|
a ACADIAN REBIRTH article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette, (LA) Daily Advertiser, April 27, 1999
Not all claims for early Acadian settlement are true
by Jim Bradshaw
Until relatively recent times, Louisiana historians have glossed over the story of Acadian settlement in Louisiana. As a result, there has been confusion about where Acadians actually established their first settlements and about how widespread those settlements were. The confusion has grown in recent years when it became commercially valuable to be part of the "Cajun Country," and everybody claimed to be Cajun.
Carl Brasseaux points out in his book, "The Founding of New Acadia," "With few exceptions, chronicles of the Pelican State's past, particularly modern-day state historians, have offered either overly broad or extremely narrow views of the area of Acadia occupation, with estimates ranging from the entire southwestern water of the state to only the Bayou Teche and Vermilion River valleys. These misconceptions have filtered down to the general public, thereby perpetuating popular and long-enduring false impressions regarding original settlement sites. Dissemination of such misinformation was accelerated in the 1970's and 1980's by the emergence of Louisiana's Cajuns as a phenomenon of international interest that drew tourists, journalists, and scholars from all corners of the globe. Eager to capitalize upon the influx, local government agencies, tourist bureaus, and business groups produced vast quantities of promotional material designed to lure outsiders to their particular corner of 'Cajun Country.' In the hosts to get these brochures to market, public relations firms entrusted with the task of 'selling Acadiana' sacrificed historical detail and accuracy on the altar of marketability, often embellishing or even recasting well-worn settlement sagas to suit their purposes."
Brasseaux continues, "Every community of consequence in Acadiana began to proclaim itself the world capital of...things Cajun: Tour guides, and clearing houses of information on Francophone Louisiana have routinely directed French-speaking tourists to the Evangeline Parish communities of Mamou and Ville Platte, which have been characterized as distinctly Acadian. Other South Louisiana agencies, prominent citizens, newspapers, and magazines have pointed to St. Martinville as the cradle of Cajun culture on the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile Ascension and St. James parishes have proudly referred to themselves as the Acadian Coast, while residents of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes openly cherish their rich Acadian architectural and cultural legacy. Not to be outdone, French-speaking residents of the Pointe Coupee, Avoyelles, and Plaquemines regions have proclaimed their home parishes old Acadian settlements. ... The proliferation of ostensibly authentic settlement sites and the corresponding growth of the geographical area supposedly occupied by the 2,600 to 3,000 Acadian immigrants to colonial Louisiana has served only to compound hopeless popular confusion."
According to Brasseaux's research, the oldest Acadian settlement, first called le dernier camp d'en bas and later Fausse Pointe, was established near present-day Loreauville at least by the middle of 1765. "The long-revered St. Martinville myth notwithstanding," Brasseaux says, "the Acadians did not permanently establish themselves as anticipated on the east bank vacherie formerly owned by (Bernard) Dauterive and (Edouard) Masse. Indeed, within days of their arrival at the post, the Acadians were denounced as trespassers by Dauterive's neighbors. Moreover, in 1771 Dauterive... donated a large portion of the designated settlement site to St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church. Finally, rather than raise cattle on shares for Dauterive, the exiles purchased an undetermined number of cattle from Jean-Baptiste Greveberg shortly after their arrival at Fausse Pointe."
From that first settlement, some Acadian families moved up Bayou Teche and founded La Pointe de Repos at a bend in the river just upstream from the present town of Parks. An epidemic struck La Pointe shortly after its founding, and some of the families moved away from the contagion. Some moved to Cöte Gelee, near what is now Broussard, and others moved to La Manque, on the Teche just below what is now Breaux Bridge. Some others continued upstream and settled in the Port Barre area.
"Not all Acadians were content to remain in the five original settlements," Brasseaux says. "The persistent frontier spirit among many exiles prompted them... to plunge deeper into the southwestern Louisiana frontier, whenever their family settlement became too thickly populated."
Some of these settlers moved to Grand Prairie, near what is now Lafayette, others moved to the areas that are now the cities of Lafayette and Abbeville, and, shortly after that, into the Beaubassin (Carencro) area.
From these points, the Acadians continued to move to the west, to places such as Plaquemine Brulče and to the southeast, to places such as Chicot Noir near Jeanerette.
"As the western Acadians adapted to the southwestern prairies, the eastern exiles carved a new homeland from the virgin forests bordering the Mississippi River," according to Brasseaux. "The first Acadians to settle along that river were twenty exiles from New York who reached New Orleans in April, 1764, and were apparently settled at (present St. James Parish). The New York exiles were joined, in May, 1765, by eighty Acadian refugees from Halifax and possibly Saint-Domingue. These refugees were in turn joined in mid-September, 1765, by eighty-two Acadians from the Attakapas Post who ... fled the Teche region's raging malarial or yellow fever epidemic."
Between March 1766 and late 1769, all newly arriving Acadians were settled on the Mississippi River, primarily at St. Gabriel or at Natchez.