>> Last year at the Biden
administration said it would pay
to help move five native
American tribes from coastlines
and rivers where waters are
rising due to climate change.
Megan Thompson reports on an
earlier relocation effort in
Louisiana that led to some
unexpected complications.
>> It's the only place I've ever
known as home.
This is where my whole life
experiences are.
>> For all his 58 years, he
lived in one place.
A sliver of an island on
Louisiana's gulf coast.
He is also tied to this land
through his ancestry.
He's a member of the choctaw
nation.
>> We are one with the island
and the island is one with us.
>> The tribe traces its roots to
a native American woman who
settled with her French husband
in the early 1800s.
Children married people from
nearby indigenous tribes in the
community group to around 400.
Over his uncles 90 years, he has
seen the island change
dramatically.
>> When I was little, I didn't
see any water on the land.
Everything was dry all the time.
>> It was about five miles wide.
Today it's only about a
quarter-mile wide.
Sea levels are rising.
The land beneath Louisiana's
coast is sinking.
Thousands of canals used by oil
and gas companies have made it
worse and Mississippi river
levees block sediment from
naturally restoring the
wetlands.
All this as increasingly intense
hurricanes pound the coast.
>> And we are still here.
>> When we first met Chris in
2012, his house looked like
this.
In 2021, hurricane Ida ripped
off the corner of the house.
The winds destroyed his uncles
roof.
>> I lost about everything.
>> Flooding and storms drove
residents away and the
population of the island
dwindled to only a few dozen.
For tribal leadership, the
writing was on the wall.
The new chief.
>> They came up with a good plan
to move as a community.
>> In the early thousand
thousands, tribal leadership
begin planning a new community
to reunite the scattered tribe
at a new location 40 miles north
and most importantly 10 to 12
feet above sea level.
>> The goal was to bring
everyone back together.
>> The tribe partnered with the
state of Louisiana.
The federal department of
housing and urban development
awarded Louisiana $48 million
for the first federally funded
relocation of a community
because of climate change.
After six years of planning and
construction, families began to
move in last year.
They're calling the community
the new aisle.
34 families have moved insofar.
Three more are expected to
arrive this year.
>> This room eventually is going
to be a prayer room.
>> The reverend was able to
choose the layout and paint
colors.
>> This is the most luxurious
house I ever lived in.
>> He lives next door to his
nephew just like before.
For Chris, leaving the only home
he has known has taken some
getting used to.
>> I'm grateful that a house was
built.
It's home because I'm surrounded
by the people I've known my
whole life.
But it is still not all the way
home.
>> It's absolutely in innovative
approach to adapting to climate
change.
>> Pat Forbes runs the state
office of community development.
His office received the money
and oversaw the project because
the choctaw nation doesn't have
federal recognition.
>> You have to talk to people on
a personal individual level to
understand their priorities.
>> Residents told him they
wanted a community center, so
one is being finished now.
The houses here don't need to be
on stilts Forbes learned the
space underneath homes often
functioned as a place to gather.
>> You will see every single
house has a covered outdoor
space.
>> The houses were also designed
to withstand hurricane force
winds.
>> There is an extra layer of
impermeable covering between the
shingles and the roof.
>> For some residents who are on
disability, these extra features
create an unexpected problem.
The value of his new home is
higher than his last one, so
property taxes and insurance
will also be higher.
>> How can you put me in a
position that requires me to
afford more than what I can
afford if this is about climate
change?
>> The long-term success of this
whole experience -- experiments
depends on people being able to
live here for the long term.
>> The mark place could help by
offsetting the higher costs.
But there's no concrete solution
yet.
Though this might look like a
success story, the leadership
doesn't see it that way.
>> Once the funding was issued,
the tribe had nothing to do with
it.
The tribe had no say so.
It's like they stole it from us.
>> The chief wrote a letter
calling for the grant money to
be returned, saying the project
was no longer for or led by the
tribe.
>> This was supposed to be for
the tribe and it was supposed to
be keep our heritage, culture
all in one spot.
>> What we found when we started
interviewing folks on the island
was not everybody on the island
is part of the tribe.
We couldn't say we are going to
put all the decision-making
authority with the tribe.
>> Forbes says they couldn't
build hold -- homes for people
because the federal money was
from the federal money was from
a disaster assistance program.
So only current residence
qualified.
>> To I wish the tribe would
work more closely with us to
bring more people back here who
used to live on the island?
Absolutely.
>> The states offering free
plots of land to anyone who left
before 2012.
27 families have signed up but
the building costs will fall on
them.
The state offer to sell the
tribe a parcel of land, but the
chief questions why the tribe
should pay after it helped
secure the grant that boded in
the first place.
>> It was supposed to be a model
to the rest of the world.
>> There are different ways of
looking at it negatively.
>> Chris feels his community has
been preserved.
The island is mostly deserted,
but he was allowed to keep his
property, so he visits as often
as he can.
To his new home, he brought a
big tub of the marsh grass that
grows in the shallow island.
>> It reminds me of where I come
from.
>> Far from home but still able
to thrive.