February 3, 2026 — The Lowlander Center is pleased to announce a new grant from the American Red Cross to help members of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe in Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes affected by the compounding disasters of Hurricanes Ida and Francine.

This partnership aims to expand and enhance the services Lowlander Center provides in the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe’s traditional village, enabling them to serve more people after a disaster. Lowlander Center is constructing four houses that will withstand at least 155 mph winds, returning Tribal community members to their traditional lands, and is installing several rainwater cisterns that, in the event of future disasters, will maintain the community’s access to water.

Theresa Dardar, president of the Lowlander Center’s board and member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, says, “We are so grateful for the opportunity to build these houses and restore our community. We are connected to this land. We were born and raised here, our ancestors are all here, and we can’t leave them. So it’s a gift to be able to rebuild resilient houses that allow our community to remain here in our ancestral home, where we will weather whatever storms might come.”

"The Red Cross responded immediately in Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes following Hurricanes Ida and Francine. This grant to the Lowlander Center illustrates our resolve to stand with communities affected long after the disasters have passed,” said Dr. Kenneth St. Charles, CEO of the American Red Cross of Louisiana. “At the heart of the Red Cross mission is a commitment to help families recover and to ensure they can stay in the places they call home, and this grant will help ensure that important work continues."

This new partnership is part of the national Red Cross Long-Term Recovery Program, which supports individual and household recovery and addresses community-wide needs following a disaster.

About Lowlander Center:

The Lowlander Center supports lowland communities and places, both inland and coastal, facing climate change and coastal erosion. Our strategic focus on adaptation and sustainability is driven by decades of partnerships with Indigenous Nations, frontline and historied communities. With our sister organization, the First Peoples’ Conservation Council of Louisiana (FPCC), we co-lead the Rising Voices, Changing Coasts Louisiana Hub with a shared mission to regenerate the coast in critically concurrent ways that center place-based adaptation on ancestral, Tribal lands, embody Traditional Ecological Knowledges (TEK), and amplify abundance for generations to come. Our collaborative interventions, based on the convergence of TEK, rigorous scientific research, and design, provide a blueprint to protect and restore the Gulf Coast and coastal ecosystems around the world.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or CruzRojaAmericana.org, or follow us on social media.