Jody Billiot’s work bridges the University of New Orleans and the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe he calls home. An anthropology student, U.S. Army veteran and member of the Tribe’s council, Billiot is helping lead ongoing efforts to document and preserve the Tribe’s oral history, drawing on both academic training and community knowledge.

As part of that work, faculty from UNO’s Division of Social Inquiry traveled to Terrebonne Parish on March 14 to support the Tribe’s initiative. History professor Max Krochmal and anthropology professor Roberto E. Barrios led a workshop focused on oral history and ethnographic interviewing methods, offering tools that complement the Tribe’s work to record and represent its own story.

Billiot has also applied experimental archaeology methods to reconnect younger generations with Pointe-Au-Chien traditions. He has engaged tribal youth in hands-on projects, including the construction of a traditional palmetto house, a historic housing style built with local materials and communal labor.

At the conclusion of the visit, Krochmal and Barrios were presented with ceramic bowls crafted by Billiot using traditional Pointe-Au-Chien techniques and local clay—the first of their kind produced in more than a century. The exchange reflected the collaborative nature of the effort and the Tribe’s leadership in preserving and sharing its history.