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Ernest Sickey, the first executive director of the Office of Indian Affairs in Louisiana and a longtime chairman of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, passed away on Thursday.

A man of great passion to improve the lives of Native Americans, Sickey met with governors and presidents to seek funding for programs that support tribes and their members. He was instrumental in getting the re-acknowledgment for the Coushatta Tribe from the federal government in 1973. Sickey was 80.

The Sickey family announced the passing of former Chairman Sickey in a statement released last Thursday:

“Ernest Sickey, father, former Chairman of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and prominent Indian-affairs advocate, passed away peacefully on May 17, 2023, at the age of 80.”

Sickey was a visionary who desired to bring the Coushatta Tribe out of obscurity. His desire to see the tribe regain federal recognition began in 1965, when he got a small group of tribal members to organize the Coushatta Indians of Allen Parish. The group established a trading post to sell traditional pine needle baskets to raise money for human services programs.

In 1970, Sickey led a successful effort to get the Indian Health Service to provide medical services for the Coushatta people. By 1972, Sickey led an effort that helped the Coushatta earn state-recognition as a tribe in the Louisiana State legislature.

Once the U.S. Department of the Interior granted the tribe its re-acknowledgement as a federally recognized tribe in 1973, Sickey became the Coushatta’s first chairman. He served as tribal chairman in consecutive terms until 1985, and remained a respected leader of the tribe for more than three decades.

Sickey’s work in Indian Country extended far beyond the Coushatta Tribe. He advocated for tribes throughout Louisiana and the southeastern states.

Marshall Pierite, chairman of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, told Native News Online that Sickey will be remembered for being a truly great leader, trailblazer, and advocate for all of Indian Country.

“I have known Mr. Ernest Sickey for over 45 years. He was not only a very dear friend, but also a mentor to me and probably every tribal chairman/chief of the four federally recognized tribes in Louisiana over the last fifty years.” Pierite said.

Sickey was “instrumental” in the creation of the Gulf Coast Native American Chamber of Commerce, joining with Pierite and Adam Crepelle of the Houma Nation to help get the organization off the ground, Pierite said, adding, “I will always remember him as a dear friend and father figure to me and always being there for me morning, noon or night. He will be truly missed and my heart as well as my prayers will be with his family during this difficult time.”

Former U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) sent a message to Sickey’s son, former Coushatta Tribe Chairman David Sickey: “He will be remembered fondly by tribal members and the broader Louisiana family for his visionary leadership and many contributions to our state and nation. I will treasure the lunch we shared together not long ago, recalling early years and our family connections.”

Jeanette Alcon (Ute/Taos Pueblo) recalled with Native News Online working for Sickey when he was named to the Louisiana Commission on Indian Affairs by the state’s Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards in 1975.

Alcon said they put in long hours to fulfill Sickey’s vision to make life better for Native Americans throughout the state of Louisiana. She recalled Sickey’s sense of always knowing what to do and his humor.

“He was a dreamer who was a great strategic thinker. He had the capacity to start from scratch with absolutely nothing and turn it into something because he had the capacity to engender support for tribes,” Alcon said.

“What was incredible from my point of view is he did these things with no road map or guide to do the things he did. He was gifted with a sense of just knowing what to do.” Alcon continued.

In an interview for the Koasati Documentation Project, a project to preserve the Koasati (Coushatta) language and history, Sickey recalled how the tribe’s health clinic did not have money to purchase toothbrushes or toothpaste to distribute to its clients.

“Why don’t you just write a letter to the Crest place?” Sickey recalled asking the staff. He decided to write the letter himself.

“Not long after, boxes started coming with toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss and then we gave them out,” Sickey said.

Alcon said his motto, which still graces Coushatta tribal literature remains "the struggle has made us stronger."

Fulfilling the wishes of Sickey, his remains were cremated. A memorial service is scheduled for June 27, 2023 on the day the Coushatta Tribe celebrates its 50th anniversary of its federal re-acknowledgement.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - It never happened before in the history of Harvard University. But a Louisiana student who is a member of the Coushatta Indian tribe, was determined to convince the ivy league school to let him study his native language for college credit.

Eli Langley has fond memories of playing in the woods near his home,

“Just going outside and being amongst the trees. Our word for forest is ih-to-hi-o. It means within the trees or amongst the trees,” Eli Langley said.

From the time he was in seventh grade, Eli wanted to go to Harvard.

“I remember telling people, I’m going to Harvard. And of course a lot of people said no Indian kid from Elton is going to Harvard. That’s just not going to happen,” Langley said.

Eli is a Coushatta Indian. He grew up near the Coushatta reservation in the small town of Elton, Louisiana. His great-grandfather, Jackson Langley, had been chief of the Coushatta tribe. His grandparents spoke Koasati, the tribal language.

“My grandmother, Loris Langley, my apple. She used to always tell me when I was a little kid, an Indian who can’t speak his language is no Indian at all. I remember feeling shame at times because I just such a strong instinct to want to preserve this and to continue to speak it,” Langley said.

When he was a child, Eli’s parents started a Coushatta heritage project. They met with tribal elders who spoke Koasati, created an alphabet and a written language. In high school, Eli enrolled in a summer immersion program and he learned to speak Koasati. What is the state of the Koasati language today?

“There’s probably about 200 speakers,” said Langley.

Are they old? Are they young? Is it a mix?

“I think the last first speaker that spoke it growing is totally fluent is about 33,” Langley said.

Eli made it to Harvard, but he hit a major obstacle. He was determined to use his Koasati language to fulfill his second language requirement at Harvard, but the rules didn’t allow that.

“A language like Koasati has no university, no professor, no nothing. There’s no Koasati studies. I mean, it’s a small endangered language,” Langley said.

After three semesters and constant denials, he took a year off from college.

“At what point are we going to say a language is a language? And Harvard does not get to decide which languages are relevant and worthy of study,” said Langley.

The university eventually changed its position. Eli proved he could speak, write, and translate the native language of his ancestors. He got the credits and he graduated in the spring of 2021.

“My name is Eli Langley. I’m very happy to be here today. Harvard College, it was the first time a Native American tribal language had been recognized for credit in Harvard’s 400 year history,” said Langley.

So it really changed the culture you think?

“It’s different now. Native kids that that go to Harvard College can learn their own language for credit and not have to learn a European language or other language instead,” Langley said.

Eli Langley hopes his experience will help empower future Native American students to embrace and preserve their own languages and heritage.

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RED RIVER PARISH, La. (KSLA) - Plagued by water issues, Coushatta announced another boil advisory.

As a result, Red River Parish schools were closed Monday, Aug. 21. The school district was set to reopen Tuesday after the town of Coushatta said water pumps were repaired. However, officials later canceled school again due to failed repairs.

Students returned to class Wednesday, Aug. 23. The school district says they have plenty of bottled water for students and staff to use.

Three large water tanks and portable restrooms were also sent in to help temporarily resolve the issue.

“We’re just kind of in a situation where we have to make sure that we can provide for these students and not have them in an unhealthy or unsafe situation.”

The School District issued the following statement the night of Sunday (Aug. 20):

“Good evening parents and guardians of Red River Parish School Students, This is Alison Strong, your superintendent. The Town of Coushatta has informed us that there is a major leak and one of the city’s water pumps that feeds our schools and our town is down at this time. The low pressure has caused a boil advisory for the Town of Coushatta. Please make sure you are following the complete boil advisory until it has been rescinded by the water system. The schools have been preparing for this and purchased plenty of drinking water for our students in case of a boil advisory, however with one pump down it has caused extremely low/no pressure in our school restroom facilities. At this time we have no option but to close all schools tomorrow, Monday, August 21, 2023. We are monitoring the situation closely with the Town of Coushatta and will make updates by social media, local news outlets, and our all call platform as soon as we have more information. As of right now all schools do plan to reopen as soon as possible as we are exploring alternative options for our restroom facilities. All schools closed tomorrow, Monday, August 21, 2023.″

Red River schools Supt. Alison Strong

On Aug. 19, the town of Coushatta announced a boil advisory for the town’s water system until further notice.

Areas under advisory:

Callers have also reported losing water once again.

Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.

COUSHATTA, La. (Louisiana Illuminator) - Louisiana officials plan to move incarcerated girls held in state custody out of a north Louisiana detention center before Saturday, bringing an abrupt end to an arrangement with the facility that has been in place for 15 years.

The Office of Juvenile Justice won’t renew its contract with the controversial Ware Youth Center in Coushatta when it expires Sept. 30. Ware has provided all the housing and therapeutic services for girls and young women in “secure care” – the juvenile justice alternative to prison – since 2009.

The center was the subject of a New York Times investigation last year that alleged chronic sexual and physical abuse had taken place there. But state officials characterized its change of contract as a financial decision, not one driven by safety concerns.

“OJJ has the ability to serve our secure care female youth without continuing this contract with Ware, and doing so will save funds,” said Curtis Nelson, deputy secretary for the agency, in a written statement Wednesday evening.

The Office Juvenile Justice will continue to contract with Ware to run group homes and a residential substance abuse treatment center for youth.

After leaving Ware, the incarcerated girls will move to a “state-run juvenile facility” that officials refused to name Wednesday over security concerns. The long-term plan is to relocate the program permanently to the old Jetson Center for Youth in Baker, where Louisiana has run an adult women’s prison for the past seven years.

Juvenile justice officials said it will only transfer girls to Jetson after the incarcerated adult women are moved off of the campus. Louisiana is supposed to open a new women’s prison complex in St. Gabriel at the end of 2024.

The Office of Juvenile Justice did not provide details about the people being transferred, but Ware officials said the move involves 16 girls ranging in age from 13 to 18. Many are in the middle of studying for the High School Equivalency Test (HiSET), an alternative to a high school diploma.

Ware’s executive director Staci Scott was blindsided by the state’s decision to drop its contract. The facility has undergone a “management change” in recent years, and she said many of the allegations contained in The New York Times article were not true.

“The girls have done fantastic since being here,” she said. “There has been nothing that’s happened to warrant moving them out of the facility.”

Juvenile justice officials had also agreed over the summer to raise Ware’s contract by $700,000 – for a total of $2.9 million overall, Scott said. Instead, they pulled out of the arrangement last week with no notice.

“Their finance person said that they had decided with everything going on with the boys, that financially, they were not able to afford to pay us to house the girls anymore,” she said.

The decision to drop Ware’s contract came around the same time the Office of Juvenile Justice was forced to move a small group of incarcerated male youth from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola to another facility in Jackson Parish.

U.S. Judge Shelly Dick ordered the transfer after concluding the conditions at Angola were unsuitable for children and young adults. But her ruling came after the state had already spent a significant amount of money trying to upgrade the facility.

Senate President Pro Tempore Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, expressed concern Wednesday the girls’ planned transfer might disrupt their educational programs. Mizell and other legislators in the Women’s Caucus visited the incarcerated girls at Ware two weeks ago.

“I’m worried their education and any forward growth is being stunted by this,” she said.

The decision to permanently house the girls at Jetson might also raise eyebrows. State lawmakers voted to permanently close that facility in 2008, amid allegations of sexual violence and other troubles. It ended up shuttering for good in 2014.

At the time, juvenile justice officials said Jetson’s physical plant was too “prisonlike” and not conducive to the therapeutic approach the state was trying to take toward incarcerated youth going forward.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: [email protected]. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Copyright 2023 Louisiana Illuminator. All rights reserved.

They say they go to sleep at night not knowing whether they’ll have running water the next morning

COUSHATTA, La. (KSLA) — Imagine going to sleep and not knowing whether you’ll have running water in your home when you wake up the next morning. That’s what residents of the town of Coushatta claim is their reality.

Residents say they’ve been experiencing major water issues for the past few weeks with the water randomly being shut off each night. They say that they receive no warnings from the town before water is shut off and that they’re concerned.

“That’s the most frustrating thing is not knowing when and how long it’s gonna be off,” Billy Smith said. “You try to sometimes shower early cause you don’t know when it’s going to go off. And you know you need water to cook cause you have to wash your food and you don’t know when it’s going to be off, so it is definitely a headache.”

The town had a water project meeting scheduled for Thursday morning. That gathering has been rescheduled for Friday (Aug. 11) at 10 a.m.

Residents say they’re also worried about the cleanliness of the water.

“I don’t drink the city water; I buy bottled water,” one said.

All or parts of Coushatta’s water system were under at least three different boil advisories during a month’s time. The most recent advisory was lifted Aug. 4.

[RELATED: Boil advisory in Coushatta lifted]

However, residents say they’re skeptical.

“We don’t know if we can drink the water or not; we really don’t know,” one said.

Water customers hope the issues are resolved soon.

“We can’t get any resolutions and answers from anyone; the only thing we’re getting is the bills increasing.”

[RELATED: Louisiana Health Department releases grades for state’s public water systems]

Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.