Interior Secretary Sally Jewell visits Chitimacha, announces BP spill aid

A high-level federal official paid a visit to the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana this week to meet with community members, work with local youths trying to make a difference in their community and to make an announcement about her department’s commitment to helping the region recover from the Deep Water Horizon oil spill.
Sally Jewell, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, made two stops in southern Louisiana this week, and one of them was just outside Charenton at the tribe’s boat ramp. Jewell was accompanied by approximately a dozen local youths who have been working to clean up trash in their community.
Jewell said she came to the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana to make an announcement and to get her hands dirty helping the young people of the Chitimacha Tribe clean up a portion of Bayou Teche. Before Jewell and the group of youths boarded boats to start pulling trash from the banks of the waterway that winds its way through St. Mary Parish and the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, she had some words for those in attendance.
“I’m here because we are working with tribal communities across the country to engage young people in the care for lands in tribal communities and across our great nation,” Jewell said. “I wanted to check on the progress that has gone on after the Deepwater Horizon and gulf (of Mexico) oil spill. We know that it was a devastating event. It was the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States. I watched in horror as a private citizen as that oil spill spread across the gulf.”
Jewell said, as a federal employee tasked with improving interagency coordination and in charge of expanding federal programs and resources that are available to tribal communities, she was particularly interested in the progress of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana’s efforts to recover from the effects of the spill.
“All of us worried about the impacts on the ecosystem,” Jewell said. “Obviously, there was very serious damage to water and wildlife and to ecosystems.”
Jewell then announced that, after more than six years after the tragic events that unfolded on the Deepwater Horizon in which 11 people lost their lives, help from the federal government she said was coming to communities such as the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana.
“Restoration money is now on the way,” Jewell said. “Thanks to the settlements that have been reached with the responsible parties, we now have the money to begin that restoration of the gulf coast.”
The secretary said, of the $8 million that has been granted to youth restoration programs to help continue the effort to clean up gulf communities, $500,000 is being set aside for tribal communities.
“We want to make sure tribes along the gulf coast and tribal youths benefit from these monies,” Jewell said. “I’m pleased to announce that this tribal youth crew is among the first in the nation that are going to be doing restoration activities funded because of the gulf restoration money as a penalty for the Deepwater Horizon.”
After the brief press conference, Jewell and the Chitimacha Tribal Youth cleanup crew boarded a boat and proceeded to cruise up and down the banks of the Bayou Teche where they picked up multiple pieces of garbage and debris including several chairs.