Indigenous Peoples
Just under 1% of Louisiana's population has native origins, and four tribes are recognized by the U.S. government: the Chitimachas, the Coushattas, the Choctaws and the Tunica-Biloxi. The Chitimacha tribe is the only one still living on a portion of its ancestral lands, not far from Charenton. This tribe lived in the territory of the city of New Orleans, while in the rest of the state, the following tribes were present: Atakapa, Caddo, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez and Tunica-Biloxi.
The Houma Amerindians. The first French explorer to mention the existence of villages belonging to these Amerindians was La Salle in 1682. At the time, they were a sedentary people living east of the Mississippi, in northern Louisiana. With the arrival of the English, they descended into the bayous region and allied themselves with the French. Their language is the best proof of their complicity, since even today the Houmas speak French - at least a good proportion of them do. It was this tribe that gave its name to the eponymous town in Cajun country. These people continue to live by fishing, hunting and, above all, by handicrafts. At any fair, exhibition or festival in Louisiana, you'll be able to buy baskets, hats, dolls and knick-knacks made from cypress wood, which they handcraft themselves - a rarity these days in the USA. Further information: unitedhoumanation.org
The Creoles
According to linguists, the name comes from the Portuguese word crioulo, meaning "born in the New World by ancestors from the Old World". This term differentiated black slaves born in the colonies from those born in Africa. In Louisiana, the term "Creole" referred to all French-speaking Catholics born here, as opposed to English-speaking people from other parts of the USA.
In the 17th century, the first Creole settlers came from New France (more precisely, from the present-day province of Quebec). Later, refugees from Santo Domingo, settlers from the West Indies, soldiers from Cuba and settlers from Europe arrived in Louisiana, followed by refugees from Acadia. They settled on the banks of the Mississippi, ideal for irrigating sugarcane crops and transporting goods. There were as many as 2,000 plantations on the banks of this mythical river. Among the Creoles were "sugar barons" and "cotton kings", who quickly became very wealthy and contributed to New Orleans' renown. They established an aristocracy divided into veritable social and financial castes. While they spent a lot of time in the countryside on their plantations, they also owned mansions and beautiful houses in the city, which they enjoyed in winter. After the Civil War, most plantations were flooded or burned, and their owners ruined. They gradually declined, unable to compete with the much more pushy Anglo-Saxons. Today, some families are proud of their direct descent from the first settlers, but most have assimilated and blended into the American population.
That said, the Creoles of Louisiana deserve a chapter of their own to fully grasp their importance and influence in Louisiana's history. To get to the heart of the matter, we recommend the guided walking tours offered by Tours by Marguerite in New Orleans.
African-Americans
These are the descendants of slaves who arrived from Senegal and the Congo from 1719 onwards. In 1865, Colbert had the Code Noir promulgated in Louisiana: this edict defined the rights and duties of masters towards their slaves. While they had the right of life and death over their slaves, they also had to house, clothe and feed them decently. This was not always the case, far from it. Failure to do so could result in severe penalties. Slaves worked in the fields, built roads, raised levees to protect against flooding (one of their finest contributions was the first long levee along the Mississippi), while women cooked and nursed small white children.
They were bought and sold like cattle, and the inhumane treatment of slaves was one of the reasons for the Civil War between North and South. After the war, Creoles continued to behave in a racist manner towards African-Americans, even if some like Charles Testu or the Rouquette brothers defended them and helped them become more equal.
In colonial times, white women were rare in Louisiana, so men chose their mistresses from among the most beautiful black slaves. Their mixed-race children were called mulattos, octavons or quarterons. Some of them studied in Europe and returned highly educated, becoming writers, musicians and sometimes very wealthy. For a time, a strange custom took hold in New Orleans: the quarteronne ball. At these balls, well-bred young ladies of color were presented to wealthy white bachelors. Of course, they maintained them, but never married them. These socially recognized men and women were called Creoles of color.
One of the greatest contributions of blacks to the history and culture of Louisiana and the world was their music: gospel, negro spirituals, blues and especially jazz. You can discover their rich heritage and history on the African American Heritage Trail (louisianatravel.com/african-american-heritage-trail) or the Civil Rights Movement Trail (louisianacivilrightstrail.com).
Free people of color
The history of whites and slaves is well known, but what has remained in the shadows is a social group in between: the "free people of color", as the French called them, also known after the Civil War as Creoles of color.
In the 1800s, the free people of color had their own identity and social castes. French-speaking, cultured and mostly middle-class, they were respected members of the New Orleans community. They could be seen at the French Opera and theater, and their names were even mentioned in their own newspapers during political debates. New Orleans boasted the largest community of free people of color in the United States. Their leaders influenced the social, economic and legal evolution not only of New Orleans, but of Louisiana as a whole.
Cajuns (or Cajuns)
The Cajuns are part of a mosaic of other French-Creole-speaking populations, including native Indians (notably the Houmas), Creoles from New Orleans, and enslaved and free French-speaking and Creole-speaking Blacks, who settled in the region long before the Acadians. The Cajuns (short for "Acadian", deformed into "Cajun" in English) are the country's best-known French-speaking group. The Cajuns living in southern Louisiana are descendants of the first white settlers who emigrated from central and western France, settling in Canada in 1604, in what is now Nova Scotia.
Forced into exile between 1755 and 1763 by the English during the Great Upheaval, many of them later settled along the Mississippi and in the bayous, while others crossed the Atchafalaya basin and arrived on the site of present-day St. Martinville and Lafayette.
Living on the bangs of the English-speaking community, they evolved differently. They speak several regional dialects, derived from the varieties of French and Creole spoken in Louisiana over the past 300 years, but with many nuances and expressions that a trained ear can distinguish. Several generations of French-speaking Louisianans have lived unschooled, inward-looking lives. As a result, they were long unfairly regarded as ignorant, leading a rudimentary existence in the swamps, with no contact with other populations.
Today, many of them have perpetuated the tradition of fishing and hunting, and trappers are still very active. Some Cajuns are still boatmen, and Louisiana today boasts the largest fleet of artisanal boats in the country. They are represented in all professional categories.
The Cajuns naturally felt it necessary to perpetuate their traditional values in order to preserve their identity. They sought isolation above all to preserve their culture, which they have maintained and strengthened to this day. As a result, today there are Cajuns who are not of Acadian origin at all. In fact, it's culture, not blood, that defines today's Cajuns. And one trait that has characterized them ever since they settled in Louisiana is their joie de vivre. Their maxim: "Let the good times roll!"
There are many attractions dedicated to Cajun history and culture, including LARC's Acadian Village, Vermilionville and theAcadian Cultural Center in Lafayette.
The state of the French language
Don't be fooled into thinking that Louisiana is bilingual - the country only remained French for 80 years, a long time ago! Many of the French people who live here are teachers who have come from French-speaking countries to teach French in Louisiana schools.
Louisiana is the only state in the country to have created an agency to defend a minority language: CODOFIL (Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane, codofil.org), created in 1968, which oversees the teaching of French in Louisiana's public schools, as well as "doing whatever is necessary to encourage the development, use and preservation of French as it exists in Louisiana for the greater cultural, economic and tourist good of the state".
While there were 1,000,000 French speakers in 1970, there are around 250,000 today, although some data show a small increase thanks to the efforts of CODOFIL, particularly in immersion schools. However, in Cajun country, Louisianans often don't dare to speak French, out of simple shyness or a complex about their French, which is perceived as archaic and contains grammatical fantasies due to the suppression of French-speaking schools at the beginning of the 20th century. Nevertheless, the accent and expressions of Louisiana French are very tasty.
