HOUMA, La. (AP) – Members of the United Houma Nation tribe of American Indians have created a digital petition on the White House's website as they continue a decades-long quest for federal recognition.

Adam Credelle, who started the petition is a United Houma Nation member from Patterson who currently attends law school at Southern University.

The Courier of Houma reports (http://bit.ly/tnjcNl) that the United Houma Nation's petition must get 25,000 signatures before Dec. 1 to get an official response from the Obama administration. As of Friday evening, the petition had garnered 1,972 signatures since Tuesday, when it was launched.

United Houma Nation Principal Chief Thomas Dardar Jr. said the petition is a fantastic effort by the tribe's younger members, who are better educated and more technologically connected, to launch their own efforts to get the tribe recognition.

Federal recognition is important because it could lead to financial and educational assistance for tribal members.

“Not only will the tribe receive better health care, education and housing, but it would bring economic development to the parishes along the coast,” Dardar said

Credelle said local American Indians could also leverage federal recognition to get money for Louisiana's degrading coast, where most United Houma Nation members make their homes.

Last year, after the BP oil spill, the Houma Nation applied for grant money from BP, asking for enough to cover the salary of a case worker to help the tribe manage the influx of tribal members seeking help with claim applications. The company denied the claim because the tribe isn't federally recognized.

Brenda Dardar-Robichaux, former chief of the United Houma Nation, said the tribe has been seeking recognition from the federal government since 1817. The group made a formal application to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs for recognition in 1985 after researching the tribe's history for seven years.

That petition was rejected in 1994, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs ruled that the group failed to meet requirements for recognition.

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Information from: The Courier, http://www.houmatoday.com