Houma chief in National Geographic ad

Local Indian leader takes coastal plight to National Geographic

By Naomi KingThe plight of coastal Louisiana is the focus of a campaign by National Geographic that spotlights one of the Houma-Thibodaux area's American Indians.

Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, the former long-time chief of the United Houma Nation, is photographed in a full-page ad in the magazine's October issue.

The tribe, which claims about 17,000 members, has said its families of shrimpers, crabbers, oyster harvesters and seafood workers have suffered financially and emotionally since the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

The pilot campaign, called I Am the Ocean, seeks to raise awareness that human health and ocean health are connected, said Lucie McNeil of the National Geographic Society.

Twelve people from ocean-based and coastal communities from around the world will be in the printed ads. Dardar-Robichaux is one of several people focusing on the impact of the oil disaster, the worst in the nation's history. Along with the printed ad, Dardar-Robichaux and seven others will be in a video advertisement that is running on National Geographic channels, McNeil said.Comment:  For more on Natives and National Geographic, see Four Corners on Geotourism Map and Swamp Men and National Geographic Wild.