Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, June 24, 1997

Cajun cowboys were at home on prairies

by Jim Bradshaw

It was only natural that these Chignecto Acadians would settle on south Louisiana's prairies to take up a trade they knew. They were a natural match--the Acadians who knew how to raise cattle, the prairies of south Louisiana, and the beginnings of the cattle industry here.

Huge herds of livestock grazed the prairies long before the Acadians arrived. The Avoyelles Indians had introduced longhorn cattle onto the Louisiana prairies early on. Early settlers had brought in other cattle purchased from the Comanches to the west. Cattle brands are registered at St. Martinville (the 'seat' of Vermilion Parish before the Attakapas region was divided) as early as the 1730s, 30 years before the arrival of the Acadians, and 30 years before the first brands were registered in Texas.

In 1773, Amand and Pierre Broussard helped by eight or nine drovers, began moving small herds of cattle from the Attakapas prairies to New Orleans. Following the Collet Trail along Bayou Teche and the natural levees of Black Bayou and Bayou Teche, the cowboys guided herds of 100 to 150 head to market. By 1781, the Attakapas region was shipping 150 head of cattle to New Orleans each month. By the 1800s, cattle meant big business. Henry Breckenridge reported in 1814:

The number of cattle composing the herds which some of the wealthier possess would in other parts of the United Sates be considered incredible; there are several who market from one to two thousand calves a year. The cattle driven to New Orleans for sale bring fifteen to twenty dollars a head.

In 1816, historian Miriam Derby found "vast herds of cattle which afford subsistence to the natives, and the inhabitants of New Orleans."

Not everything was peaches and cream. By 1859, cattle rustling was so prevalent that the prairie ranchers organized vigilante committees to establish law and order.

Alexander Barde wrote a Histoire des Comites de Vigilance aux Attakapas, describing, some say too harshly, the rough ways of the day. He describes herds of cattle wandering the prairies, and thieves wandering behind them, including the report of at least one man who became a butcher because "it offered him the most profitable opportunity for getting rid of his nightly thefts."

Matters came to a head on Sept 3, 1859, when 2,000 outlaws had gathered together on a farm on Bayou Queue de Tortue near the Acadia Parish line, ready to take on the vigilantes. They had stored away arms and ammunition and were ready to fight it out with a small army of vigilantes who had gathered around the piece.

The vigilantes gave the outlaws the opportunity to surrender. The outlaws laughed at the offer.

Then the vigilantes rolled a little cannon out of the woods and trained it on the farmhouse.

The outlaws broke and ran. A helter-skelter race followed, with vigilante chasing outlaws across the prairie, through the woods along the bayous. The vigilantes captured over 200 prisoners, and more than a thousand rifles, guns and revolvers.

The Battle of Queue de Torque restored law and order to the region. The bandits scattered to the four winds, many of them exiled to Texas. The vigilantes disbanded. Cattle grazed the prairie in peace again.

This article is copyrighted © by the Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser and is used with permission.  This web site was originated through a grant awarded to Carencro High School (Joel Hilbun/Bobbi Marino, Grant Administrators) by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund - 8(g).