I say Creole because Louis Juchereau de St. Denis is one of our ancestors and he contributed to the Creole culture of Evangeline Parish. But he was born in Quebec. He sailed with his first cousin, Pierre Le Moyne on Le Moyne's second expedition and made it down to Louisiana. This is according to Wikipedia and you have to watch that site about its' information, however, I saw similar info on other places. Google his name and you'll find several sites covering his life. I'm not going to duplicate all that info on a blog post. St. Denis commanded French forts along the Gulf Coast but eventually made his way up north to Natchitoches. He learned a lot about hunting, trapping and basic survival skills from the Native Americans there. He traded and sold guns to them. The Caddo Nation was the group he dealt with the most. I'm sure he passed this knowledge down and it eventually made it down to influence the culture of the Evangeline Parish area. He was an adventurous guy and his children, his daughters, married ex-French Marines and French soldiers from Mobile such as the Fontenots and Guillorys. They also married ex-Spanish soldiers like Ortego. The major names around Evangeline parish all have a shared history because all our ancestors knew about each other and married into the same families. And the soldiers from Mobile probably were familiar with mosquitoes and humidity because southern Alabama, southern Mississippi and Louisiana have similar climates. St. Denis learned all about that also, way back in the 1700s.
I like this from Wikipedia:
"His contraband trade became a way of life on the frontier and borders of Spanish Texas and French Louisiana." (Wikipedia)
I've posted this before but I'm putting things in context.
St. Denis on my Memere Hébert's side
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis married Emmanuela Sanchez de
Navarro
Marie des Neiges Juchereau married Louis Antonio DeSoto
Marie DeSoto married Joachim Ortego
Marie Mathilde Ortego married Philippe Fontenot
Philippe Fontenot married Marie Doralise Guillory
Marie Azelie Fontenot married Henri Guillory
Aurelien Guillory married Onezia Deshotels
Elia Guillory married Adan Hébert dit Milan.
Roland Hébert married Calvalene Guillory
Me, Mike
St. Denis on Pepere Hébert's side
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis married Emmanuela Sanchez de
Navarro
Marie des Neiges Juchereau married Louis Antonio DeSoto
Marie DeSoto married Joachim Ortego
Joseph Marie Ortego married Marie Josephe Guillory
Marie Aglaee Ortego married Victorin Deshotels
Marie Aglaee Deshotels married Hypolite Hébert dit Milan
Adan Hébert married Elia Guillory
Roland Hébert married Calvalene Guillory
Me, Mike