Received this via email from John and sharing.
Louisiana's French Creole & Metis Culture: 500 Years of
Culture by John laFleur II, 2014
"While it is a fact that in "New France" (the
huge pre-American North-American territory once known as "la Nouvelle
France") the Amerindians introduced the most fundamental cultural elements
of food ways and even some architectural patterns, it's also true that in
"Lower Louisiana..." (parts of Texas, all of what we know as
Louisiana, Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi & Alabama) the Mobilian-Choctaw
pidgin was to be wholly assimilated by the earliest Metis & Creole
inhabitants, thus resulting in what is once again referred to as
"Louisiana (Creole) French" -long misnomered 'Cajun' French-and its
sister tongue of what is contemporarily referred to as "Louisiana
Kreyole" -which being written phonetically gives the misleading impression
of being a totally distinct language from its Louisiana French mother.
Both of these dialects and the historic food ways of
kombo-lichi, jambalaya, corn maque-chou, and crawfish-eating reflect the
earliest Amerindian cultural influence; and, in the case of Louisiana Kreyole,
the later African linguistic influences.
This is the obvious result of a Metis & Creole culture
cradled within a unique 'Lower Louisiana' environment.
Having said this, however, scholars must be cautious that in
seeking to correct the "Cajun" myth-history mass-marketed out of
Lafayette's tourist bureau for the past four decades, not to commit another
over generalization about Louisiana's historical and quite contemporary
creole-metis culture.
For example, it is because of their/our French ancestral
fathers that the Amerindians learned to speak French, even if it was with the
incorporation of the Mobilian-Choctaw patois.
As I have pointed out in the simple historical Introduction
to Louisiana Creole culture in "A Cultural Legacy CREOLE Gourmet Secrets
of Louisiana" (my bigJohn lafleur's Louisiana Creole Food Club cookbook), our
French linguistic tradition and culture were the culmination of French &
Indian intermarriage and mutual acculturation and thus, catalyzed "Lower
Louisiana's" earliest 'Creole' culture.
I also point out, however, in "Louisiana's French
Creole Culinary & Linguistic Traditions: Facts vs. Fiction Before And Since
Cajunization" that apart from the French catalyst, Louisiana's unique
Creole and metis culture could not likely have evolved into what is a unique
Creole world culture.
"Creole" presumes a mixture and intermarriage of
indigenous peoples to the dominant political culture, in this case, French.
It is due, unequivocally, to the direct result of the
initial French-Indian intermarriage and later, incorporation of French-speaking
African peoples (including later Iberian peoples) that both Louisiana's food
ways and her distinctive linguistic traditions evolved into their final and
contemporary "Creole" expression.
The works of Dr. Carl Ekberg, which focus on the
pre-American colonial French period of Illinois & Missouri's French Creole
& Metis culture and people, illustrate these facts quite nicely, as does
Dr. Shannon Lee Dawdy's "Building The Devil's Empire: French Colonial New
Orleans."
The Metis children of the French and their diverse French
Creole children embraced their paternal identities and culture via conversion
to Catholicism, as well as, through parental acculturation. It was not about
'color' then.; it was about 'cultural identity.'
And, although the Indians were 'here first' they did not
create the entirety of Louisiana's unique Creole culture alone, nor were they
the first speakers of French. The French were its first speakers!
Again, it is important to note the culmination of the
intercultural, interracial marriages of these earliest groups that resulted in
the creation of a unique, multi-ethnic Louisiana Creole culture. And, let us
recall that "French Creole" culture originated shortly after the
onset of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, in the 1600s.
"Creole" therefore, remains both the historically
appropriate and a sufficiently elastic, non-racially exclusive descriptive of
ALL of our people who contributed and ultimately, created this rich and shared
culture.
Together, we, the descendants of these diverse first
peoples, their heirs of both the ancient linguistic, social and culinary
traditions, remain Louisiana's unique Creole people.
Even the later arriving descendants of the first Acadians,
assimilated this, our native-born culture and thus identified themselves as
Louisiana's 'creole' children, also.
To recall the words of Dr. Carl Ekberg, "... this group
(Creole-metis) became a sort of aristocracy..." in the New World of la
Nouvelle France right under the eyes of a French administration which was to
later officially oppose interracial marriages, but which the respective local
administrations accepted and fostered, unofficially.
This was due to the simple fact that these French and later
Spanish fathers themselves intermarried among and sired 'Creole & Metis'
children!
We know that the presence of 'French' in Louisiana was due
to the presence of French officials, of State & Church, as well as, through
its 'on the ground' representative Canadian, French & Swiss-Austrian
colonial soldiers, 'coureurs de bois' & metis children & slaves.
Still later, Parisian brides, across the Spanish period, and
into the American period which saw the influx of Colonial Creole French
Caribbean Creoles and still later, Napoleonic & 19th century French
incorporations assured franco- and creolophonic longevity in North American's
most interesting corner.
The arrival of the Acadians only assisted this historic and
cultural longevity, as they were assimilated into this predominant and powerful
indigenous multi-racial culture, adopting both its linguistic and local
cultural and social traditions.
Our Louisiana French was to continue in full and open usage
across American Louisiana until its official banning with the passage and
sometimes cruelly enforced the Compulsory English Act of 1921.
Ironically, both illiteracy and geographical isolation
married to an anti-Anglophonic culture, and subsequent historical population
infusions of franco- and creoleophonic peoples resulted in the unexpected, but
assured persistence and perpetuation of our beloved Louisiana Creole French
traditions, to say nothing of the passion of generations of our people who
treasure the culture which taught us all pain perdu, boudin, gumbo and
fricassee; jambalaya, grillades and etouffee; courtbouillon, maque-chou and
café-au lait! We are One!
Vive le Francais Creole de la Louisiane!"
--written by John laFleur