeland continues to change around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the confidence and I\u2019m very optimistic about the fact that our Indian people are proud, we\u2019re strong and we have our community center to turn to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<em>Written by Ian McNulty for the Community IMPACT Series and produced by WWNO in partnership with the Greater New Orleans Foundation. To learn more about the Dulac Community Center,\u00a0<a title=\"Dulac Community Center\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dulaccommunitycenter.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A community center might sound like a pretty common neighborhood amenity. But then there\u2019s the Dulac Community Center, a nonprofit with a long history and an indelible impact on the lives of Native American Houma people living around the edges of Terrebonne Parish. The center is a hub of Houma Indian life for many in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":2488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[147,387,275,389,388,133,100],"class_list":["post-2487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-community","tag-coastal-issues","tag-dulac","tag-houma","tag-louisiana-coast","tag-native-american","tag-radio","tag-wwno"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>It\u2019s our life, It\u2019s our heritage, It\u2019s our tradition | Greater New Orleans Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/gnof\/its-our-life-its-our-heritage-its-our-tradition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s our life, It\u2019s our heritage, It\u2019s our tradition | Greater New Orleans Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A community center might sound like a pretty common neighborhood amenity. 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