"In the last few days I’ve traveled (by car and/or boat) from New Orleans to Grand Isle to an area about 35 miles south and west of Houma that, as one person warned, “Now there’s some real coon-asses up in there.”

Maybe so, but the folks I came across — felt like my “tribe” as I like to say. In fact, some do belong to a tribe — the Pointe-Au-Chien. They live along Bayou Pointe-Aux-Chenes, which some know as “Oak Point.”

I’d read an article about Pointe-Aux-Chenes thanks to my friend and writer, Jeannie Ralston. Like the Gulf, the place called to me.

I hadn’t driven far when I spotted a man in a Caribbean blue T-shirt sitting in the shade. Little did I know, I was to enjoy the next few hours like I would reading a good book. No drama. All mystery.

Russell Dardar Sr. (43 years old) is one of 15 children and now lives in the house his grandfather built. He carries a tribal identification card that lists him as tribal member No. 187.

From the surrounding oaks, moss hangs like perfectly placed tinsel on a Christmas tree. Russell pointed to the other houses in one long line, “that’s my aunt, that’s my cousin, that’s my brother, my Mama, that empty lot is another aunt, the next house is my wife’s uncle … you could go on and on and on.”

I was white enough to ask him if I could take his picture and then, ask him for a smile! His answer came so honest and easy like. “It’s not quite a smiling time,” Russell said. We both teared up."

Get the Story:
Katie Oxford: At the Gulf's bedside: A Louisiana Indian opens up on the oil damage — and how BP keeps others quiet (Culture Map 6/23)

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