Acadian.info A guide to Cajun Country

A guide to Cajun Country

Introduction

Cajun country Louisiana

Officially called ' Acadiana ' Cajun country is made up of 22 parishes in Louisiana and is home to the largest French speaking population in the US . Of the 700,000 Acadians in Louisiana about 45% speak French as a second Language .The area is named from L'Acadie ( now called Nova Scotia ) where French settlers were exiled from by the British in 1755 . the ' capital ' of French Louisiana is the city of Lafayette. Cajun country consists of three main districts, south of Lafayette are bayous and swamps of the Atchafalaya Basin where the first Cajuns settled . Northwest of Lafayette is the Cajun prairie made up of rice fields and ranches . Southwest of Lafayette is the ' Cajun Coast ' along the Gulf of Mexico

History

Le Grand D�rangement

Citizens of Grand Pre (Great Meadow ), Nova Scotia forced to leave in 1755 as the English burn their town .

The Acadians were evicted from Acadia (which has since been resettled and consists of parts of what is now known as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada) in the period 1755 - 1763; this has become known as the Great Upheaval or Le Grand D�rangement. French exiles are sent to many cities in America, many perish by disease or are sold into slavery .At the time there was a war in what is now Canada between France and Great Britain over the colony of New France. The first documented arrival of Cajun refugees in Louisiana was in 1754 .This war is known in the United States as the French and Indian War, though it was only one theater of the Seven Years' War.

The migration from Canada was spurred by the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended the war. The treaty terms provided 18 months for unrestrained emigration from Canada . Only after many of the Cajuns had moved to Louisiana did they discover France had secretly ceded Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). The formal announcement of the transfer was made in December 1764. The Cajuns took part in the Rebellion of 1768 in an attempt to prevent the transfer. The Spanish formally asserted control in 1769.

Bernardo de G�lvez

The Acadians were scattered throughout the eastern seaboard. Families were split and put on ships with different destinations. Many ended up in what was then French-colonized Louisiana, reaching as far north as Dakota territory. France had ceded the colony to Spain in 1762, prior to their defeat by Britain, and two years before the first Acadians began settling in Louisiana. The interim French officials provided land and supplies. The Spanish governor, Bernardo de G�lvez , later proved to be hospitable, permitting the Acadians to continue to speak their language, practice Roman Catholicism�which was also the official religion of Spain�and otherwise pursue their livelihoods with minimal interference. Some families and individuals did travel north through the Louisiana territory to set up homes as far north as Wisconsin.

Cajuns fought in the American Revolution. On May 8, 1779, Spain authorizes Galvez to harass English colonial holdings and help the American revolutionaries .Although they fought for Spanish General Galvez, their contribution to the winning of the war has been recognized."On August 27, 1779, Galvez leaves New Orleans with an army of Spanish regulars and the Louisiana militia made up of 600 Cajun volunteers and captures the British strongholds of Fort Bute at Bayou Manchac, across from the Acadian settlement at St. Gabriel. And on September 21, they attack and capture Baton Rouge. On March 14, 1780 Mobile surrenders to Galvez and his Cajuns .

A review of the list of members shows many common Cajun names among soldiers who participated in the Battle of Baton Rouge and the Battle for West Florida. The Galvez Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was formed in memory of those soldiers.Their fight against the British was partially in response to their treatment by the British in evicting them from Acadia.

By 1790, there are over 4,000 Cajun refugees in Louisiana . A slave rebellion on the French Island of Santo Domingo brings many Creole planters and their slaves to join the Cajuns .

In 1805, the first Louisiana American constitution is written in French .

In 1809, 6,000 refugees fleeing strife in the West Indies arrive in new Orleans .

1812, Louisiana joins the United States .In the last battle of the War of 1812 in 1815, Andrew Jackson wins the battle of New Orleans with large numbers of Cajun volunteers. Most notable are Jean LaFitte's gunners .

The Cajuns who settled in southern Louisiana originally did so in the area just west of what is now New Orleans, mainly along the Mississippi River. Later, they were moved by the Spanish colonial government to areas west and southwest of New Orleans, in a region later named Acadiana, where they shared the swamps and prairies with the Attakapa and Chitimacha Native American tribes.

1847, Evangeline is published by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow .

1862, the Confederate government moves the state capital to the Cajun prairie town of Opelousas .

Mostly secluded until the early 1900s, Cajuns today are largely assimilated into the mainstream society and culture. Some Cajuns live in communities outside of Louisiana. Also, some people identify themselves as Cajun culturally despite lacking Acadian ancestry

In 1916 the Louisiana Board of education implemented a ban forbidding students from speaking French at school. In WW1 many Cajuns who served in France found their French skills useful and sparked a renewed interest in Cajun life . In 1955, the bicentennial of the Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia brought about celebrations of Cajun life .

Cajun Food

boudin sausage boiled crayfish gumbo

Cajun cuisine originates from the French-speaking Acadian or "Cajun" immigrants deported by the British from Acadia in Canada to the Acadiana region of Louisiana, USA. It is what could be called a rustic cuisine � locally available ingredients predominate, and preparation is simple. An authentic Cajun meal is usually a three-pot affair, with one pot dedicated to the main dish, one dedicated to steamed rice, skillet cornbread, or some other grain dish, and the third containing whatever vegetable is plentiful or available.

The aromatic vegetables bell pepper, onion, and celery are called by some chefs the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine. Finely diced and combined in cooking, the method is similar to the use of the mire poix in traditional French cuisine � which blends finely diced onion, celery, and carrot. Characteristic seasonings include parsley, bay leaf, "onion tops" or scallions, and dried cayenne pepper. The overall feel of the cuisine is more Mediterranean than North American.

Cajun cuisine developed out of necessity. The Acadian refugees, farmers rendered destitute by the British expulsion, had to learn to live off the land and adapted their French rustic cuisine to local ingredients such as rice, crawfish, and sugar cane . Many households were large, consisting of eight to twelve people; thus, regardless what other vocations may have been followed by the head of household, most families also farmed. Feeding a large family, all of whose members did hard physical work every day, required a lot of food. Cajun cuisine grew out of supplementing rice with what meat, game or other proteins were available.

Cajun Life

pirogue

The early Cajun settlers lived off the bounty of the swamp and would harvest crayfish in the spring. In the summer, when water levels dropped, families would hunt and trap. Spanish moss was collected to sell as mattress stuffing . Cajuns traveled on the bayous in pirogues ,small wooden boats pushed with a pole , and are still used today .During weddings, there would of be a Money Dance, in which guests would pin money on the bride's veil. Another tradition was the la boucherir, a hog slaughter in which the community would gather . Like the Pennsylvania Dutch, the community would come together to help build a barn with les coups de mains ( helping hands ).

Acadians are devout Catholics and the Catholic church played an important part in the community . On All Saints' day, graves of the ancestors were washed and decorated and the priest delivered Mass by candlelight in the cemetery .there are many shrines to the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of the Acadians in the region .

Acadian Architecture

A popular image of the Cajuns is living in a rustic shack in the swamp, but there were also many homes, some still standing, that reflect their European heritage .

a moss picker's boat

The typical Acadian cottage had four rooms, a porch and steep gabled roof .Bousillage, a mix of Spanish moss ( called barbe espagnole 'Spanish beard by the Cajuns )and clay was used to insulate the walls .Sometimes the bousillage contains oyster or clam shells, making the bousillage more like cement . When a house was ready to be daubed, a big hole was dug in the yard, and the mud, moss and water were stirred until its consistency was right, then the mixture was daubed in the space between the studs , afterwards the walls were whitewashed .The bousillage walls were protected with cypress cladding .Flooding was a problem, so houses were raised off the ground with piers made of cypress at first and later with brick .

In Canada, Acadian houses had steep pitched roofs to shed snow in the wintertime. In Louisiana, this tradition was kept and the steep roof shed water well and the area was used as a storage area or a room called a garconniere, a dormitory for adolescent boys .

Areneaux house, Longfellow-evangeline Memorial State Park,

brick piers on the bottom for protection from flooding, typical unadorned columns above

Double Acadian house with two fireplaces, steep pitched roof, built-in porch and stairs on the front porch led to the attic. A Chinaberry tree is on the side .the Chinaberry grows quickly and can be pruned to half its bulk at the end of each growing season, which can be used for firewood .

Porches were important meeting places in Cajun houses, windows were left open with stretched fabric across them to keep out mosquitoes .The fausse galerie, or false gallery, is an extension of the porch roof which helps protect the porch from the sun and rain .

a pot cooling shelf or tablette outside a window of an Acadian house

Older Cajun houses have no closets . It was expected that the lady of the house would bring an armoire or two which would be used as closets. Also, in the kitchen, there were no built-in cabinets. There was a tall garde-manger or screened box where the kitchenware was kept and also kept off the flies .

A Cajun Pieux fence, five pieux high

Before chicken wire was available for fences, Cajuns built a type of fence called a pieux fence. The pieux was a split rail fence that is rarely seen today .

moss picker's boat, used to make bousillage

Cajun Music

Joseph Falcon and his family,Cleoma and Lulubell, one of the first to record Acadian music

Listen to traditional Cajun Music

1920s

Wayne Perry Creole Blues

Cleoma Falcon J'Suis Partis Sur le Grand Chemin Tres Dissatisfe

Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music, and have influenced pop culture through mass media, such as television commercials . Cajun music, born from ballads, has transformed to dance music -- with or without words. The music was essential for small get-togethers on the front porch, an all night house dance known as a "bal de maison", or a public dance in a dance hall called a fais do-dos . Fais do-do is a name for a Cajun dance party, originating before World War II. According to Mark Humphrey's notes from the Roots n' Blues CD "Cajun Dance Party - Fais Do-Do", the parties were named for "...the gentle command ('go to sleep') young mothers offered bawling infants." He quotes early Cajun musician Edwin Duhon of the Hackberry Ramblers, "She'd go to the cry room, give the baby a nipple and say, 'Fais do-do.' She'd want the baby to go to sleep fast, 'cause she's worried about her husband dancing with somebody else out there."

'Do-do' itself is a shortening of the French verb dormir (to sleep), used primarily in speaking to small children. Comparable to the American English "beddy-bye", it is still commonly used by French-speaking people.

Zydeco (French: "les haricots", English: "snap beans") is a form of American roots or folk music, that evolved from the jure during the late 1800s call and response vocal music of the black and multiracial French speaking Creoles of south and southwest Louisiana .

During the early 20th century this soulful, heavily syncopated , indigenous roots music was discovered by ethnomusicologists and record labels alike. Usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir , zydeco music was originally created at house dances where the blacks and free people of color of south Louisiana would gather for socializing.

Cajun Cowboys

The American cattle industry started on the Cajun prairie almost a century before that of the one in Texas . The cattle industry in the Cajun prairie dates back to 1739 when the areas first cattle brand was recorded in the French ' brand book.' The cattle traction started with Captain Antoine Bernard d'Hauterive, a French colonial official, offered to help the Cajuns who were refugees from Canada by agreeing to lend settler families eight cows and one stud bull for a period of six years, afterwards the settlers would return nine cattle and half of the offspring produced . The colonial era cattle were mainly Spanish longhorns and used on Cajun ranches called vacheries . The cattle ran wild, making the brand book very important. Pieux fences were used mainly to keep cattle out of farming areas . The Cajun vachers learned their cattle raising techniques from the Spanish vaqueros and Indians such as the Avoyelles Indians . Cattle were driven over cattle trails to the town of Washington, and from there into New Orleans . The modern day cattle industry in Louisiana is still dominated by Cajuns .

Cajun Festivals

Feb/March

Many pageants and balls held prior to Mardi Gras with a Queen Evangeline and King Gabriel .

Eunice : World championship Crawfish etouffee cook-off

April

Lafayette: festival International de Louisiane , a 6 day festival celebrating French speaking cultures

May

Opelousas: Cajun Music festival

August

Lafayette: Cajun French Music festival

Morgan City : Shrimp and Petroleum Festival

Sept

Plaisance: Zydeco Music festival

Oct

Roberts cove : Germanfest

Eunice : Cajun Prairie folklife festival

Cajun Museums

Acadian Cultural Center, in the Jean Lafitte National Park

Prairie Acadian Cultural Center - Eunice

Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center - Thibodaux

Vermilionville Authentically portrays a way of life preserved with a distinctly French accent situated on the banks of the Bayou Vermilion . $8 for adults

Acadian Village serves as a monument to the proud culture of the Acadian People. As a folk life museum, it offers an authentic vision of Acadian society

Cajun Towns

Lafayette