Indian village gets a church again – 10 years after Katrina

GRAND BAYOU, La. (AP) – Grand Bayou, an American Indian village reached only by crossing water, is celebrating the return of its church 10 years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed homes and the old place of worship.

Over the weekend, villagers plan to hold a dedication ceremony and attend the first religious service at the non-denominational Light Tabernacle Church.

Before Katrina, Grand Bayou and its two dozen families of Atakapa-Ishak American Indians lived in a parallel world, in concert with moon cycles and migrations of shrimp.

The hurricane damaged every building, destroyed its school and scattered its residents. In the years after Katrina, residents feared their village would disappear.

Slowly, though, it has made a comeback and residents say the return of a church is a major step toward being home again.

“A village without a church is not really complete,” said Bennie Ancar, the 74-year-old senior pastor, as he recently steered a skiff past the church to take an air conditioning repairman to his home up the bayou.

The dirt road to Grand Bayou ends at a bayou and getting to the village – and now the church too – requires a boat.

The church – like most of the homes here – has been raised high up on pilings to avoid future flooding.

“Everything has to be transported by boat,” Ancar said, adding that made building the church difficult.

The church was constructed by pooling villagers’ money and it took about three years to complete, said LaDonna Sylve, whose husband is another pastor.

The church sits in a prominent spot at the entrance to the bayou-side village. Sylve said her father’s family lived on the site at one time and that her father envisioned building a church there before he died.

Sylve said the village has made a comeback.

“The bayou is coming back together,” she said as she took a rest in the shade of a small berry-filled tree outside the church. She and another church-goer had carried numerous boxes and goods from a boat and up the steep stairs to the building in preparation for the dedication ceremony Saturday and service on Sunday.

Still, many villagers are missing and now live in Tennessee and Texas, leaving the village smaller than it was before Katrina.

“It’s peaceful, quiet, you feel safe, you have your privacy,” said Angelique Ancar, a 39-year-old nurse and villager helping Sylve get the church open. “That’s why I like it so much.”