Land owners, Indians still at odds over property

The Terrebonne Parish Council hoped it would smooth relations, but a meeting called by the council on Thursday in Houma between representatives of the United Houmas Nation and the part owner of two Native American burial mounds in Dulac failed to change anyone’s mind.

The Houmas still want the owners to donate the mounds to the tribe. The co-owner, Houma land developer S.P. LaRussa, said he is pulling the property off the market.

The parish’s Recreation District No. 4 has already signed a contract to buy the mounds and a surrounding four acres of land from the owners (LaRussa, Houma real estate developer Carl Heck and state appeals court judge Edward Gaidry) for $203,000, but only if the parish reimburses the recreation district for the purchase.

Terrebonne Parish received $45,480 in state Local Government Assistance Program money last year to put toward the purchase of the mounds.

According to state guidelines, the money must be spent for a public purpose. The state did not allow Terrebonne Parish to spend the same money last year on improvements to the privately-run Regional Military Museum in Houma. Council Clerk Paul Labat said putting the money toward purchasing the mounds could be questionable.

Nevertheless, the parish council was to vote on granting the state money to the recreation district at its meeting two weeks ago. Opposition to the district’s purchase of the mounds by the Houmas at the meeting prompted the council to call for Thursday’s conference.

Michael and Louise Billiot, members of the Houmas Indian mounds committee, said they had not been informed that the recreation district was purchasing the mounds.

“Never once did the recreation district board offer to sit with us,” Louise Billiot said.

The Houmas want the non-profit group The Archaeological Conservancy to purchase the mounds and lease the property to the tribe to manage, they said. Or, eventually, the land would be sold to the tribe at the price it was purchased by the conservancy.

“That land belongs to us,” Michael Billiot said. “It belonged to us hundreds of years ago, it belongs to us now regardless of who’s on the title. We demand that the land be donated to us.”

If not donated, he wants the mounds sold to the Houmas for the amount of the $45,480 state grant or for a price that is not double the appraised value of the property.

“Terrebonne Parish has never given us anything specifically for the Indian people,” Louise Billiot said.

LaRussa said that 20 years ago, the mound property was leased to the Houmas for a dollar a year but the tribe did not keep the land clean.

Louise Billiot said she did not know the property had been leased to the Houmas.

“If we had known, we would have maintained it,” she said. “It’s close to our hearts. We are organized. We have a committee, and we work hard.”

Kirby Verret, a United Houmas Nation member who sits on the Recreation District No. 4 board and on the Indian mounds committee, said the district is buying the property to ensure it is used properly and to keep the ownership of the land local. The Archaeological Conservancy is based in Albuquerque, N.M.

He said the Dulac mound site is the only one of seven mound sites in Terrebonne Parish that is located close to a road.

“We wanted to hold the property until something could be done with it,” he said, saying the Houmas should not ask to be given the land. “The bayou side could have a serene, sacred place to look at…. We’re not trying to take it off the market to put slides and swings on it.”

Billiot said the conservancy would not close the site to the public.

“This is why we are here, to negate Verret’s assertion that it would be closed, that they (the recreation district) would be white knights coming to the rescue,” Billiot said. He added that the conservancy has plenty of experience managing historical sites.

LaRussa said Verret was the only person to contact him about buying the mounds. He also said he felt the $48,450 in Local Government Assistance Program money could be legitimately given to the recreation district since it is a public entity, unlike the United Houmas Nation.

“When I found out it had to be a government body to get the money, I took it upon myself – then only thinking of Dulac – that there was a board down there,” he said. “Kirby didn’t suggest I do it.”

LaRussa said the $48,450 should be allocated elsewhere.

“The money shouldn’t have to get to the Houmas Indians,” he said.

“If they own it, you can’t make them do something,” Parish Councilwoman Arlanda Williams said. “Ownership is something we fight for.”