GRAND BAYOU, La. — Before Katrina, Grand Bayou and its 25-odd families of Atakapa-Ishak American Indians lived in a parallel world, in concert with moon cycles and migrations of shrimp. This living museum, where there are no roads and everyone travels by boat, is facing extinction.

Post-storm government aid has been nearly nonexistent, villagers said, leaving the entire village unable to return to their homes.

“We were hanging onto that little village out there, but I think the hurricane took the last wind out of us,” Louis Thompson, known as “PU,” said.

Mr. Thompson commanded the communal boat, a banana-yellow water taxi tied up since the storm. “It was a school boat, medical boat, grocery boat, just about everything else boat,” he said.

Grand Bayou’s state of despair resembles that of the Lower 9th Ward, 40 miles away in New Orleans. Both are lifeless. Both are poor. Both were colorful enclaves of traditional Louisiana culture. They are exhibits in a pattern emerging since Katrina struck on August 29, 2005: The widening gap between rich and poor in rebuilding. The gap is plainly evident on the horizon of windblown marsh-grass at Grand Bayou. A mile away, the community of weekend sport fishermen and retirees at Happy Jack is bouncing back.

“This place is built probably better than before the storm,” Willie Bullock, who retired from the Navy and moved to Happy Jack with his wife, said. “I love it here. This is where I was meant to be.” Happy Jack is growing. Excavators have prepared ground for 60 more lots that will be up for sale by the summer. The significance is not lost at Grand Bayou: An uncomfortable circle of outsiders and development is drawing tighter. Dwight Reyes has lived with his wife on their boat since Katrina wrecked their home.”I’ve got fed up with trying,” Mr. Reyes said, and sneered at the state-managed, federally funded flagship of the hurricane recovery, the Road Home program.

“Everywhere you go they turn you down. I just got off the phone a while ago with [Road Home] telling me I need papers for this. I’m tired of faxing paper in.”

Recovery officials say they haven’t forgotten Grand Bayou.

“I would challenge the concept they’re not getting assistance from the Road Home,” Gentry Bran, spokeswoman for ICF International, the company that oversees Road Home under a $756 million contract, said.

A sample, though, of five Road Home applicants interviewed by the AP suggests money has been slow to reach Grand Bayou. Two applicants had received grants while three others hadn’t. Road Home would not disclose how much money each applicant got nor give an idea about how much money in all has gotten given.