2005. The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MDNHA) is the land where the Blues began, where rock 'n' roll was created and where Gospel remains a vibrant art. The department announced it completed investigations that it began last year in the rural flatlands of the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest areas of the U.S. The trade-off is that for specialty care and emergencies the clinics couldnt handle, trips to the nearest urban center might be necessary. Like, nooooooo. It is 200 miles (320km) long and 87 miles (140km) across at its widest point, encompassing about 4,415,000 acres (17,870km2), or, almost 7,000 square miles of alluvial floodplain. Today, the monetary value of these crops rivals that of cotton production in the lower Delta. Their operations are heavily mechanized with low labor costs. Art and antiques, books, specialty gifts and foods, and one of a kind pottery made from native clay is only the beginning of what you will find throughout the Delta and in historic downtown Greenwood. [18] The region has been home to other European-immigrant ethnic groups, beginning in the 19th century, including German, Sicilian, and Irish. The stats had been grim for years in Greenwood, and at rural hospitals all over the country. For example, following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, approximately 200 square miles (130,000 acres; 520km2) of wetlands became open water, demonstrating permanent wetland loss. North Sunflower Medical Center in Ruleville. The Greater Lafourche Port Commission. The 70 Million-Year-Old History of the Mississippi River It flows south at a speed of 1.2 miles per hour to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico and forms the second largest drainage system in North America after the Hudson Bay. Louisiana.gov. of the Interior. By the time her contract was nearing its end in the autumn, Oglesby was spending most of her downtime in bed. If you talk to administrators at other hospitals in the Delta, theyll freely disclose their sneaking suspicion that North Sunflower sold its soul. Here, Oglesby had none of that. A yellow banner drooped across its faade: Going Out of Business. When youve done everything you can possibly do and the outcome is not what you desire it to be, thats tough, she said. They dont even make that kind anymore. I set about trying to find these people somewhere to go, and I was completely unsuccessful, he said, leaning in over his sandwich. Although these canals and pipelines serve a vital resource to the entire nation, they have increased the erosion and degradation of the Mississippi River Delta by facilitating the creation of open water areas that allow for salt water penetration into freshwater wetlands. His patients came from all over the DeltaGreenville, Clarksdale, Rosedale, Ruleville. The Cajuns are another ethnic group in southern Louisiana; they primarily consider themselves to be descendants of the Acadian settlers who were expelled from Nova Scotia by the British after the French and Indian War, when France lost its North American colonies. Mississippi is one of only three states that lost population from 2010 to 2020, and the outward migration was most intense in rural counties, a couple of which suffered losses of more than 20%. The mostly black sharecroppers and tenant farmers had lives marked by poverty and hardship but they expressed their struggles in music that became the beat, rhythm and songs of cities and a nation.[20][21][22]. In the opinion of Jefferson Davis, typical of that of Mississippian whites of his day, Africans being held in slavery reflected the will of Providence, as it led to their Christianizing and to the improvement of their condition, compared to what it would have been had they remained in Africa. The flyway and its habitat area are essential for the continued viability of the nation's waterfowl populations. Delta politics was dominated by pro-slavery Democrats during the post-Civil War era, though areas of resistance from blacks and whites remained throughout the era. Other endeavors such as catfish, poultry, rice, corn, and soybean farming have assumed greater importance. 2000. And what did we lose last month? someone asked. As many were illiterate, they were often taken advantage of by the planters' accounting. In 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from Napoleon. The state attracted thousands of migrants to its frontier. Couvillion, B.R. More railroads entered the area, replacing steamboats as the primary means of transporting the delta's rich natural bounty.[17]. The river delta is a three-million-acre (4,700sqmi; 12,000km2) area of land that stretches from Vermilion Bay on the west, to the Chandeleur Islands in the east, on Louisiana's southeastern coast. This de facto racial segregation is related in part to economics, as few African American parents in the poor region can pay to send their children to private schools. Consisting of natural levees, barrier islands, forests, swamps, and fresh, brackish and saline marshes, the region is home to complex ecosystems and habitats that are necessary for sustaining its unique and vibrant nature. It is unique to the Delta. In New Orleans, someone like her would never get the chance to do a spinal tap. From the 1960s through the 1990s, thousands of small farms and dwellings in the Delta region were absorbed by large corporate-owned agribusinesses, and the smallest Delta communities have stagnated. Delta Blues Delta blues is a style of music developed by African American artists living and performing in the Mississippi Delta region of the southern United States. Located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, this is identified as a critical restoration project by the LCA and would combine a "medium diversion with dedicated dredging" to achieve its intended results. 44 Delta employers fined $350,000 for racist wage and hiring practices, pay $505,000 in back wages. The Five Civilized Tribes and others were mostly removed west of the Mississippi River, and European-American settlement expanded at a rapid rate in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a White House health adviser during the Obama administration, pointed out in 2018 that some 1,400 American hospitalsabout 20% of the totalhad closed since 1981. The Mississippi Delta is actually a floodplain between two rivers in northwestern Mississippi, the Mississippi and the Yazoo, and it is sometimes referred to as the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. Time, weather, and human intervention have all shaped the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana, a giant bird's foot shape protruding into the Gulf of Mexico. Untangling the confusion, she believed, was another way North Sunflower could rise above the rural hospital crisis. When she sat down to lunch recently at the Crown Restaurant, a couple of blocks from the hospital, a stream of people approached to say hello. The six Mississippi River Delta complexes are as follows: The history and culture that is linked to the Mississippi River Delta is as unique as its geologic landscape. US Army Corps of Engineers: Mississippi Valley Division. Mills in New England and New York also demanded cotton for their industry, and New York City was closely tied to the cotton trade. Theyre the most conspicuous of the regions economic indicators, flashing by along with the other roadside snapshots: brick houses with sagging roofs and boarded-up windows; a Ford Taurus on a weedy lawn, no wheels, cables spilling out of the hood like a gutted fish; a couple walking on the shoulder of the highway between a cash advance store and a LoanMax. Eleven miles of levee were removed at this location, newly purchased land down the river from New Orleans. Draft Heritage Study and Environmental Assessment. ", This page was last edited on 15 May 2023, at 15:25. The majority of these deltaic lobes are grouped into three of the five delta "complexes" seen here: the Teche, the St. Bernard, and the Lafourche. Following is a list of various festivals in the Delta: "Hot Tamales" are a Delta-endemic derivation of the tamale. But less publicized is the fact that the region is also integral to America's civil rights story. In addition to providing habitats for wildlife living in the region, the Mississippi River Delta's wetlands, marshes and barrier islands also provide the vital protection for coastal residents and communities from storm surge and flooding. Cajun culinary techniques and recipes continue to draw thousands of tourists to the region each year and have been exported around the world. Mississippi ranks dead last in doctors per capita, but it has more Dollar Trees, Dollar Generals, and Family Dollars per person than any other state in the union. European settlers in the region attempted to enslave local Native Americans for labor, though this proved unsuccessful as they frequently escaped. Floodwaters diverted traffic away from the town, farmers weren't in the fields and . The lyrics accused black ministers of engaging in and fomenting sinful behavior. Along the Mississippi River delta in Louisiana, modern planned diversions after 2017 (CPRA 2017) seek to bring sediment-laden water from the river to a receiving area that may once have been part of the historic delta floodplain. Theres that trust. She sometimes runs into the families of patients who died at the hospital. 6 Unique Small Towns To Visit In The Mississippi Delta | TravelAwaits Outdoor Activities Food and Drink Sightseeing Seasonal Travel National Parks State Parks Hotels and Resorts Wildlife Beaches Shopping Festivals and Special Events Theme Parks Photography Reading See All Types of Travel Group Travel Road Trips RVing Camping Rail The coastal wetlands have a number of diverse landscapes that connect a variety of habitats to both the land and water. This law followed the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 and ensures that 80 percent of the civil Clean Water Act fines paid by BP and the other responsible parties are directed to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council and five Gulf Coast states to use for environmental and economic restoration. Bill summary & status: the Water Resources Development Act of 2007. Chinese began settling in Bolivar County and other Delta counties as plantation workers in the 1870s, though most Delta Chinese families migrated to the state between the 1900s and 1930s. Photographer: Ash Ponders for Bloomberg Businessweek. The 44 farms include catfish . Covid has brought too many of Dr. Katherine Pattersons neighbors into her ICU. Beginning in the 20th century, advances in technology and engineering allowed humans to alter the river in fundamental ways. Most would have to travel an hour or two longer for treatment than they had before. As the mechanization of agriculture continued, women left fieldwork and went into service work, while the men drove tractors and worked on the farms. [2] The Mississippi River Delta is the 7th largest river delta on Earth (USGS) and is an important coastal region for the United States, containing more than 2.7million acres (4,200sqmi; 11,000km2) of coastal wetlands and 37% of the estuarine marsh in the conterminous U.S.[1] The coastal area is the nation's largest drainage basin and drains about 41% of the contiguous United States into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of 470,000 cubic feet per second (3,500,000USgal/s; 13,000,000L/s). If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact ngimagecollection@natgeo.com for more information and to obtain a license. Black Farmworkers Say They Lost Jobs to Foreigners Who Were Paid More Delta-X is a 5-year NASA Earth Ventures Suborbital-3 mission to study the Mississippi River Delta in the United States, which is growing and sinking in different areas. For more than a quarter-century, Richard Strong worked the fertile farmland of the Mississippi Delta, just as his father and his grandfather did, a family lineage of punishing. Waterways Council, Inc. Table: U.S. Commercial Landings Statistics. The average person in Mississippi spends more than twice as much on insurance, relative to total income, as someone in Massachusetts, the state that also has the most doctors per capita. She reviewed a list of recent credits and debits: the income from Covid federal aid payments, capital expenses, debt repayments, revenue. Some of these Southern Democrats resorted to using fraud, violence, and intimidation to regain control of the state legislature in the late 19th century. In the Mississippi Deltathe poorest region in the poorest statethe doctors, nurses, and administrators have sacrificed and improvised, month after month, exhausting themselves to keep their hospitals afloat. In addition to shipping, local and commercial fisheries continued to expand. The Mississippi River Delta Is The Fastest Shrinking Delta In - Forbes With no conclusion in sight to the pandemic, the idea of a happy ending seems dangerous for a rural hospital to even consider, as if predicting ultimate success would be tempting fate. Emanuel believed that was a good thing; smaller and more efficient clinics serve their populations better, and keep patients healthier, than more expensive and less nimble traditional hospitals. The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MDNHA) is the land where the Blues began, where Rock and Roll was created and where Gospel remains a vibrant art. Understanding Coastal Zone Bird Habitats and Ecology. Thats been a hard sell at medical schools for a long time. North Sunflower is 10.2 miles from the nearest hospital, having earned its status under a previous, less stringent qualification. For 7,000 years, the Mississippi River has snaked across southern Louisiana, depositing sediment from 31 states and 2 Canadian provinces across its delta. The Mississippi River Delta has an extremely diverse ecological landscape, consisting of a number of wildlife habitats and vegetation. In 1926, the Bohemia Spillway was proposed as an engineering experiment attempting to create a mechanism to assist levees with controlling high water events. And the IV pumps are so old, she said. Its also created a spoke-and-hub system of care, creating a network of profitable satellite clinics that complement the hospital. 6 Unique Small Towns To Visit In The Mississippi Delta The shifting river delta at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf Coast lies some 300 miles south of this area, and is referred to as the Mississippi River Delta. From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir. Tulane/ Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research. The region also supports a number of invasive mammals, such as nutria and feral hogs, which destroy native ecosystems including coastal wetlands and cause trouble for native species. In the next three decades, most blacks lost their lands due to tight credit and political oppression. In the Mississippi Deltathe poorest region in the poorest statethe doctors, nurses, and administrators have sacrificed and improvised, month after month, exhausting themselves to keep their. By the end of the century, two-thirds of the independent farmers in the Mississippi Delta were black. These days, critical access status can be given only to a hospital at least 35 miles from another. We need some humanity Why us? The Mississippi River took thousands of years to build its delta, but land loss is occurring at a much faster pace. The water turned her stomach. The impact on the people working in its hospitals was very clear to Oglesby. Clark tried to envision what would happen to patients whod need emergency neurological care in the coming months. Everything negative is next to a black community. When the delta variant emerged in mid-2021, it zeroed in on the poorest pockets of the rural South.