By Belinda Brooks
Rudy Macklin, Director of the Governor’s Council of Physical Fitness, Louisiana Governor’s Office of Fitness, and the Bureau of Minority Health Access (LDH), visited Butte Tribe tribal lands on Oct. 4.
Macklin is a former NBA and LSU basketball player who is in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
The Butte Tribe of Bayou Bourbeaux (BTBB) is located in Natchitoches Parish Region 7. For the last three years, the Tribe has entered into a contractual agreement with the LDH Bureau of Minority Health Access and Promotions to:
Expand emergency preparedness training for tribal members and their families of the BTBB to include “All-Hazards” training that consists of Active Shooter, Cyber Attack training for tribal members and their families include “All-Hazards” training that consists of Active Shooter, Cyber Attack, Earthquake, Extreme Heat, Flood, Hurricane, Power Outages, Tornado, Wildfire, Thunderstorm, Hail and Winter Storm. Emergency Preparedness procedures, Pandemic Coronavirus, and quarantine protocols continue with All-Hazards training. Tribal aides, teachers, and medical advisors for BTBB train tribal members and their families to establish their emergency preparedness plans.
Macklin came bearing tribal gifts of emergency preparedness: sandbags and emergency backpacks for use during natural disasters. While there, he visited the Butte Tribe’s historical sites and helped with the Tribe’s beautification project, which begins at the corner of State Highway 84 and Highway 1226 in Natchitoches Parish.
Highway 84, also known as the El Camino Real or the King’s Highway, begins in Natchitoches and travels through several towns within Natchitoches Parish before ending in Mexico. Designated as a National Historic Trail in 2004, El Camino Real de los Tejas has existed for more than 300 years. The Spaniards and the French who marked the trail were followed by early missionaries of multiple faiths and later by such men as Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett. Butte Tribe’s oral history is filled with stories of these historical figures.
Butte Tribe has erected two Louisiana State Historical Markers on its tribal lands. To read more about the Tribe’s history, visit ButteTribe.org and click the Chief’s History tab.