Missed by the Mass Media: The Houma, Pointe-au-Chien, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Abstract

In 2005, estimates from state officials and tribal leaders suggested that 4,500 Native Americans lost everything in southeastern Louisiana during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.1 Was there mass media coverage of the effect of these hurricanes on Native Americans in Louisiana? If so, then where was it? If not, then why wasn’t there any? What can be learned from a post-Katrina and -Rita examination of the media coverage about the inabilities of mass media to illuminate the impact the hurricanes had on Native Americans in Louisiana? Although it seems to have been a common journalistic belief that because the majority populations in many Louisiana cities covered by the media reports were either predominantly African American or Caucasian—therefore, small Native American populations will have their concerns addressed in the coverage of these groups—the problem with this formulation is that it may lend the illusion to the American public that African Americans and Caucasians were the only populations affected. The significance of this issue becomes clearer when one tries to understand why the Houma and Pointe-au-Chien nations—like many others—raised serious questions about the limited media coverage they received shortly after the hurricanes struck and about the coverage they still do not receive as they continue to struggle to return their lives to normal. The standard discourse in the social scientific literature surrounding this problem suggests that few people were aware that Native Americans still lived in Louisiana; many are not federally recognized nations but are state-recognized nations and therefore not “real” Indians, or their appearances make it hard to distinguish them from the larger African American and Caucasian populations.2 This lack of attention on the Native Americans is consistent with the waning of nationwide