Louisiana Native Americans have appealed directly to Gov. John Bel Edwards and launched a Change.org petition demanding official state recognition following a contentious, disappointing hearing in front of the state Senate.
In a letter last week to Edwards, Shirell Parfait-Dardar, traditional tribal chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitamacha-Choctaw and chairwoman of the state Office of Indian Affairs’ Native American Commission, decried the treatment she and other Louisiana Indigenous representatives at the May 24 hearing before the state Senate’s Judiciary B Committee.
In the letter and a follow-up interview with The Louisiana Weekly, Parfait-Dardar said some of the state senators at the May 24 hearing to discuss the status of the state recognition of several tribes and bands in Louisiana displayed a shocking ignorance of the recognition application and approval process.