My Dad always said that we were Creoles. I never paid attention until now. He was told by his Dad and Paw Paw not to listen to the teachers in school when they called him Cajun. He was told that he was Cajun because all Heberts came Acadie. He wondered why they would say this and worked on his genealogy.
Our Hebert family, he discovered, did not come from Acadie but instead came directly from France. This was all done when the label Cajun was becoming very popular (60s, 70s, 80s). Years later I took an interest in my own history and culture and was fascinated about the whole deal.
I was able to research what scholars had written on the subject and saw that what Dad has been saying to me was all true. Poor white Creoles in the Evangeline Parish area were called Cajuns by outsiders and this given definition was resented by the local Creole people themselves. The elites in New Orleans, etc also did not call my people Creole because of how they lived - see: French, Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer On Francophone Louisiana by Carl A. Brasseaux.
Cajun/Creole label evolution, invention of Acadiana, tourist explosion, and desire to be in a popular group has affected greatly how my area defines itself. Check out the writings that I listed and you'll see what I mean. I'll mention more as I come across them.
But there just might be more to all this......