United Houma Nation credits 'good journalism' as reason for $56.5 million federal grant award

The United Houma Nation in South Louisiana is crediting "good journalism" for a newly awarded $56.5 million grant it received from the U.S. Department of Commerce and NOAA to help implement a climate "disaster and resilience plan," reports Ottavia Spaggiari of The Margin, a digital-only nonprofit news outlet that covers climate change's impacts on marginalized communities. 

"The funding will assist six hurricane-prone parishes in South Louisiana, including Lafourche Parish, home to the United Houma Nation," Spaggiari reports, writing that the grant comes after the outlet's "in-depth reporting on the United Houma Nation's decades-long fight for federal recognition and how that status gap heightened its climate exposure."

The Margin’s original reporting in 2022 focused on the impacts of Hurricane Ida in August 2021. "The storm left 26 dead, 14,000 displaced, and 75% of the buildings damaged or destroyed in Lafourche Parish, one of the hardest-hit areas and one of the parishes with the highest number of Tribal citizens," Spaggiari reports. 

Tribal citizen Sherry Parfait told Spaggiari: ''That kind of journalism is key to telling the story of the place.'" Spaggiari continues: "[Parfait] explains that deep narrative journalism can help people get a comprehensive understanding of the toll coastal erosion is taking on Tribal communities like the one she grew up in, where hurricanes and climate change have forced dozens of Tribal members to leave."

The grant will help the United Houma Nation create plans for climate mitigation, disaster preparedness and recovery best practices. It will also help to "develop community-led migration strategies" so tribal members can stay on their ancestral homelands after disaster strikes.