Are All Cajuns From Nova Scotia?
Feb 28th, 2009 | By admin | Category: Destinations
When I was younger, my PaPaw used to tell me that I was French Indian. He used to say the Cajun culture in general was a mixture of the two. I was little… that was good enough for me. It made sense, but now I question the simplicity of the statement. Is there more of a melting pot as it applies to our people?
Carl A. Brasseaux suggested that Cajuns also descended from other ethnic groups. You mean we’re more than just French and Indian? It’s possible. Brasseaux states that our original ancestors intermarried over many generations, with British, Spanish, German, Italian, Native American, Métis and French Creole settlers. He takes less of a purest approach to the origins of our culture. In his writings, he presents us as a micro melting pot inside the US. An interesting concept. For information on this topic, check out his books Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877 and The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803.
Another suggestion that we’re not completely “Nova Scotian” in origin is that when looking at parishes like Evangeline and Avoyelles, you’ll notice that much of the population descended directly from Quebec, or directly from France. At one time, the French spoken in these parishes was much closer to traditional French, but we now notice the Cajun French language has prevailed in the area. This is another argument in support of the idea that Cajuns are not 100% the result of migration, but more of an evolution through the intermingling of those who did migrate from Nova Scotia and other areas of the world to Southwest, LA.
Whether your ancestors are French Indian, like mine claim to be, or British, Spanish, Italian, or otherwise, consider yourself blessed to be in or from the Cajun heartland – you’re lucky enough to be Cajun. Ayyyeeee!!!
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[...] Original post: Are All Cajuns From Nova Scotia? | Cajun French [...]
Cajuns are the French settlers to Nova Scotia, which in the late 1500’s was Acadie. In the mid to late 1700’s the king of England sent his troops to take over the land the Catholic French (with help from the local Indians) made prosperous. He wanted the “Acadians” to swear allegiance to the british crown and to forget their Catholic religion, the Acadians refused, hense “le grande derangement” (the Expulsion) of the Acadians. They were sent on ships to the new england colonies (some were refused and had to find other places ), some were sent as prisoners back to France where they were not received well and not allowed to own land. Then the King of Spain which was at the time in control of the Louisiana territory, offered land grants to the Acadians to settle the area (hense the Land Grants to the original Acadian settlers in south louisiana everywhere). The majority of Acadian refugees settled in South Louisiana, some in Mobile, Alabama, some scattered throughout the new england colonies, some to parts Haiti and other island countries along the atlantic. The Acadian people mostly kept to themselves in the areas of South Louisiana and up till the early 1900s, still spoke their old world french, which today is called Cajun French. The english shortened the Acadians to Cajun, hense the term Cajun.
This is what I remember from all I’ve learned on the history of the Acadian people. I’m proud to be a desendant of Daniel LeBlanc (who all the LeBlanc Cajuns are decended from) and Guillaume Blanchard (who all Blanchard Cajuns are decended from). My cousin in Pierre Part, Minor Blanchard has a CD out that is in french and the songs are absolutely beautiful. All are about the cajuns, our history and who we are, one on “le grande derangement” for the old times and a more recent one ” memories of the bayou”. I only understand a little Cajun French because my grandmother Blanchard told my Grandpa not to teach us it. They were punished in school for speaking french and could only speak english in school. I wish I would have learned it, it’s a huge part of our heritage we are loosing.
what kind of indian are the frinch mixed with
Cajuns are French, plain and simple. Some of might have Indian in them, but it has always been known to plenty of us (and genetic tests support me on this) that the majority do not, and a few Indian loanwords is not enough to make the language French Indian. The misconception is that just because we’ve always treated the Indians well (unlike the English) we must have Indian ancestry. This is only true of a few, however, as most Métis (French-Indian mixed persons) left the French settlements to live either in their own communities or with the Indians.