In the 1830s , the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe 's ancestors moved to Isle de Jean Charles to escape the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears . By 1910 , the island had grown from 16 to 77 families . The population of Jean Charles sustained themselves through fishing , oyster farming , trapping and subsistence farming . In the 1930s , a missionary grade school on the mainland was built for the nearby indigenous peoples . In 1959 , Daigleville Indian High School in Houma , 25 miles inland from the Isle de Jean Charles , became the first Indigenous high school in Louisiana . Until 1953 , when the road that connects the island to the mainland was built , the tribe could commute too and from the inland only by boat . Due to the road 's traveling through open waters , it was extremely susceptible to flooding and erosion , and frequently became uncrossable . In the 1940s , companies began offshore oil drilling projects and dredging near the island , activities which contributed to the erosion of the island and its island road
Trail of Tears
Trail of Tears
Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana