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Post: #21
RE: LSU Coaching Search
(10-11-2021 05:38 AM)MOTIAW Wrote:  
(10-10-2021 07:01 PM)FrankyP Wrote:  
(10-10-2021 03:23 PM)MOTIAW Wrote:  
(10-10-2021 03:14 PM)FrankyP Wrote:  
(10-10-2021 01:51 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  Didn’t realize there were different Cajuns. That’s interesting. I was kidding though. Coach O would be a horrible person and I’d hope nobody would hire him.
Yeah I figured you were kidding but thought you might know the difference between the 2.


So serious… Educate me here? This is news to me too. Thought being from the bayou WAS part of being a Cajun? What is it then? A heritage?

Guessing by prairie, we’re not talking covered wagons etc, but fields of what? I’m being serious. Like to learn.
Go 50-75 miles or more west or north of LFT and it is all flat, ‘prairie’ lands. The large crops grown in this area are rice, sugar cane, soybeans, etc. You have to go ~60 miles south from LFT to reach the gulf and there are swamps etc there, but not a whole lot of people. Go about 25-30 miles east and you will hit the Atchafalaya Basin which is one of the largest wetlands in the country, 2nd only to Everglades in Florida. But again, not many folks left living in there anymore.

The area south of BTR is much more swampy, and people use ‘up da bayou’ and ‘down da bayou’ as directions, because most of the people there live along bayous. May not seem it to non-locals, but those folks are kind of a different kind of Cajuns. The Atchafalaya is a really big natural border between the 2 areas. It wasn’t until the mid-70’s that the Atchafalaya bridge was built so that you could easily get from LFT to BTR or Nola. O is from the area south of BTR and yes, when folks think of Cajuns they think swamps etc., but those are not the same as around Acadiana/Lafayette.

BTW, the Basin bridge is 18 miles long, the third longest bridge and one of the longest in the world. It’s a neat drive, but be careful it can also be very dangerous.

Very interesting. So mostly a “more swampy” vs “less swampy” Cajun. Yet the moniker sticks even further out to the farmland areas. Had no idea.

Serious Q, if populations have declined in the closer, less swampy areas, kinda further separating Lafayette from the proper bayou areas… in today’s world if Louisiana were just forming, do they go with Ragin Cajuns? Is it still as strong of an identifier today? Or has it become a tie to the past?

Prairie Cajuns have always been Prairie Cajuns. The Prairie Cajun culture is alive and well today in SW Louisiana; so yes, Ragin' Cajuns is as appropriate today as it was 50 years ago when the name was first used to identify sports teams here.

There are a bewildering number of French speaking sub-cultures in Louisiana, not all of them are Cajuns. Roughly speaking, Prairie Cajuns are descendants of Acadians direct from Nova Scotia who settled along the Vermilion and Mermentau rivers, which flow through the Coastal Prairie to the Gulf. Swamp Cajuns settled along the Atchafalaya River, Bayou LaFourche and Bayou Terrebonne. Bayou Teche is pretty much the boundary between the two groups, and Bayou DesAllemondes marks the Eastern Boundary. Caucasian French Speakers in metro New Orleans are largely descended from French settlers sent to the New Orleans in the early 1700's. The other sizable group of Caucasian French speakers are descendants of veterans of Napoleons army who were given land grants in what is now Evangeline Parish. This group generally considers themselves to be Prairie Cajuns, though they came directly from France, rather than through Nova Scotia.

Black French Speakers in New Orleans are generally descendants of free men of color who have been a major economic driver of the city from at least 1740 forward, or from slaves owned by both white and black free men.

Black French speakers in other parts of Louisiana are a mixed group; some are descendants of slaves brought from Haiti by Cajun settlers who left Nova Scotia for Haiti and remained there for several years before relocating along the upper reaches of Bayou Teche and elsewhere; some are descendants of slaves whose ancestors came directly from Africa to New Orleans or other southern ports. Black French speakers in Prairie Cajun areas fall mostly in the latter group. All of these Black native French speakers are loosely referred to as "Creoles", though they are as varied in background as their caucasian counterparts.

There is some disagreement about the lines between all these groups, and even as to whether some of them exist. It is even confusing to Louisianians, so I can only guess as to the confusion of folks not from here. The divisions I set out here are only my opinion, based on almost 60 years of my own observations. YOu may hear different divisions from other sources.
10-11-2021 08:05 AM
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Messages In This Thread
LSU Coaching Search - The WEST is the BEST - 10-10-2021, 01:31 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Usajags - 10-10-2021, 01:37 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Troy_Fan_15 - 10-10-2021, 01:43 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-10-2021, 01:48 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Troy_Fan_15 - 10-10-2021, 01:51 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-10-2021, 03:14 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-10-2021, 03:23 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-10-2021, 07:01 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-11-2021, 05:38 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Vobserver - 10-11-2021 08:05 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-11-2021, 08:20 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - WARDAWG93 - 10-11-2021, 08:36 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - geauxcajuns - 10-10-2021, 02:24 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-10-2021, 03:17 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Arrowhead - 10-10-2021, 02:08 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - YesAppCan - 10-10-2021, 06:44 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-11-2021, 05:29 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - RamblinRedWolf - 10-10-2021, 03:42 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-10-2021, 03:43 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - Pounce FTW - 10-11-2021, 08:44 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - BirdofParadise - 10-10-2021, 09:16 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - DawgNBama - 10-10-2021, 11:54 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-11-2021, 05:42 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - MOTIAW - 10-11-2021, 09:47 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - pjc1979 - 10-11-2021, 09:57 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - AstroCajun - 10-11-2021, 10:56 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - SMUfan - 10-11-2021, 11:09 AM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - SlickRick12 - 10-11-2021, 02:05 PM
RE: LSU Coaching Search - FrankyP - 10-11-2021, 06:31 PM



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