CREOLE CULTURAL NEWS FLASH: A Moment of History & Thought: Yes, There Were And Remain White, Red, Black & Colored Creoles in Acadiana by John laFleur 2014 The Poste des Opelousas was founded in 1720, New Orleans in 1718, and Natchitoches in 1714. These Postes were already centers of French Colonial, African and metis peoples and culture. In 1765, a small group of about 300 Acadians arrive and are NOT settled in any of these regions, but are to be settled among the larger German-speaking populations of Donaldsonville-Morgan City, appropriately designated the Acadian Coast. The old French Colonial & Choctaw patois of Louisiana French continues in at least Opelousas and around New Orleans and Natchitoches although, sadly, in decreasing numbers, of course. These areas, including Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee Parishes, were forbidden or closed to Acadian settlement by Spanish Law under penalty of the violator (of this law) forfeiting his/her plantation tract. Dr. Carl Brasseaux (The Founding of New Acadia...) acknowledges the Opelousas Poste-at the time of the arrival of the Acadians-to have been a bastion of Creole culture -as was and remains Pointe Coupee and Avoyelles Parishes-and with only a few true Acadian families eventually venturing into St. Landry Parish-from Prairie Fataique to Eunice-where German and French Creole-metis families such as the Fruges had long been established before 1754. These early Acadian families by the first generation had acclimated and assimilated their new Louisiana-based cultural identity -as creoles-according to historys witness as seen in documents ranging from newspapers to the testimony of historians such as Brasseaux and James Dorman to name two. My own ancestor, Francois Pitre identified as a Creole, as would his children-until Cajunization began relabeling our shared multi-ethnically-produced and non-Acadian culture and French language traditions. There remain both Cajuns and white Creoles who never accepted nor acquiesced to this CULTURAL DECEPTION and RELABELING which continues to give credit to a minority people whose Acadian culture remains foreign to Louisiana as it does to our long history which pre-dates the arrival of the Acadians. Yes, there were white people, red people and black French-speaking Creoles outside New Orleans in the regions relabeled Acadiana in 1971 by act of Edwin Edwards and Dudley (Hadacol) LeBlanc and a few complicit Lafayette-centered politicians. The French Creole family of surname Fruge was present in what is known as St. Landry Parish before 1754! The Spanish themselves had taken possession of French Louisiana legally, as early as 1762, and de facto by 1765. According to writer Louisiana writer/novelist Grace King, in her Creole Families of New Orleans, 1921 the Spanish referred to the white people of New Orleans as Creoles. But, Bienville had long before referred to the Jean-Francois le Camp as the first Creole born in the New World-at Mobile, then the capital of Lower Louisiana. And, the French and French Canadian and metis populations of St. Genevieve, Missouri (founded in 1750), and Forts Caskaskia and Cahokia Illinois also referred to themselves as Creoles and still do. Many of these Creole families were to immigrate to what we know as the State of Louisiana back in 1763, after the end of the French and Indian War (Seven Years War), among which families and their descendants remain in the parishes of Avoyelles, Evangeline, St. Landry, Pointe Coupee, St. Martin, Iberia parishes-all well beyond their arrival point of New Orleans, where many of our relatives remained, or came from in their search for new lands and economic opportunities. There are those who claim that the old Creole culture-as seen, heard and tasted through its colorful social traditions of Mardi Gras and La Toussaint, its old French music and its old creole language of Colonial French-Choctaw and its sister-tongue of Louisiana (africanized) Creole-gave way to a more potent and influential Acadian-based culture which like kutzu took over the northwestern French-speaking parishes. This assertion necessarily implies that we should then, expect to see evidence of an Acadian-based culture in both the food, social customs and language in the region today known as Bay of Fundy-home to the Acadians of Canada. But, it also necessarily wouldve required a huge population of Acadians moving into what wouldve been a small population of un-influential diverse Creole peoples. Unfortunately, well-documented historical reality speaks loudly to the contrary of this theory of Cajunization. At the time of the initial arrival of the Acadians, a small group of 300 were settled and assimilated by the already-present German-speaking Creoles and their surrounding French, metis and African neighbors. Later, and over a period of 20 years, a larger number of Acadian families arrive by 1786, making for a combined total of 2,500 people as compared to a far larger population of at least, 30,000 diverse Creoles already established in the territory of Orleans or Louisiana the state as we think of it. See H.E. Sterkx, The Free Negro In Ante-Bellum Louisiana, 1972, where the author points to the census of 1788 to illustrate a diverse Creole population of over 40,000, two years after the largest group of Acadians had arrived. Unfortunately, that theory of Acadian cultural conquest in the upper northwestern parishes remains more of an ideological fantasy, with no convincing supporting evidence apart from emotional claims, and hoped-for but, false parallels-they speak French, like us! And, they have Mardi-Gras. The numbers certainly dont exist to force such a cultural transformation, and neither do the needed and claimed Acadian-based cultural elements of food or language! That the Acadians would speak some form of French and have some form of Mardi Gras and be predominantly Catholic historically-speaking, does not in itself constitute evidence for a claimed Acadian-based culture in Louisiana. Thats just too simplistic. Our linguistic traditions are NOT THE SAME as the Acadian patois of Bay of Fundy; never has been, notwithstanding some similarities due to the fact that the pre-Acadian Canadian coureurs des bois and their metis families were among the very first French people to settle lower Louisiana who spoke medieval French. The powerful cultural influences of the Choctaw Indians-which the French governments representatives acknowledge-resulted largely in a nativisation of the French soldiers and certainly of their metis children and families. And, their Mobilian-Choctaw pidgin remains a signature hallmark of Louisiana French and her Africanized Creole sister language. There was no creolization in Acadie and no gumbo. And, to this we must also add the influence of the West African slaves and later influences of the Spanish; all of which influences antedate the arrival of the Acadians and resulted in a permanent and lasting creolization; the result of which is a unique Louisiana-based creole and Latin culture; a culture documented in historic cooking books, historical narratives and whose cuisine and linguistic traditions have ever remained among diverse Indian, French, African Creoles in areas where the Acadians either did not exist, and if they did so, existed in such few numbers that they too, fully assimilated the omnipresent multi-ethnic Creole culture of Louisiana. And, it was Iberville (Bienvilles older brother), who ordered the young diver colonial Canadian, French and metis sailors to celebrate Mardi Gras of Mardi Gras Pointe near New Orleans in 1699. But, Iberville and Bienville were CANADIAN and not Acadians. See La Cuisine Creole by Lefcadio Hearn, 1885 and the Picayune Creole Cookbook 1901; Stir The Pot: A History of Cajun Cuisine by Marcelle Bienvenu & Carl Brasseaux. See also Andre Penicauts, The Calumet & the Fleur de Lys Being the French Adventure in Louisiana by Richebourge Gaillard-McWilliams for a rich study of Louisianas very old Creole & metis food culture . Yes, there were and there remain differences-culturally and historically between Canadian Quebecois and Acadians. FRENCH culture is what both shared. And, the fact of a shared French culture does not prove an Acadian-based culture in Louisiana, any more than we would presume to say that Canadian culture is/was shaped by the Acadians! In Louisiana, the huge North American territory, of which our Louisiana is merely the boot of the foot of the former vast Nouvelle France nation, her own multi-ethnic Creole-Metis culture was long established before the arrival of the Acadians, as shown in the works of Dr. Carl Ekberg of the University of Illinois on Colonial Louisiana and especially, as seen in Dr. Shannon Lee Dawdys Building the Devils Empire: French Colonial New Orleans. And, in fact, this is precisely what happened. The Acadians became Cajuns -meaning THEY were permanently creolized culturally. Their children assimilated the culture of Louisiana, and a later generation, armed with political power chose to re-label this old culture as Cajun (a neologism re-tooled from cadjin -a word signifying white trash, and presumptuously, forced it upon the white francophonic public through the media and forty years of cultural re-conditioning. And, quite outrageously and dishonestly assigned credit to their Acadian ancestors for the culture they had inherited, as late member Louisiana Creoles! The economic, social and political gains derived from this cultural masquerade are considered justifying the misrepresentation of history, the disenfranchisement of people of color and racializing of the once historic and singular Creole culture into two separate, but unequal halves of Cajun as white, and Creole as black-regardless of historical and present-day reality, and in full disregard of any of several Christian and ethnical principles. But, yes, there were and remain white, red, black and colored Creoles outside New Orleans-in Acadiana. We didnt all leave or disappear or turn into political Cajuns for economic-commercial benefits or social convenience-in fears of being perceived as less than white-and we refuse to tow the line in conforming to a Cajun regional identity to keep Lafayettes Cajunist syndicate well-funded, in full disregard of the truth. Please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE this information with all who appreciate the truth and who love Louisianas diverse Creole people and our remarkable shared culture.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 15:26:18 +0000
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