I wonder if the 2012 edition of the Louisiana Almanac still
has for their entry for Evangeline Parish the “fact” that the parish was
settled by exiled Acadians in the Attakapas region. I hope they changed it because I used to work
in a library and we would tell kids to use only authoritative sources for their
research papers and projects. Sources like
encyclopedias, almanacs, etc were recommended.
Kids had a “Louisiana parishes” project every year and they each picked
a parish for their project. One of the
sources they all used was the Louisiana Almanac. It’s a great book but the information for the
history of Evangeline Parish is drole. It
might have changed, hopefully. The entry
only mentioned Acadians settling the area and that area was the Attakapas
region. No other groups of people were
mentioned. A kid would write this “information”
down, put it together with his pictures, etc of the parish, and present it to
his class. I worked there for 8 years. I wonder how many Rapides and Avoyelles
parish kids learned this “history.” I
would tell kids to use other sources for the history of Evangeline, but that was
only when I had an opportunity to do so.
Check the book out and see if information was changed. Send an email or letter to the editor if the
information is the same and maybe they’ll adjust it accurately. They might not. The 2008/09 edition still had that information
but I don’t know about the latest ones. And
kids do parish projects every year. I thought about this because I looked at the Almanac for something. But I only had the '97 edition to look through. I'll try to go visit a library for the latest book.
Louisiana Almanac
I went to the library today in Alexandria (17th). The latest edition has same "information," mentioning only the Acadians and Attakapas region. There is no mention of Evangeline being part of the Opelousas territory, that a small number of Acadians came to the area and no mention at all of the large number of French people settling here. You would think they would have included that information. It's like writing an entry about gumbo and somehow neglecting to mention roux and okra and chicken and sausage, etc. The entry would instead only mention one small ingredient. Yet people would read it and think that small ingredient made the gumbo.