National Geographic Presents: IMPACT with Gal Gadot

'We live for the next seven generations.

Everything we do, and everything we don't do,

impacts the next seven generations'.

This way of life has been passed down to Chief Shirell

from her ancestors, whose land is being lost to climate change.

Committed to leaving the world a better place,

she's leading the fight to protect the environment and

all generations to come.

This is Chief Shirell's Impact.

CHIEF SHIRELL (off-screen): All of my family is here.

My father and my Uncle T-Man, who's our former Chief.

My mother's parents.

And our family for so many generations.

We are the land.

This is what we know.

But I've had to grow up hearing about how long

my people's voice was suppressed.

They were prevented from making progress;

they were prevented from being native.

Outsiders would come in and did whatever they wanted

without any consideration for our people.

.

We're dealing with all of the man-made damages that were caused.

And now we have climate change too.

You know, I took the position as Chief because I couldn't

take the heartache that I was witnessing anymore.

As leader, my job as Chief is to represent my people.

Take their voice and carry it where it needs to go.

We should be at the forefront of every opportunity that can

bring our future generations' security.

MAN (off-screen): This used to be a beautiful place.

Some people, a lot of 'em was born and raised here,

you know, it's their culture, it's their way of life.

You know, it's in their heart.

Born and raised down here.

All our lives. And this our livelihood, you know?

We need the shrimp to survive.

Finding less shrimp to catch has been way smaller.

Oh, it makes you feel bad.

Yeah, it hurts.

It's for the grandkids, you know.

It's gonna be hard on them and it's gonna be getting harder

to come back down here and knowing it's just gonna be

open gulf one day.

You know with all those storms and

everything, and the COVID; our shrimpers are struggling.

Right.

The monies that they had gotten for the

shrimpers, they still have not gotten any of that yet.

So these people are struggling,

that's their whole income.

WOMAN (off-screen): My grandfather, my mom's dad, he had,

I mean, acres and acres of land and now there's hardly anything left.

The erosion's been taking overs,

all the storms and it's just a lot of things are not even

there anymore.

I got it!

My native name is Killer Red Fox and that's

because I'm known for attacking and killing bad policy.

Yeah, you see how that's gettin' all eaten up?

MAN (off-screen): Yeah.

A lot of the, like, the canals

are dug for oil companies and

once the well is done, they don't put nothin' back.

It stays open.

So really, it's been washed out.

CHIEF SHIRELL (off-screen): This storm season was bad.

We lost a lotta land. I know we did.

We can't afford to lose anymore land.

MAN (off-screen): No.

CHIEF SHIRELL (off-screen): These bayou communities stick out like fingers.

It used to be all land.

But now they're just these little strips.

Every time a hurricane comes in,

they literally could be gone.

We're losing our whole identity if nothing is done

and to those that say that nothing can be done, no.

Something can always be done.

There's always something that could be done to preserve the land.

We understand our environment.

And we will fight as long as takes to do whatever it takes.

To repair her and stay where we belong.

We know that they tore us up.

We got all those canals, that's part of that work,

is to raise that awareness and get some accountability and responsibility going

so that we can have futures for our kids and our grandkids.

Good morning, Miss Kristy, it's Chief Shirell.

CHIEF SHIRELL (off-screen): Being a Chief and a mom is interesting,

and I have four children,

so you have to get really good at prioritizing on the spot,

because just one little thing thrown into your day

can just throw everything off.

.

It's my tribal citizens here.

Okay.

Everything that I have to deal with on a personal level as a