October 2012
Cajuns
Research Report #118
Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region
Introduction
As part of a larger project that
examines demographic and community-level changes in the Gulf of
Mexico region, we reviewed racial
and ethnicity literature for eight key
groups with significant influence
in part, or all, of the region. The
Gulf of Mexico region is incredibly
diverse – with more than 13.5 million residents who trace their origins
to scores of places in Europe, Africa,
Asia and Latin America (see Table 1).
Of these various groups, we
focused our reviews on eight specific racial, ethnic and ancestry
groups: African-Americans, Cajuns,
Creoles, Croatians, Latinos, Native
Americans, Vietnamese and Other
Asians (not Vietnamese). Although
some of these groups are small in
numbers, their effects on the region
has been substantial (see Table 2).
For instance, although only about
7.8 percent of the residents in the
region identify as Cajun/French, this
group contributed significantly to
shaping the cultural and economic
climate of the region through the
tradition of Mardi Gras, ethnic food
ways, commitment to Catholicism
and culture of revelry.
Table 2. Groups of Interest in the Gulf of Mexico Region
Percentage
of Total
Population
Number
19.14
2,568,703
Cajun
7.81
1,092,377
Croatian
0.05
6,422
29.72
3,988,491
Native American
0.64
85,455
Other Asian
2.95
396,007
Vietnamese
1.15
154,669
63.72
8,912,239
Racial/Ancestry Group
African-American
Latino
White
Below you will find
the fourth in a series
of reviews. This review
discusses the experiences
of Cajuns in the region.
Acadians, or Cajuns, are
a unique group of people
who now reside primarily in 22 parishes in south
Louisiana and are often
characterized by their
unique culture (Riviere
2009, see map next page).1
Culture is one of the
most visible elements of
this group, dominated by
a French speaking Catholic history full of strife and perseverance. Predominately located in a triangular region, known as the Cajun
triangle, which ranges from the Gulf
of Mexico to the intersection of the
Mississippi River and the Red River
and between the Gulf of Mexico
Table 2 Data from ACS 5-year estimates and 2010 U.S. Decennial
Census. Numbers do not add to 100 percent because individuals can
indicate more than one race, ethnicity or ancestry group. “Other Asian”
refers to Asian groups other than Vietnamese.
These eight groups emerged as
significant through the existing literature that details their unique influences in building the culture, economic stability and political climate
in the region, as well as their ties to
the oil and gas industry operating in
the Gulf of Mexico. For each group,
we have focused our review on common elements such as the culture,
history, immigration, ties to the
oil and gas industry and economic
standing of each group. In addition to these common elements, we
examined other prominent themes
that emerged for particular groups.
For instance, the
Table 1. Diversity in the Gulf of Mexico Region
effects of Hurricane Katrina on
Percentage
Ancestry Category
of Total
Number
the Vietnamese
Population
fishermen living in
British
15.36
2,147,789
southern Louisiana
was widely disFrench
7.81
1,092,377
cussed by scholars
German
8.71
1,218,236
and thus became a
Middle Eastern
0.49
68,544
prominent discusNorthern/Eastern European
5.24
733,424
sion in our review
Southern European
3.09
432,724
of the literature on
Subsaharan African/West Indian
1.22
170,670
Vietnamese living
Total Population: 13,985,914
in the region.
Table 1 Data from ACS 5-year estimates.
1 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Note about Terminology . . . . . . . . . 2
Origins and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Oil and Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Ecology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Environmental Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Re-establishment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Primary Occupations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Additional Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
While this report refers primarily to Cajuns, all charts and
maps include people of French or French Canadian ancestry
as well. We decided to do this because of measurement
issues with the Cajun population in the Decennial Census
that are detailed later in this report (see section titled
Population).
1
anans, French-speaking
Louisianans, Acadians,
Alabama
Mississippi
Cajuns and Coonasses.
Louisiana
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Florida
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Originally called Aca!
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dians, especially before
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their settlement in
!
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( ((
Texas
Louisiana, the name was
corrupted by the English
Legend
speaking Anglo populaCensus Tracts Either 1,000+ or 25%+ Cajun, French, and French Canadian
!
(
tion who pronounced
!
(
their title as A’cajun,
!
(
10 Census Designated Places in Each State with Highest % Cajun, French, and French Canadian
!
(
which then morphed into
Interstate Highways
Cajun (Sexton 2006). The
Lakes
two predominant titles
for these people have
Data from 2010 Decennial Census. Counties selected from Fannin et al. 2011.
been Acadian and Cajun.
As will be addressed
in the Culture section
and New Orleans, the Cajun people
diaspora of the Acadian people led
below,
the
label
Acadian has not
represented approximately 50
them to settle on the land outside
been
associated
with any negative
percent of the state’s white populaof New Orleans. This migration and
stereotypes.
Cajun,
however, has
tion in the early 1940s (Kollmorgen
resettlement shaped their culture
been used as a negative identifier at
and Harrison 1946). More recently,
as an insularly one focused on
times throughout Cajun history. For
there has been some dispute about
self-preservation. Cajun culture is
simplicity’s sake and as an attempt
the actual representation of Cajuns
famous in the United States today
to maintain the language of the auin the current Louisiana population
as one of spice and revelry, of Mardi
thors cited here, the terms Acadian
(see Population below). Despite this,
Gras and Gumbo and in this paper,
and Cajun will be used interchangeaccording to the 2010 American
its shall be seen that Cajun culture
ably
Community Survey, those of Cahas been shaped by its history, ties
jun, French and French Canadian
to the land, and non-Cajun cultural
Similarly, the regions known as
descent represent an estimated 17.3
influences.
New Acadia, Acadiana, the Cajun
percent of the state’s population.
Triangle, Cajun Country, the Bayou
A Note about Terminology
and other geographical references to
After religious and political strife
Cajuns are referred to throughout
the location of Cajuns in Louisiana
in their native Acadiana, a Frenchhistorical and academic literature
will refer, unless otherwise specified,
occupied colony in modern-day
by several different names including,
to the land in south Louisiana where
Nova Scotia, Canada, and expulbut not limited to, French Louisithe Cajun population first settled
sion from their homeland, the great
and remains today.
Cajuns, French, and French Canadians in the Gulf of Mexico Region
²
Origins and History
Data from 2010 ACS 5-year estimates. Percentage of total population presented as data label. Cajun, French
and French Canadian combined.
2 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
France and French Colonialism
Calvinism was introduced into
France in the 1520s (Brasseaux
2005). Formerly a country composed of devout Roman Catholics,
the number of French Calvinists, or
Huguenots, rapidly grew throughout the 1550s and 1560s, and as
religious tensions grew, a series of
civil wars broke out in France in
the later part of the 16th century
(Brasseaux 2005). As a result of the
civil and religious strife, Huguenots
set out to find a religious haven
(Brasseaux 2005). Since many Hu-
guenots were merchants, they had
access to extensive maritime fleets
and attempted to start colonies in
several areas of the Americas, but
those were unsuccessful (Brasseaux
2005). The French did find some
success, however, in the establishment of Acadia in present day Nova
Scotia, Canada, in 1604 (Gilmore
1933; Brasseaux 2005). As the
Huguenots began to thrive as fur
trappers and farmers, in 1632, the
French Catholic government took
over colonization and appointed new
colonial leaders and encouraged the
migration of French natives, including thieves, prostitutes and convicts
to the new colonies (Aubert 2002;
Brasseaux 2005). Over the next 50
years, French Catholic colonists
continued to arrive in intervals to
settle the newly founded American
landscape known as Acadia (Gilmore 1933).
British Rule and the Acadian Exile
After many years of turmoil,
not only between Protestant and
Catholic factions, but also between
the French and British governments
fighting for colonial control, Acadia
finally became the official property
of Great Britain through the Treaty
of Utrecht in 1713 and was then renamed Nova Scotia (Begnaud 1964).
English-French tensions were high
as the British government wanted
the fertile farmlands owed by the
French and saw the economic and
religious standing of the French upper class as a threat (Gilmore 2003).
These factors, compounded in 1755
by the refusal of former Acadians to
pledge an oath to support the British crown, the British government
began the calculated removal of the
French Acadians from Nova Scotia
(Walsh and Wells 1978). Deportation tactics included the detaining
of Acadian men and their relocation
to various ports along the Atlantic
Coast between Massachusetts and
Georgia. Some who were denied entry
into Virginia were sent as far away as
England and France (Brasseaux 2005).
By the 1760s this forced deportation of Acadians resulted in approximately 6,000 individuals sent
into exile (Brasseaux 2005). Newly
settled Acadians attempted to
escape their new placement, scattered around the various colonies,
and return back home. During this
time, they lost about half of the
exiled Acadian population to malnourishment and disease (Brasseaux
2005). In all colonies, the exiles
resisted assimilation into their new
homes. Those Acadians who were
concentrated in Halifax, after much
oppression by the government there,
were able to secure a ship’s passage
to New Orleans where they intended
to then sail up the Mississippi River
and cross the land through Illinois
to Quebec (Brasseaux 2005). Once in
New Orleans, however, the Acadians
ran out of funds and were unable
to acquire any governmental assistance, so they remained in Louisiana and founded a settlement called
New Acadia (Brasseaux 2005).
New Acadia
Knowledge about the Acadian’s
uprisings throughout the colonies
and in France worried the bankrupt
New Orleans government enough
that no trouble was directed at the
new arrivals and they were allowed to settle in Louisiana without
governmental protest (Brasseaux
2005; Voorhies 1976). Soon after, the
Acadian migrants sent messages to
their friends and families who were
spread throughout the mid-Atlantic
colonies and France to invite them
to come to New Acadia to rebuild
their culture and their people (Brasseaux 2005).
Over the 30-year period between
1760 and 1790, approximately 4,000
Acadians arrived in small groups
to this new settlement (Davis 1988;
Nash 1988). The first of these settlements outside of New Orleans was
called the Attakapas Post and was
located far enough away from the
Mississippi River to avoid flooding
(Voorhines 1976). Others settled
3 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
on either side of the banks of the
Mississippi River outside of New
Orleans (Parenton 1938; Walsh and
Wells 1978).
These French Acadian travelers were only one of many groups
migrating to Louisiana at the
time, Many immigrants of varying
decent, especially European, were
moving into the area (Davis 1988).
As the Acadians and other migrants
moved onto the land of Louisiana,
they also interacted, traded and
dealt with various tribes of Native
Americans, such as the Choctaw,
Chickasaw and Natchez, who already occupied much of the land in
the Mississippi Valley (Bowie 1935;
Woods 1978).
Now settled in their new land,
traumatized by the mistreatment of
their people and the forced removal
from their homeland, the residents
of New Acadia became a closed society, avoiding contact with outside
groups, insulating their culture and
protecting their society against
the infiltration of outside fads and
values, including the rise of capitalism and Protestantism (Brasseaux
2005). The New Acadians relied on
their former Nova Scotian group
identity to develop a self-contained
society and were the first group of
European decedents to develop a
distinctly North American culture
(Brasseaux 1987; Brasseaux 2005).
As the Acadians found their
place in New Acadia, they began to
accumulate wealth and became successfully self-sustaining (Arceneaux
1982; Brasseaux 2005). Given land
and supplies by the French government, the Acadians settled in the
rural lands outside of New Orleans
and began sustenance farming
(Gilmore 2003). In addition to small
farming, many Acadians became
hunters, fishermen and trappers
(Brasseaux 2005; Trewartha 1938).
Although slave ownership and marriage with non-Acadians was resisted, as time passed some Acadians
acquired field hands and began to
participate in intermarriage with
the local Creole population (Brasseaux 2005).
Acadian or Cajun culture was so
strong in Louisiana during this time
that it influenced many European
settlers, Native Americans and African slaves (Brasseaux 1986; Lubbers
1952; Marshall 2007). Moreover, it
even successfully assimilated many
German and other Anglo settlers
that came to the region after the
1880s into the Cajun culture itself
(Sexton 2006; Sexton 1996; Smith
and Vernon 1938). Not replacing authentic Cajun surnames like
Babineaux and Thibodeaux, but
finding their place alongside them,
Anglo surnames such as Ancelet,
Clark, Romero and Veroni became
prevalent in south Louisiana as
Cajun women married non-Cajun
men (Brasseaux 2004). Still, Cajun
women were sure to keep the Cajun
tradition alive with their children
by enforcing the Catholic faith,
ensuring they learned and spoke
Cajun French and instilling in them
the values of family and community (Brasseaux 2004; Smith and
Vernon 1938). While some people
viewed the early Acadian migrants
as unfortunate exiles struggling in a
new land, some outsiders who lived
among them defended these settlers as honorable individuals whose
ancestors helped shape the history
of Louisiana (Uzee 1986).
Oil and Gas
Overview
The oil and gas industry has
significantly influenced the Acadian
or Cajun culture since the industry’s
establishment in Louisiana in the
early 1900s. Scholars agree that, for
better or for worse, Cajun culture
would look wholly different than it
does today without the discovery
of and sanctioned drilling for oil
and gas in the bayou regions (Nash
1988).
The Entrance of the Oil and Gas
Industry
The first oil well was drilled in
St. Mary Parish in 1896 (Gramling
1982,) and oil was recognized as
available in large quantities in Acadiana, or the Cajun bayou and surrounding areas, in 1901 (Broussard
1977). Morgan City, La., along with
other Cajun towns, was a mega-center of the oil industry, especially in
the 1930s and 1940s because of its
location near the Gulf of Mexico’s
oilfields (Peltier 1960). The oil industry lured Anglo-Americans (especially from Texas) to the region looking
to extract oil and gas in hopes of
making it rich (Bernard 2003).
Speeding up the pace of life, and
changing the former agricultural
towns of Acadiana to thriving cities
of the “oil patch,” the oil industry
and this new influx of non-Cajun
individuals not only changed the
cultural landscape of Cajun life, but
also provided employment opportunities for many impoverished Cajun
communities (Ancelet 1987; Bernard
2003). In fact, one scholar (White
1998) cites the development of the
oil industry as the first major source
of wage labor among Cajuns, aside
from agriculture. Moreover, by the
1950s, Cajuns became the backbone
of the Gulf Coast oil industry (Bernard 2003). The oil industry not
only brought jobs to Cajun towns
but also stores, theaters, hotels,
restaurants, bakeries and automobile dealerships (Bernard 2003). One
article notes that the Superior Oil
Co., established in 1932 in Acadia
Parish during the Great Depression,
helped boost the local economy by
employing Cajuns to build homes
and open grocery stores and restaurants (Ancelet 1987). Moreover, the
establishment of The Superior Oil
Co. in this area brought in outsiders
to work for the company who used
these local services, bringing more
money into the area (Ancelet 1987).
In addition, with more Cajuns entering the academic world due to the
4 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
GI Bill after World War II, schools
taught math, science and engineering classes that formerly blue collar
Cajuns needed to break into the
white collar jobs found in the oil
industry (Bernard 2003).
While there were economic opportunities to be had, however, many
Cajuns found the oil industry had
negative effects on their way of life,
as well (Bernard 2003). The marsh
dredging and waste dumping caused
by the oil industry polluted the
land Cajuns traditionally had used
for hunting, fishing and trapping
(Bernard 2003). Moreover, the influx
of outsiders brought mainstream
American culture with it, introducing new values from consumerism
to Protestantism to new types of
music, movies, entertainment and
television that featured English,
instead of the Cajun’s native French
(Bernard 2003; see Americanization
below).
From Boom to Bust
During the 1970s, while the rest
of the United States was in the
middle of an energy crisis, Cajun
country was booming due to the
large amounts of petroleum found
there (Bernard 2003). More than
14 billion barrels were produced in
Louisiana by 1979 (Ruston 1979).
While the national economy was on
the decline, Louisiana was attracting prospective workers from other
states to fill the labor demands of
the oil industry (Maruggi and Wartenberg 1996). Although the cost of
oil was at an all-time high, however,
in 1981, it then plummeted (Maruggi and Wartenberg 1996). This sudden glut of oil quickly changed the
oil industry in Louisiana and caused
oil companies to institute layoffs,
not only affecting workers and
their families but the economy of
Louisiana as a whole (Maruggi and
Wartenberg 1996; Bernard 2003).
Cajuns, in particular, were affected
when big oil companies left the
region (Bernard 2003). Not only did
they no longer have jobs with these
oil companies, but they could not go
back to many of their traditional
occupations of hunting, fishing
and trapping because the waste left
behind by oil drilling contaminated
the land and waters where Cajuns
once had found their livelihood
(Bernard 2003). Some Cajuns left
their homeland to find work elsewhere (see Reestablishment below).
The Oil Industry and Cajun Culture
After the oil industry established
itself and became a thriving influence not only on the economic
prosperity of some Cajuns but also
on developing the region’s infrastructure – turning towns into cities
– it additionally began to alter the
Cajuns’ traditional culture (Bernard
2003). With the introduction of
mainstream American media, including the television (and electricity), instead of going to traditional
fais do-do, or communal dances
usually held on Saturday nights,
or gathering to have dinner, share
stories and perhaps play or dance to
music, Cajuns increasingly stayed
home to watch TV (Bernard 2003).
The addition of television in the
home not only altered the traditional Cajun culture of communal
dances and food but also decreased
the value placed on the French
language, since TV and other media
was presented only in English (Ancelet 1987; Bernard 2003). The oil
industry also attracted outsiders to
the region. Many of these new “oil
men” entering regions traditionally occupied by Cajuns maintained
values and lifestyles that clashed
with those of already established
Cajuns (Savvels 1993). Most Cajun
families felt new pressures to maintain their cultural traditions while
also competing with these newly arrived workers for economic stability
(Savvels 1993). Texans were a large
group of individuals who moved
east into Louisiana to settle and
partake in the oil industry (Western
1973). These Texans, and other Anglophones who moved into Cajun,
French-speaking areas, challenged
the Francophone tradition. Not
only was the Cajun language now
in danger, but the Cajun religion,
too. As Protestants moved into
traditionally Catholic Cajun areas
to work in oil refineries, establishing
congregations and places of worship
as they settled, evangelical religions
were simultaneously experiencing a
revival across America. These two
factors led many Cajuns away from
their Roman Catholic roots and into
Protestant churches (Bernard 2003;
Clarke 1985). The oil industry also
began to change the family structure. While men went off to work
on offshore oil drilling rigs hundreds
of miles into the Gulf of Mexico
and other places far from home for
weeks at a time, women increasingly
became in charge of handling the
family’s economics and running all
aspects of the home – in the absence
of the traditionally male dominated
family and home (Bernard 2003).
Offshore Oil Drilling
The first offshore oil well and
drilling platform was installed off
the shore of Louisiana outside of
Morgan City in the Gulf of Mexico
in the 1940s (LaBourde 1996; Peltier
1960). The offshore oil and gas
industry brought jobs to Cajuns just
as the onshore oil industry had. For
example, many Cajuns previously
had been building boats for personal
fishing or for sale to commercial
fishers. But that changed, and some
builders began to build boats to accommodate the needs of incoming
sports fishers and the demand for
boats from the oil industry (Ancelet
1991). In Morgan City, La., alone,
such oil companies as Kerr-McGee,
Shell, Gulf, Phillips, Pure, Sinclair,
Sun, Texaco, California Continental, Mobil and Humble all occupied
office buildings and bases to support their offshore drilling activities
(Broussard 1977). Although the
oil industry brought jobs to some
Cajuns, however, it also altered their
ways of life. The artificial reefs cre-
5 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
ated by the thousands of offshore
oil rigs and production platforms
have affected fishing, shrimping and
other livelihood activities performed
by Cajuns in the Gulf Region
(Ruston 1979; Gramling 1982).
The increased algae production on
the artificial reefs has caused large
numbers of inedible sports fish to
thrive in the Gulf, complicating the
ability of commercial and for-profit
fisherman to operate (Ruston 1979).
This has caused territory battles
between commercial fishermen
and sports fishers, often leading to
lawsuits and the intervention of
the wildlife and gaming commission
(Ruston 1979). Moreover, offshore
oil drilling has caused the erosion of
the delta and the widening of marsh
canals. Oil and gas extraction, along
with the transportation methods
used by the oil industry to install
rigs, has caused severe land erosion
(Ruston 1979). This land erosion, in
turn, not only affects the land and
waterway structures but also the
lives of those in the areas. This erosion has altered the shrimp and fish
populations that previously thrived
in the now disappearing estuaries
(Ruston 1979). Overall, the land,
livelihood and food source alteration
has caused many bayou Cajuns to
move further inland away from their
bayou homes (Ruston 1979).
Ecology
Land Structure
Historically, the land in Louisiana
has sustained both plantation and
family farming. Large commercial
rice, cotton and sugar plantations
dominated the south and central
regions of the state along with fruit
and vegetable farming around urban
areas like New Orleans. The northern part of the state was populated
by smaller family farms also growing cotton, fruits and vegetables
(Bennett 1952; Bowie 1935; Ekberg
1996; Kollmorgen 1943).
The prairie of southern Louisiana
was used by Cajuns as agricultural
land and is known as the Cajun
Prairie. The Cajun Prairie is a long
strip of grassland that, given the
climate and soil composition, normally would foster the development
of forestland (Fearn 1995). Due to
poor naturally occurring drainage
and soil that’s not drought resistant,
however, the land is occupied by
tall grass instead of the lush forest
found in the northern part of the
state and the Louisiana coastline
(Fearn 1995).
The Louisiana coastline, occupied
and used by many Cajun farmers, fishers, shrimpers, and oyster
producers, is dominated by marshland, where exposed land often is
altered by rising water levels and
weather (Gilmore 1933). Along these
marches and swamplands are found
natural levees created by streams
and bayous that have helped to form
natural settlement and property
boundaries among the Cajun people
(Gilmore 1993). One particular area
of Cajun settlement is along the
Atchafalaya River system and the
Atchafalaya Basin (Reilly 1997).
The dominance of water and waterways around southern Louisiana
and Acadiana caused many Cajuns
to use boats as their primary means
of transportation (Gilmore 1933).
For many reasons, roads were slow
to develop in the bayou region – reducing exposure to commercial travelers by Cajuns overall. This lack of
exposure to outside sources caused
Cajuns to rely increasingly on the
land for sustenance (Gilmore 1933;
Reilly 1977). Using the resources
that were found in the forests and
the Gulf, such as trees for logging,
Spanish moss, wildlife and fish, Cajuns established an economy based
on the land on which they resided
(Gilmore 1933; Kollmorgen and
Harrison 1946). In addition, because
the marshland often flooded, the
land was fertile for growing fruits
and vegetables year-round. Therefore, many Cajun families were able
to sustain themselves by planting
small home gardens (Gilmore 1933).
Moving away from the Cajun
inland, the Cajun dominated bayou
area consisted of long fingerlike
strips of land that reached out into
the Gulf of Mexico. Most Cajuns
lived on the land near the coast that
provided tillable soil for farming.
But some Cajuns made their living
by settling further out in marshes to
take advantage of fishing and wood
and moss gathering opportunities
(Gilmore 1933).
Land Possession
Acadians in the 18th century were
owners of small parcels of land,
farming crops and ranching only
to sustain their families and local
communities. Acadian land holdings
were generally too small to participate in commercial agriculture.
Because inheritance laws and land
prices inhibited them from acquiring
more land, individual land ownership decreased among the population, and many landless Acadians
became laborers in the sugar industry (Brasseaux 2005). Moreover,
cultural, linguistic and geographic
barriers caused many Cajun farmers
to be isolated from national agricultural developments (Kollmorgen
and Harrison 1946). Therefore, most
of the Cajuns’ available farmlands
were taken over by competing ethnic
groups, the government or largescale farmers within the first century of their migration to Louisiana
(Kollmorgen and Harrison 1946).
By the 19th century, the steady
decrease in land possession and reliance on employment from outside
groups caused many Acadians to
lose their economic independence
(Brasseaux 2005).
Toward the end of the 20th
century, national historical preserves and historical parks were
established in Louisiana. The Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park, for
example, was established in 1978
with the intention of preserving the
6 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
resources of the Mississippi Delta
region, a traditionally Cajun area of
land (Brassieur 1988).
Environmental Justice
Overview (also see Oil and Gas)
During the 1960s, Louisiana’s oil
industry was expanding at such a
rapid pace that it followed closely on
the heels of Texas, the top-ranked
state for oil production (Bernard
2003). In addition, Cajun Country
produced 60 percent of the total
mineral wealth of Louisiana in 1965
(Bernard 2003). This added up to
$1.7 billion in minerals such as clay,
lime, salt, gravel, sulfur, sand and
shell in addition to natural gas and
petroleum (Bernard 2003).
With this extraction of mineral
resources, however, Cajun lands
were being destroyed. Pollution
created by oil drilling and march
dredging ruined lands formerly
used by Cajuns for hunting, fishing
and trapping (Bernard 2003). Such
drilling byproducts as asbestos,
carbolic acid, arsenic, barium, mercury, radioactive isotopes and other
chemicals destroyed the land, and
some argue it directly compromised
the health of many Cajuns (Bernard
2003). Some scholars have implied
that this increase of chemicals
released into the land and water due
to the industrialization of the area
affected the health of those living
in the area. For example, it has been
found that between 1950 and 1969
those parishes that use Mississippi
River water for drinking showed the
highest mortality rate due to cancer
in the country (White 1998).
In addition to the introduction
of unnatural amounts of chemicals
released into the environment in
Acadiana, much of the land also
was destroyed due to the intrusion
of salt water (Bernard 2003). Oil canals that were dug into the marshlands brought in salt water that
harmed the Cajun fishing industry
and its grounds (Bernard 2003).
While these canals damaged the
environment, some scholars argue
they actually increased the productivity of some fisheries by providing
better human access to them (Gramling 1982). Other scholars blame
the oil industry, in general, for the
decline in the success of commercial
agriculture in Louisiana. One author describes how the oil industry
affected the production of local hot
peppers, a tradition in Cajun cuisine
(Schweid 1989). Claiming Louisiana
as the top hot pepper producer in
1938, Schweid (1989) explains that
due to the agricultural complications brought about by the development of the oil industry – including
the loss of agricultural workers who
left farms to work for big oil companies – Louisiana quickly became the
lowest hot pepper producer among
all of the other southern states by
1978 (Schweid 1989).
Re-establishment
Overview
Those of Acadian or Cajun decent
have had a tumultuous history of
movement. Beginning with their
expulsion from their home in Acadia/Nova Scotia and resettlement in
Louisiana to their continual wandering between their rural homes
and the urban landscape in search
of employment (Dormon 1984a),
Cajuns have settled and resettled
all over the country. As discussed
in several sections of this paper, it
can be seen that while Cajuns call
the Louisiana bayou country their
home, Cajun individuals and Cajun culture can be found across the
United States. Outlined below are
two examples of Cajun migration
cited by scholars. One example is an
illustration of rural to urban movement, and the other example shows
the migrant patterns of Cajuns to
locations outside of Louisiana (also
see Origins and History, Oil and
Gas, Ecology, and Culture).
Post-1880 Movement
After the Civil War, there were
many African-American individuals
looking to settle and obtain jobs in
the South. This post-1880 wave of
new entries into the paid workforce
were unable to obtain jobs that
would provide upward mobility.
Therefore, they took jobs doing the
most menial tasks in small towns
and on farms (Sexton 2006). During
this time, increasing mechanization
on farms left farmhands with little
to do except for the most basic and
tedious of tasks. Although some
Cajuns took jobs replacing the
labor formerly performed by slaves
on large crop plantations, many
Cajuns began to move from their
rural homes to more urban settings
in search of better employment opportunities (Gilmore 1993; Sexton
2006).
After the Oil Industry
After the oil crash in 1981 and
following the trend of many Louisianans (Marguggi and Wartenberg
1996), many unemployed Cajuns
who formerly were employed with
the oil industry left their homeland
in search of employment opportunities in cities such as Nashville
and Austin to places as far away as
Chicago, Denver, New York City and
San Francisco. Although this exodus
separated Cajuns from their homes,
it allowed the Cajun culture to
spread increasingly throughout the
country. Many Cajuns opened Cajun-style restaurants and organized
Mardi Gras celebrations in their new
communities (Bernard 2003).
Primary Occupations
Late 1700s to Early 1900s
Originally working as sustenance
farmers on smaller plots of land and
lacking the ability to increase their
land holdings in the 18th and 19th
centuries, many Acadians sought
employment in the commercial agricultural industry as overseers and
laborers with such crops as sugarcane and cotton (Cortez and Rubiski
1980; Tentchoff 1980; Ulmer 1949).
Cajuns also were self-employed as
boat builders, fishers, trappers and
7 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
wood and moss gatherers using the
wilderness that the bayou provided
for sustainability (Bowie 1935;
Gilmore 1933).
After the Civil War, what little
land was held by the Acadians was
ravaged and often unsalvageable.
Yet individuals did not stray far
from their homes and destroyed
lands to provide for their families. For example, many Cajuns
remained behind to barter their
fish and fur or gather moss for sale
to local shops (Jones 2004). Moreover, Cajun farm tenants began
to replace labor formerly supplied
by slaves on plantations (Gilmore
1933) – although most impoverished
Cajuns sought work as lumberjacks,
huntsmen, fishermen and trappers
in the marshes of the Louisiana
coast (Brasseaux 2005; Jones 2004).
Meanwhile, those Cajuns who
had upper-class status or education moved into more urban areas,
seeking employment as attorneys,
educators, clerks and even factory
workers (Brasseaux 2005).
In the years after the 1880s, rice
farmers began to develop the land
in south Louisiana. A few Cajun
farmers took up the rice crop as
landowners, but most Cajuns in the
region worked digging irrigation canals or providing labor to tend and
harvest the rice crops (Sexton 2006;
Ulmer 1949).
Later, in the early 1900s through
the Great Depression of the 1930s
and beyond, the oil industry found
its way to the bayou – providing
employment for the local Cajun
population (see Oil and Gas and
Ecology).
World War II and After
During the late 1930s and into
the 1940s, many Cajuns enlisted in
the U.S. armed forces and served in
World War II, some of them even
fighting on the French shores from
which their ancestors came hundreds of years before (Kube 1994).
During the war, many Cajuns served
as interpreters due to their familiarity with the French language
(Kube 1994). After WWII, Cajun
veterans took advantage of the
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of
1944, also known as the GI Bill, and
enrolled in college, leaving former
folk occupations such as farming,
trapping, logging and fishing behind
while seeking education and better
employment opportunities (Bernard
2003; Theriot 2007).
During this time, many Cajuns,
including those who were not college
bound, began leaving rural areas
and entered more urban settings in
search of better paying blue-collar
jobs such as carpenters, mechanics,
butchers, grocers, electricians and
oil field workers (Bernard 2003).
Those Cajuns who remained behind
to work the land predominantly
participated in cotton farming and
increasingly in rice and soybean
production (Sexton 2006).
The Oil Industry (also see Oil and
Gas)
During the 1970s, while the rest
of the country was in a recession,
the oil industry was booming in
Louisiana. There was employment
to be had with petroleum and gas
companies looking to hire any people willing to work as pipe fitters,
welders, drillers, mud engineers and
the like (Brasseaux 2005). Responding immediately, many Cajun teens
dropped out of school to pursue
these high paying blue-color jobs
(Brasseaux 2005).
Jobs in the oil industry were
promising and lucrative for young
Cajuns, but this lasted only as long
as the oil and gas industry boomed.
When the oil industry faltered in
the early 1980s, many Cajuns were
left unemployed and without high
school diplomas because they had
dropped out of school years earlier
(Brasseaux 2005). Therefore, in the
mid-1980s, many Cajuns moved by
the tens of thousands to nearby
states such as Florida, Georgia and
Tennessee looking for occupational
opportunities (Brasseaux 2005).
Today
Between the 1990s and 2000s,
data shows many Cajuns still
located in Louisiana have more
working-class jobs than upper-class
positions. For example, in both
1990 and 2000, it was found that
a Cajun individual over the age of
16 was more likely to be employed
in the transportation, manufacturing or construction industries and
less likely to occupy a position as
a manager or a professional person
than any other non-Hispanic white
ethnic group (Henry 2005).
In addition, during the past few
decades, Cajuns have found economic opportunity in the tourism
industry. Drawing from their long
history as storytellers, or raconteurs, and community entertainers,
many Cajuns have used their skills
to entertain tourists interested in
witnessing Louisiana culture. The
allure of “Cajun swamps” and
“The Cajun Man” as part of Cajun folklore has drawn individuals
to the region to take swamp tours
and experience other Cajun performances (Wiley 2002). Many Cajuns
have used their involvement in the
tourism industry as a way to recover
from the economic hardship brought
on by the fall of the oil industry in
the bayou (Wiley 2002).
Moreover, many Cajuns have
opened successful Cajun-style restaurants and are producing frozen
and precooked meals that are sold
across the United States (Teneyck
2001). Promoting their unique
culture and traditional food items,
has led to the commodification of
Cajun culture, however good or bad,
so these Cajuns are not only entertaining those who want a bit of the
Cajun experience but are feeding
them, too (Jones 2004; Means 2003).
8 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
Culture
Overview
Much of Cajun culture developed
out of the melding of the Acadian
French customs that the Cajun
migrants brought with them from
their French homeland. These
customs, combined with the culture
of the natives and Europeans with
whom they interacted once they
were settled in Louisiana, created a
culture unique to the United States.
The opposing combination of being
stereotyped as outcasts and the need
to interact with individuals of outside cultures for work and economic
stability caused Cajuns to develop
a very eclectic and uniquely preserved, albeit endangered, culture
(Brasseaux 2005; Deutsch and Peyton 1979; Dormon 1983; Jones 2004;
LaPlante 2008). Estaville (1987)
very aptly summarizes the history
of the ever-changing Cajun culture
this way: “In the 17th century they
were becoming Acadians. In the
18th century they were becoming
Cajuns. And in the 19th century
they were becoming Americans.”
Population
Today there is some debate as to
the exact number of self-identifying
Cajuns living in Louisiana. The statistics published by the U.S. Census
Bureau for the year 2000 reported
about 42,000 individuals reported
being of Cajun ancestry (Donato
2004). Experts, however, have estimated that there were between
500,000 and 700,000 Cajuns living in
Louisiana at the turn of the century
(Donato 2004). Yet another scholar
offers that in the 1990s, about 10
percent of Louisiana’s population
was of Francophone decent (Webre
1998). This would add up to approximately 400,000 individuals but
would include not only self-identified Cajuns but also individuals of
Spanish, German, African or Native
American decent that might have
married into the Acadian population (Webre 1998).
Some complexities lie in this
self-identification as Cajun. For
example, one researcher notes that
some African-Americans who speak
a dialect of Louisiana French,
whether it be Cajun, Creole or other,
self-identify as Cajun but that outsiders would not consider them so
(Tentchoff 1975).
The confusion with population estimation using census data
among self-identifying Cajuns has
been discussed by several scholars.
Researchers considered factors
such as methodological issues with
the census survey, higher death
rates, outmigration of Cajuns from
Louisiana, a cultural movement
away from Cajun pride and the like
as barriers to accurate estimation
(Henry 2005).
One of the primary methodological problems with measuring “Cajuns” through the decennial census
is what some scholars refer to as the
“example effect.” It wasn’t until
1980 that the census began measuring ancestry with the open-ended
question: “What is your ancestry?”,
which was posed to a sample of 15
percent of the population (Henry
2005). After the question, a list of
example ancestry groups was meant
to aid in prompting people to think
of their heritage. In 1980, the list
included African-American, English, French, German, Honduran,
Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Jamaican,
Korean, Lebanese, Mexican, Nigerian, Polish, Ukrainian and Venezuelan (U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division). For the 1980 census,
Cajuns were not considered a unique
group but instead were reported as
French.
The ancestry question was added
to the entire census in 1990 in a
slightly different form, and Cajun was listed as an example. As a
result of “Cajun” being listed as an
example in 1990, there was a surge
of people reporting Cajun ancestry
that year. When the 2000 census was
constructed, Cajun was no longer
listed as an example and resulted in
a steep decline in the Cajun population when the report came out
(Henry 2005, U.S. Census Bureau,
Population Division). For example,
in 1990, 431,651 individuals in
Louisiana reported being of Cajun
decent (Henry 2005). Remarkably,
however, this number dove drastically to only 44,960 Louisiana Cajuns
in 2000 – a drop of about 90 percent
(Henry 2005). In 2010, measurement of ancestry was transferred
to the American community survey
and removed from the decennial
census, adding to the difficulty of
accurately tracking the Cajun population across time. These methodological problems are evident when
considering the presence of Cajuns
in the Gulf of Mexico region, and in
the nation, from 1980 on.
Despite significant methodological and measurement issues regarding Cajuns, some scholars suggest
that this alone does not account for
the decline in Cajuns in the United
States. In the end, it has been determined the drop was a result of a
Data from U.S. Decennial Census SF3 and 2010 ACS 5-year estimates. (Cajun, French and French Canadian
population in millions in parentheses.)
Data from U.S. Decennial Census SF3 and 2010 ACS 5-year estimates.
9 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
national and statewide shift toward
identifying Cajuns as American – a
surge of encouragement to reduce
the importance of cultural uniqueness and identify as part of the
general society (Henry 2005).
Family
By the early 1800s, Cajuns had
become stable enough to increase
family size and began to marry children off at earlier-than-average ages
(Arceneaux 1982). Almost all Cajun
children were married, and courtship was brief (Arceneaux 1982,
Ruston 1979). Some interesting
cultural notes include that women
were allowed to refuse a marriage
proposal from their suitors, sometimes by sending her suitor a cut out
paper man in an envelope or that
fathers could encourage suitors by
whitewashing the top of the chimney, a sign that an eligible daughter
was available in that home (Ruston
1979). Marriage was so prevalent
and fertility rates were so high that
by the 1820s there is evidence that
birth limitation techniques were being practiced (Arcenaeaux 1982).
Regardless of family size, however, Cajun culture always has been
one of a close-knit family structure
based on a nuclear family and that
family’s involvement with the local
community. To illustrate just how
important the idea of home and
family interaction is to some Cajuns,
one scholar who observed Cajun
servicemen leaving their homes saw
that they were very visibly emotionally disturbed by this act (Kollmorgen and Harrison 1946). This same
scholar also noted that in the 1940s
about 40 percent of Cajuns who left
their families to join the Catholic
priesthood left the seminary due to
homesickness (Kollmorgen and Harrison 1946).
Perhaps it is this connection to
family and the Cajun culture that
causes Cajuns to maintain high rates
of endogamy. Cajuns tend to marry
within the Cajun ethnicity, despite
the diverse ethnic groups found in
Louisiana (Bankston III and Henry
1999). Although findings show that
this in-group marriage may be
related to socioeconomic homogamy
(Bankston III and Henry 1999),
it remains a demonstration of the
interconnectedness of the Cajun
family.
Also Known As Cajuns
The name Cajun came from the
Anglo mispronunciation of their
original clan name: Acadians.
Acadians, or Cajuns, are the direct
descendants of the group of French
colonists who were deported from
modern day Nova Scotia (under
British Rule and Acadia under
French rule) when Great Britain
conquered the territory in the mid1700s (Brasseaux 2004). By the
1880s Cajun became the common
term for Acadians (Henry 1998).
At that time, there was an increasingly predominant separation
between the rising of an Acadian
upper class and lower class (Henry
1998). The lower class retained
the label Cajun and from there the
Cajun ethnicity carried with it a
negative connotation (Henry 1998).
Now, the term is used especially
to describe individuals who live in
Louisiana with a generally agrarian
lifestyle and participate in the Cajun language and culturally identify
as Cajun (Brasseaux 2005). While
some scholars have shown that the
Cajun ethnicity is still associated
with lower socioeconomic status and
lower-class jobs, namely those in the
oil and textile industries (Henry and
Bankston III 1999), they also have
shown Cajuns have attempted to
use this negative stereotype placed
upon them by outsiders to rework
their image and portray themselves
in a more positive light (Henry and
Bankston 2001).
One of the ways that outsiders
created the public view of Cajuns
as uneducated or backwards was
through humor. Non-Cajun satirists
10 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
used the Cajun dialect on the radio
and in publications to ridicule Cajun
politics and shape outsiders’ views
of Cajun culture (Richardson 2007).
In the 1960s, however, during the
Cajun Renaissance (also see Cajun
Renaissance), Cajuns attempted
to claim this dialectical humor for
themselves and to use it to redefine
outsiders’ perceptions of the Cajun
culture (Richardson 2007).
There are many misconceptions
among the general public about
what Cajun culture actually is. To
remedy this issue, in the mid-1990s,
a group of individuals sought to
educate the population on what it
means to be Cajun (Webre 1998).
These Cajun cultural enthusiasts
have composed a cluster of Web
pages called Cyberacadiana, wherein
they seek to define and promote Cajun culture and dispel any assumed
negative stereotypes (Webre 1998).
To illustrate how prevalent these
websites were, one researcher cited
that on a Web page called Cajuns
of the Net, 236 links were provided
to additional Cajun cites in 1998
(Webre 1998).
In addition to the names Acadian
and Cajun, Cajuns also have come to
be known as Coonasses. This term
has been used to refer to Cajuns for
more than 70 years, and while there
has been much speculation by both
Cajuns and non-Cajuns regarding
the origin of this title, the origins
are unverifiable (Sexton 2009).
Understood generally as an insult,
Cajuns view the term in different
ways, depending upon who is using
it and in what context. It seems not
all Cajuns feel the same way about
being identified as a Coonass. For
example, the term Coonass often is
considered a vulgar name, but many
Cajuns in Avoyelles Parish use it as
a term of endearment when speaking to each other (Riviere 2009).
Similarly, some Cajuns use the term
with pride. These generally are
individuals who are very involved in
the Cajun community, for example
(Sexton 2009). Some older Cajuns
with working class backgrounds
use the term regularly without
the intention of vulgarity (Sexton
2009). Yet some Cajun youth use
the word for self-referral to distinguish themselves from their parents
and grandparents who these youth
would consider real Cajuns (Sexton
2009). Similarly, some Cajuns use
the term for self-referral to distance
themselves from their Acadian or
French past (Sexton 2009). On the
other hand, some Cajuns, regardless
of age or even socioeconomic class,
take offense to the title Coonass by
anyone at all, but most especially
non-Cajuns (Sexton 2009).
Although there are some shared
labels applied to Cajuns and Frenchspeaking Creoles, such as uncultivated, simple-minded, illiterate and
lazy, Cajuns and Creoles are not one
and the same (Dubois and Horvath
2003). Creoles (hailing from AfroFrench descendants) were marginalized by society because of economic
status and skin color. What they
shared with Cajuns were this marginalization and the French language (Dubois and Horvath 2003;
Hodges 1972). Since World War II,
however, Louisianans have come to
embrace the culture of both Cajuns
and Creoles as uniquely Louisianan
through music and food (Dubois and
Horvath 2003).
Cajuns of Alabama
There is a small group of individuals who live on a strip of land only
9 miles wide about 30 miles north
of Mobile County, Alabama (Bond
1931). Sometimes known as The
Lost Tribe of Alabama, they also are
called the Cajuns of Alabama. Although there is no known ancestral
relationship with the Cajuns of Louisiana, like the Louisiana Cajuns,
the term Cajun carries a derogatory
connotation for the Alabama Cajuns
(Bond 1931; Griessman and Henson 1975). The Cajuns of Alabama
claim to have Native American
heritage but have Scottish, Irish
and English surnames (Bond 1931).
The Cajuns of Alabama tend to
be Methodist or Baptist, and the
surrounding community considers
them to be uncouth, unintelligent,
backwoods, and poor (Bond 1931).
Trends Toward Americanization
During the Civil War, most Acadian farmers and landowners supported Cooperationist candidates,
but as tensions rose, poor Acadians
increasingly supported the separationist movement (Brasseaux 2005).
After the Confederate government
seized crops and livestock to sustain
the Confederate Army, however,
many Acadians welcomed the Union
Army as liberators only to find they
were no friendlier than Confederate
soldiers (Brasseaux 2005).
During the Reconstruction period,
amidst much political turmoil,
many of the wealthier Acadians
shunned their heritage and integrated into mainstream Louisiana
culture. Meanwhile, poor Acadians
were left economically devastated,
and the stigma of being lower class
became increasingly associated
with the Cajun identity by outsiders (Dormon 1984a). Upper-class
Acadians who moved to urban areas
seeking assimilation into Anglo
society disassociated themselves as
Cajuns and began to speak English
only and educate their children in
English schools, leaving poor Cajuns
with the stereotype of being poor
and uneducated (Brasseaux 2005).
After WWII many Cajuns who
had the opportunity to go to college
due to the GI Bill, used the skills
they learned in the military or in
factories during WWII and therefore increased their opportunities
for upward mobility (Theriot 2007).
After WWII, the new Cajun generations of the 1950s and 1960s did not
shun their Cajun ancestry like those
a century before them. Instead, they
embraced and promoted their Cajun
identity (Brasseaux 2005). In fact,
11 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
as the Cajun Renaissance (see Cajun
Renaissance), or the revival of the
Cajun ethnicity beginning in the
1960s, grew, some scholars saw the
fascination of America with the Cajun festival of Mardi Gras and the
increasing commodification of it as
an example of the Americanization
of the Cajun culture (Bankston III
and Henry 2000). It has been shown
that modern Cajuns are increasingly
being assimilated into mainstream
American society through economic
and educational institutions, but
many Cajuns still retain many
cultural traits that uniquely identify
them as Cajun (Clarke 1988; Green
2005).Yet, while some individuals
today, even those of Cajun decent,
revere the Cajun culture of their ancestors, many feel Cajuns have lost
much of their Francophone uniqueness and have become steadfastly
Americanized (Abbott 2006).
Language
Although the French only had
control of Louisiana for a short
period in Louisiana’s long history
as a colony (Haggard 1945), the
French language became a dominant language in the region and has
continued to influence the languages
of Louisiana today, including the
English spoken in places such as
New Orleans (Eble 2009). During
the time when Acadians, or Cajuns, were settling in Louisiana, so
too, were peoples of other ethnic
origins. Germans, Spaniards and
Italians were beginning to settle
in the French colony (Kollmorgen
and Harrison 1946). This variety
of cultures caused the melding of
languages and influenced the development of what is now known as
Cajun French (Bodin 1990; Kollmorgen and Harrison 1946). Moreover,
many Native Americans in the
region adopted the French language,
and as intermarrying occurred between the Native Americans and the
Cajuns, Louisiana’s Francophone
community became ever more complex (Dajko 2009).
Early on, Cajun French had been
influenced by the English language,
stemming from the Acadian’s tumultuous history with the British
colonizers in Canada and later the
English living in Louisiana (Fortier
1891). Throughout Cajun history,
the English and French languages
have influenced each other. Moreover, informal speech between
Cajuns increasingly incorporated
words adopted from the European
and Native American languages
found in the variety of cultures
around them (Kollmorgen and Harrison 1946). Although influenced
by cultures outside of the Cajuns,
this unique Cajun patois was not
used for written communication and
outsiders were not exposed to it, so
few outside of the Cajun community understood it (Kollmorgen and
Harrison 1946). As this distinctive
language predominated in the Cajun
community, it encouraged group cohesion and inhibited communication
with the outside world (Kollmorgen
and Harrison 1946).
Still, as Cajun French was, in fact,
derived from the formal French
language. There is evidence that it
retains many similarities with the
French spoken outside of the traditional Acadian territories (Johansson 1981; Lane 1934; Picone 2006).
Some scholars have identified the
similarities and differences found
in these various Louisiana French
dialects and argue the differences
between them can be traced back to
their ancestors’ heritage from even
before the Acadian exodus from
Canada to Louisiana (Rottet 2004).
The Cajun French language has
been on the decline since the early
20th century (Sexton 2000; Trèpanier 1988). In fact, as a wave of
nationalism took over the United
States, Louisiana legislators passed
a ban on the French language in the
classroom and in 1921 constructed a
law in the state’s constitution to enforce the ban (Bernard 2003, Camp
2010, Riviere 2009, Wiley 2002).
This law prohibiting French from
being spoken or taught in schools
also brought with it a stigma that
Louisianans who spoke French were
uneducated and unintelligent (Camp
2010). Therefore, many parents
stopped teaching their children
French to avoid stigmatization
(Camp 2010). Yet, before this law
was passed, Cajun French was the
primary language used in Cajun
churches, in the home, at community events and in other social
settings (Riviere 2009). Even today,
reeling from statewide labeling and
persecution decades before, many
Cajuns and non-Cajuns still refer
to Cajun French as Broken French,
Bad French or Bayou French (Riviere 2009).
After World War I and the Red
Scare, Cajun children were chastised
additionally at school for speaking
French. Just decades later, however, in the 1960s, during what was
deemed the Cajun Renaissance,
Cajun French had a revival in the
culture, and the interest among Cajuns to learn and use the language
grew (Camp 2010). There was such a
renewed interest in teaching French
in public schools during this time
that French teachers from France
and Belgium were brought in to
support such efforts (Green 2004).
Some scholars saw the beginnings
of this revival of southern dialectical languages like Cajun French as
incredibly important because the
preservation of regional language
is important for the retention of
cultural heritage (Leich 1977).
Yet, Cajun youth in school today
are reluctant to speak the language
of their ancestors and report that
the Cajun French spoken at home
is very different from the French
they learn at school (Camp 2010).
Still, with lingering memories of
the importance of language in their
culture, older Cajuns have reported
feeling sad and disappointed that
younger generations are not learning
Cajun French as part of their cul-
12 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
tural heritage. They have said their
language helped them define who
they were as a Cajun people (Riviere
2009).
In 1941, it was estimated that
about a half million whites and
thousands of African-Americans
living in Louisiana spoke a dialect
of French (Meigs 1941). It was estimated in 1955 that approximately
40 to 50 percent of the Louisiana
population was of French decent
(Bertrand 1955). Today, approximately 250,000 individuals speak
Cajun French (Ryon 2002). But
this number is quickly declining as
the Louisiana French dialects erode
(Ryon 2002).
The transmission of Cajun French
between generations is dependent
upon assimilation of Cajuns to the
non-Cajun culture around them
(Bankston III and Henry 1998).
For example, some scholars have
found that since the Cajun ethnicity
is associated with lower socioeconomic advantage, those individuals
who identify with and maintain the
traits of the Cajun ethnicity tend
to be more disadvantaged because
of this identification (Bankston III
and Henry 1998). Therefore, Cajun
parents are less likely to pass on
these disadvantageous traits to their
children, and ironically non-Cajun
parents or parents living outside
of traditional Cajun areas who are
assimilating to non-Cajun culture
are more likely to encourage identification with ethnic traits such as
learning Cajun French (Bankston
III and Henry 1998). Still, other
scholars have found that the more
an individual has access to the Cajun language, the more the individual comes to self-identify as Cajun
(Dubois and Melançon 1997).
Among all French dialects found
in Louisiana today, Cajun French
is the most commonly spoken and
maintains the most prestige – even
more than the Louisiana Creole that
is said to have highly influenced
many aspects of the language itself
(Johansson 1981; Baronian 2005).
In a study comparing Cajun French
and Creole, it has been found that
Cajun French is associated with
values linked to females and the
older generation as well as a sense
of social superiority while Creole
is conversely linked to values associated with males, the younger
generation and social equality
(Tentchoff 1977). Although some
scholars believe the dialectic preservation of Cajun French is on the
decline (Picone 1997), others have
encountered encouragement in the
academic system for the introduction and sensitization of various
southern dialects, including Acadian
French and Cajun English through
literature for children in elementary
school (Cross and Aldridge 1989).
In addition to forming their own
unique dialect of French, the Cajun
culture also has developed its own
dialect of English known as Cajun
English that is still spoken today
(Riviere 2009). Mainly, this form of
English is distinguished by a very
a particular accent used in word
pronunciation (Dubois and Horvath
1998; Oetting and Garrity 2006).
For example, pronouncing the work
think as tink or that as dat (Dubois
and Horvath 1998). Among Cajuns
it has been shown the majority of
individuals who tend to speak with
this accent are the older and younger generations, while middle-aged
Cajuns show less signs of speaking with the Cajun English accent
overall (Dubois and Horvath 1998).
Similarly, other scholars have found
that not all Cajuns maintain an
accent or are necessarily associated
with the Cajun ethnicity because of
their accent (Walton 1994). Other
Cajuns use French inspired slang
words in their everyday English. Using words such as beignet for fritter,
pirogue for rowboat and kyoodle for
mutt, many Cajuns, particularly in
the New Orleans area, prove their
French heritance (Hall 2000).
Mardi Gras (or Carnival)
Mardi Gras is celebrated by Cajuns annually on the Tuesday before
the Lenten season begins (Ancelet
1991). Mardi Gras is a traditional
celebration that has morphed out
of pagan springtime fertility, death
and resurrection ceremonies and is
based on rituals that emphasized
nudity, seduction and trickery that
date back to medieval times (Ancelet 1991; Lindahl 1996; Sawin 2001).
Stemming from the general French
Louisiana population in the 18th
and 19th centuries, Mardi Gras has
become identified as specifically
Cajun since the 1960s when a revitalization of the local Cajun culture
occurred (Sexton 1999). Specific
practices that have survived and
are still used in Mardi Gras today
include costumes and masks that
represent the opposite of one’s place
in society and provide anonymity
that allows for chaotic behavior and
celebration in public spaces (Ancelet
1991). Mardi Gras traditionally is
celebrated in a processional manner
through town and city streets where
alcohol is consumed to increase the
altered state of consciousness for
revelers encouraging the shedding of
inhibitions (Ancelet 1991).
The development of Mardi Gras
among the Cajuns in Louisiana varied between those who lived in the
countryside and those who resided
in cities. In the country, men dressed
in costume would travel between
farms offering entertainment in
exchange for gifts and donations of
food items to the communal gumbo
that would be eaten later that day
(Ancelet 1991). Often the gift was
a chicken the Mardi Gras traveler
had to chase and catch – providing entertainment to the family
who was being visited (Ancelet
1991). This chicken might be used
for the communal gumbo or might
be kept by the Mardi Gras traveler
to give to his wife who would later
sell the eggs for spending money
(Ancelet 1991; Ruston 1979). Some
13 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
Mardi Gras travelers would take out
grievances upon their neighbors by
forcing the women to dance, stealing
food or vandalizing property (Ancelet 1991).
In cities or towns, Mardi Gras
developed as an organized parade of
street performers, dancers and musicians to entertain the crowds (Ancelet 1991). Musicians would play
the traditional Mardi Gras song and
other Cajun folk music while revelers and entertainers alike wore the
traditional Mardi Gras colors of yellow, purple, green and red (Ancelet
1991). Parades eventually developed
into large processions with floats
where merchants and aristocrats
would throw goods out to the crowd
(Shrum 1996).
In both the city and country
celebrations, the festivities ended at
midnight in honor of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent (Ancelet
1991). In south Louisiana especially,
king’s cake is eaten on Ash Wednesday. Baked inside the cake is a bean
or plastic baby, which a symbol of
fertility, and the person who receives
the piece with the bean or baby is
king for the day (Ancelet 1991).
Cross-dressing has been a prevalent phenomenon throughout Mardi
Gras celebrations. Often, men dress
as women to identify what they are
not (a common theme in Mardi Gras
costuming), and in early times, it
was said that only those men who
were truly masculine could pull off
dressing as a woman without arousing suspicion of the individual’s
sexuality (Ancelet 1991). Moreover,
in the very early days of Cajun Mardi Gras, only men were allowed to
participate in the traveling celebrations (Ancelet 1991). Some say this
is because women did not want their
men, in disguise, to attempt to have
sexual relations with other women
(Ancelet 1991; Ruston 1979).
Generally, in those early days, the
female involvement in Mardi Gras
was to design and sew the costumes
and masks for the men and to cook
the gumbo (Ware 2001). Now, however, women participate in Mardi
Gras in many of the same ways
men do (Ware 2001). Some women
have worked to change rural Mardi
Gras traditions to fulfill their own
needs and tastes (Ware 1994). Some
women, called Lady Mardi Gras,
even ride, masked, through small
towns entertaining for money or
food, just as men traditionally have
done (Ware 1994).
In smaller towns today, Mardi
Gras celebrations have reduced in
size and number. Many individuals
are unable to attend due to modernday work schedules or fear of injury
and subsequent loss of income
(Sawin 2001). But Mardi Gras
still thrives in the larger southern
Louisiana cities, most especially
New Orleans (Ware 2003). The
diverse group of Cajun individuals today who organize many of
the Mardi Gras activities all agree
Mardi Gras events should reflect
and promote the Cajun ethnicity.
Due to pressures to acculturate by
the non-Cajun community, however,
some disagree on exactly how this
should be done (Esman 1982). Many
Cajuns from older generations feel
youngsters participating in Mardi
Gras in modern times are not aware
of the meaning of Mardi Gras, are
not familiar with the traditions of
Mardi Gras and are only interested
in drinking and partying (Sawin
2001).
Some scholars link the public
drunkenness and the misconduct
that follows to the anonymity
Mardi Gras costumes provide the
participants (Sexton 2001). Perhaps
the most notorious act of modern
day Mardi Gras debauchery is the
exposure of a woman’s breasts in
exchange for beads. The origins of
this practice, which began in the
1970s, cannot be concretely determined (Shrum 1996). Still, this
act, along with many others, is an
illustration the celebration of Mardi
Gras continues to thrive and change
over time.
Cuisine
The uniqueness of Cajun cuisine
serves to unite the diverse Cajun
population, providing them with
a distinct culinary character. A
national fad, perhaps replacing the
French language as the most important element in Cajun culture
(Trèpanier 1988), Cajun cuisine is
popularly known as being spicy,
fried, creative and innovative. But
there are a variety of influences and
techniques that have been incorporated over the years to make Cajun
cuisine what it is today (Ten Eyck
2001).
Cajun cuisine began with the
French and Acadian styles used
by the original Acadian migrants,
who used cooking techniques and
ingredients that they brought them
from their native France (Leistner
1986). Yet, once settled in their new
home in Louisiana, many Cajuns
interacted with the natives, who
taught them unique cooking styles
and food items (Mandelblatt 2003;
Ten Eyck 2001). For example, natives taught the new migrants how
to extract sugar from sugarcane,
and crawfish was introduced to the
new migrants’ diet (Ten Eyck 2001).
Reciprocally, many French colonialists took Native American foods and
demonstrated how they could be
“civilized” by cooking them in the
French fashion (Dawdy 2010). In
addition to the Native American influence, Cajun cuisine has integrated
various ingredients and styles from
the German, Spanish, Irish, Italian,
African and other cultures that also
migrated into the Louisiana area
(Hill and Barclay 2008; Mandelblatt
2003). Examples of this include the
use of okra brought by Africans and
the creation of jambalaya, which is
similar to Spanish paella, without
saffron (Hill and Barclay 2008).
14 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
The ability of Cajuns to adapt
their cuisine to the unique Louisiana ecosystem and mesh of cultures
around them has proven their environmental competence and ability
to be innovative (Gutierrez 1983;
Kniffen 1960). This ability has led
to the diverse and even improvisational character of Cajun cuisine.
Modern Cajun dishes start out with
a basic foundation but then lend
themselves to a variety of ingredients in the everything-in-the-kitchen
style that has come to be known as
uniquely Cajun (Ruston 1979).
Gumbo, jambalaya, sauce piquant
and etoufee are three traditional and
very popular food items made by
Cajuns everywhere. To make gumbo,
one always starts with a roux, which
is flour slowly browned in butter or
animal fat (Ruston 1979). Next, add
onion, bell peppers and garlic, the
trifecta of Cajun ingredients known
as Mon Dieu (Ruston 1979). For
the main ingredient, gumbo generally is made with any meat except
beef; most traditionally a combination of oysters, shrimp, crabmeat,
sausage or bacon is used (Ruston
1979). Gumbo is derived from an
African word for okra, which also
is included in the gumbo for flavor
and sauce thickening (Ruston 1979).
Jambalaya is a rice dish inspired by
the early Spanish influence on the
Cajuns (Ruston 1979). Jambalaya is
a crawfish or meat roux cooked with
rice and water, tomatoes, onions and
whatever leftovers are around and
need to be cooked (Ruston 1979).
Sauce piquante is a dish that has
a bullion base used in other dishes,
but this one has pepper or spices
and a variety of meats that could be
added to it (Ruston 1979). Traditionally, sauce piquant is cooked
with one or more of the following:
squid, frog’s legs, turtles, quail,
chicken, squirrel, rabbit or pigeon
(Ruston 1979). Another popular
meat used specifically in Cajun
cuisine is crawfish. Cooked in many
ways, one of the most delectable is
crawfish etoufee, which is a concoction of onions, garlic, celery, bell
peppers and crawfish tails cooked
in crawfish fat and served over rice
(Ruston 1979).
Politics
While not widely discussed by
scholars, one author did indicate
that politically Acadians tended to
remain apolitical during the late
18th and early 19th centuries. As
universal suffrage was granted to
males in Louisiana in 1845 and with
Jacksonian politics on the rise, however, many individuals became interested in governmental politics, and
by 1850s many Acadians supported
the Democratic Party (Brasseaux
2005). Some scholars have measured
the voting trends in Cajun parishes
in Louisiana to better understand
possible patterns of racism in elections. It was found that individuals
in these areas tended to vote for the
white candidate over any nonwhite
candidate, regardless of political party association (Skinner and
Klinkner 2004).
The Cajun Flag
The Cajun flag was adopted in
1965. Dean Thomas Arceneaux
crafted a flag that illustrated three
fleurs-de-lis harkening to the Cajun
culture’s French roots, presented
on a blue field with a gold castle
on a red backdrop illustrating the
settlement of the exiled Acadians
in Spanish colonized Louisiana, and
evoking the Cajun religiosity, a gold
star with a white background for
the patron saint of Acadians, Our
Lady of the Assumption (Bernard
2003).
Music/Dance
Cajun music is diverse and versatile (Savoy 1984). Cajun folk musicians generally play all instruments
in the band. When one puts an
instrument down, he or she picks
up the next along the way. Generally, the Cajun folk band consists of
the accordion and the fiddle as the
lead instruments, with the rhythm
accompaniment of the bass, the
triangle and the guitar.
The accordion is the main staple
of Cajun folk music and was introduced into Cajun culture by the
German migrants who came from
the Midwest to Louisiana in the
1880s looking for work in the rice
fields and laying railroads (Ruston
1979). Cajun music also has been
heavily influenced by the French
Creoles, who introduced western
French folk music, and the Native
Americans in south Louisiana, who
contributed their unique wailing
singing style (Ancelet 1991; Spitzer
1988). Later, black Creoles collaborated with Cajuns, lending new
rhythms, percussion styles, improvisational techniques and even the
blues from their own cultural music
known as Zydeco to Cajun folk styling (Ancelet 1991; Jolly 2000).
During the 1930s and 1940s,
amplification of electronic music
altered the traditional Cajun folk
sound, and Cajun music became
increasingly recorded in studios
and released for sale (Ancelet 1991).
Cajun swing music became popular
in the late 1930s and for the decade
that followed (Brasseaux 2004).
This particular style incorporated
amplified orchestras along with traditional instruments like fiddles and
drums (Brasseaux 2004). Starting
after World War II and into the Cajun music of today, what is known
as progressive Cajun music combines the traditional folk sound with
a mixture of rock-n-roll, country,
bluegrass and jazz (Ruston 1979).
Cajun music is one way the Cajun
culture and worldview is expressed
(Brasseaux 2004). It promotes the
living of a full life that may have
struggles rather than a life where
one simply exists. Cajun music tells
its listeners that a full life is attainable and that one should laugh and
sing loudly and love and trust rather
than complain, fear or fight (Ruston
1979).
15 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
Cajun music, always joyous, lent
itself easily to dance. Therefore,
Cajun dances existed from the very
origins of Cajun folk music. Each
family member generally knew how
to play at least one instrument, so
large family gatherings often ended
with music and dancing where all
the furniture would be moved out
of one room and gumbo and beer
placed out while the adults danced
and the children were put to bed
(Ancelet 1991). Household dances
that included friends and family
and were held in the rural areas of
Cajun country usually took place
on Friday and Saturday evenings
and featured socializing, alcohol
consumption and gambling (Sexton
1990). Eventually, family gatherings
evolved into community gatherings
in halls where entrepreneurial Cajuns sometimes began to charge for
admittance, especially after World
War II (Ancelet 1991; Sexton 1990).
With increased Americanization
and the introduction of mainstream
music and dance styles, the forms of
Cajun dance has altered, but dance
has remained an integral part of Cajun culture (Bernard 2003; Sexton
1990).
The Cajun Renaissance
The Cajun Renaissance began
around 1964 during the civil rights
movement in the United States
and was supported by Cajuns who
wanted a revitalization of Cajun
food, music, and language (Dormon 1984b). Until the 1960s, the
term Cajun was a derogatory term
(Trèpanier 1991), and Cajuns were
working to remove the stigma of the
Cajun identity as a negative one.
In addition, the Cajun Renaissance
served as an opportunity for Cajuns
to reclaim French Cajun after it had
been banned in schools earlier in the
century (Bernard 2003; Brasseaux
2004).
During this time, Cajun activists
organized film festivals and founded
radio and television programming in
which only Cajun French was used
(Brasseaux 2004). Through the work
of these activists, along with other
community leaders, the Council
for the Development of French in
Louisiana, also known as CODOFIL, was founded to educate the
public about Cajun culture. It also
confronted the psychological and
political ramifications of the negative stigma attached to Cajuns for
so long (Brasseaux 2004; Dormon
1984a). Other formal organizations
were formed in the late 1960s and
1970s to preserve and commemorate
Cajun culture. For example, in 1968
the Council for the Development of
French in Louisiana was established,
along with the Center for Louisiana
history and the Center for Acadian
and Creole Folklore in the 1970s,
which was spearheaded by the University of Southwestern Louisiana
(Ancelet 1988). Some scholars argue,
however, that this revitalization of
French Louisiana culture is incomplete since it has only focused on
the Cajun ethnicity and ignored the
black Creoles and French-speaking
Native Americans in the region (Trèpanier 1991).
Food festivals and other community rituals (Gordon 1991) are examples of the many ways Cajuns have
expressed their unity and cultural
identity during this renaissance period. Adopting the crawfish from the
Native Americans, the Cajuns have
used the crawfish as a symbol to
unite Cajuns with varying heritage
and ideologies from across Louisiana
(Esman 1981; Gutierrez 1983). The
Crawfish Festival has become one of
the largest and most predominant
Cajun festivals in Louisiana and is
an illustration of Cajun group solidarity (Esman 1981).
Still, even before the Cajun Renaissance, Cajuns expressed their
ethnic pride in large social events
similar to festivals like the Crawfish
Festival. For example, in 1955 the
Cajun community organized the
Acadian Bicentennial Celebration to
commemorate the Acadian exodus from Canada (Bernard 2000).
The celebration featured a series
of events that lasted almost a full
year and honored the Cajun culture
and its traditions (Bernard 2000).
Due to the political climate in the
United States at the time, however,
at the height of the Cold War, and
the celebration’s attempt to satisfy
mainstream American values, it
neglected to include the interests of
many Louisiana Cajuns and therefore did not achieve the sense of ethnic solidarity that was its original
goal (Bernard 2000).
Housing
One of the many housing features
introduced to the Cajun lifestyle
by their fellow migrants includes
the Cajun barn (Comeaux 1989).
Initially used by Germans, the barn
structure was incorporated among
Cajun farmers in the 18th century
but has been replaced by newer
architectural structures in recent
years (Comeaux 1989). The shotgun style house was used by many
Cajuns in coastal bayou areas, and
various other styles, like the Midwestern style or open-passage type,
were found predominantly in the
prairie region (Kniffen 1936). Some
unique features of Cajun houses
include using the attic as a sleeping space and the outside porch as a
gallery (Ostrom 2005). In the upper
bayou area, Biloxi style houses
were built by the Cajuns. These had
a sloping roof from front to back
(Bowie 1935). Often, Cajun homes
were simple and had only two or
three rooms (Bowie 1935).
Literature
Cajun culture has been immortalized in the literature of Acadian
people. A few literary works composed in the late 1800s specifically
depicted the Cajun culture and
presented it to the nation. Evangeline, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, told about the Acadians as
an inherently American culture
(Herbert-Leiter 2005). Bonaventure
16 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
describes a time of national unity
that occurred after the Civil War
and features the story of the conversion of the Cajuns to speaking
the English language (HerbertLeiter 2005). Kate Chopin and other
female writers have used the Cajun
culture as an example of how female
sexuality is controlled in literary
portrayals by patriarchal controls
(Herbert-Leiter 2005) and they
have used Louisiana and its Catholic Cajun culture as a backdrop to
illustrate the human, particularly
feminine, experience of sacrifice for
belonging and the role of women as
in-group and out-group participants
(Beard 2009; Simpore 2009). While
these three works portray a more
mythical, less tangible depiction of
Cajun culture, other works of the
20th century present a more sincere
representation of Acadian culture
(Herbert-Leiter 2005). Authors like
Ernest Gaines, James Lee Burke
and Dave Robicheaux write about
the racial status of Cajuns and their
loss of innocence as Americanization crept into the culture (HerbertLeiter 2005).
Plays also have been written in
honor of the cultural dilemma of
the Cajuns. Mille Miseres and Les
Attakaps describe the assimilation,
acculturation and Americanization
of the Cajuns (Heylen 1994).
Scholars have documented and
examined the Cajun and Creole folktale tradition as one that is intergral
to understanding Cajun culture and
have found that even modern day
folktales align with their Cajun self
idenity (Deutsch and Peyton 1979;
Eisenman 1995; Klesener 1988;
Lopez 2010). Some scholars have
looked at Cajun folktales to understand the culture from a sociopsychological perspective, analyizing
Cajun values, and esentially have
found that the Cajun worldview was
accurately reflected in their folk stories (Mixon 2000). Presentations of
Louisiana French in literature and
expression through writing are illus-
trations of its decline (Brown 1993).
For example, many of the Cajun folk
stories and children’s books (Taylor,
Williams and Kamienski 2010) that
are written today to educate Cajun
children about their culture focus on
the English language only.
Conclusion
The Cajuns are a people who have
maintainted the integrety of their
cultural heritage throughout the centuries. Dispite hardship and discrimination forced upon them and their
ancestors, they have proven to be
a resillient people. There have been
ebbs and flows in their economic opportunities, ability to pass on their
culture to their children and their
overall well-being, but the Cajuns are
a uniquely American culture that
people from all over the nation have
come to revere. Their relationship
to the enviornment and struggles
with the oil industry and the greater
American culture, both supporting
and posing threats to their ways
of life, has altered their cultural
construction and sustainability.
Although it seems there is a trend
among Cajuns to move out of Louisiana to seek employment and other
opportunities and that some may
reject their Cajun ethnicity, Cajuns
have proven their resourcefulness
and adapatability when faced with
having to perserve their heritage.
Appendix
Overview of Cajuns in the Gulf of Mexico Region
Section
Broad Conclusions
Origins and History
Religious and political strife in their native Acadiana, a Frenchoccupied colony in modern day Nova Scotia, Canada, and
expulsion from their homeland resulted in the Acadian people
leaving their homeland to resettle elsewhere.
Migration
The Acadian exiles caught a ship to New Orleans with the intent
to travel to Quebec, but they ran out of funds once they got
to New Orleans and thus remained to settle permanently in
Louisiana.
Culture
Cajun culture is famous in the United States today as one of
spice and revelry and of Mardi Gras and gumbo. In this paper, it
has been shown that Cajun culture has been shaped by its history, ties to the land, and non-Cajun cultural influences.
Occupations
Many Cajuns still located in Louisiana have more working class
jobs than upper class positions. For example, in both 1990 and
2000, it was found that a Cajun is more likely to be employed in
the transportation, manufacturing or construction industry and
less likely to occupy a position as a manager or a professional
service person than any other non-Hispanic white ethnic group.
Oil and Gas Industry
The oil and gas industry has significantly influenced the Acadian, or Cajun, culture since its establishment in Louisiana in
the early 1900s. Scholars agree that, for better or for worse, Cajun culture would look completely different than it does today
without the discovery of and sanctioned drilling for oil and gas
in the bayou areas. Similarly, many Cajuns are employed in the
industry or related industries such as fishing.
Ecology
For many reasons, roads were slow to develop in the bayou
region where Cajuns settled. This resulted in a lack of exposure
to outside sources and caused Cajuns to increasingly rely on
the land for sustenance by using the resources that were found
in the forests and the Gulf, such as trees for logging, Spanish
moss, wildlife and fish.
Environmental Justice
Mineral extraction of clay, lime, salt, gravel, sulfur, sand and
shell in addition to natural gases and petroleum resulted in
Cajun lands being destroyed. Similarly, pollution created by
oil drilling and marsh dredging ruined lands formerly used by
Cajuns for hunting, fishing and trapping.
Additional Reading
For more information on the overall history and culture of the Cajun people, a brief annotated bibliography
has been presented below.
Ancelet et al. (1987) provides a deeply thorough account of Cajun history, starting from its roots in Canada, and follows the development
and expansion of Cajun culture in Louisiana. This book highlights
geographical settings, social organization, folk life, language and cultural resources and features interviews, oral histories and participant
observation narratives.
Baker and Kreamer (1982) present a series of essays compiled by
teachers and administrators in St. Landry Parish as part of an ethnicity
curriculum used to help train teachers on how to teach to a multicultural classroom. Topics in this collection include essays on the history,
ethnic traditions and culture of the various ethnic groups in St. Landry
Parish, as well as teaching tips for multi-ethnic classrooms.
Brasseaux and Foret (1985) offers a comprehensive bibliography of
historical, cultural and genealogical material referencing Acadian culture and features a collection of books, articles, photographic essays,
art books and the like found between 1955 and 1985.
Conrad (1978) presents a collection of 12 essays each focused on a different aspect of the Cajun story. This collection addresses not only the
historical Acadian exile but also acculturation, cultural traditions and
the influence of Cajun culture in Louisiana today.
Conrad and Brasseaux (1982) offer a bibliography of collected literature that describes New France and colonial Louisiana. This bibliography features manuscripts, theses and dissertations, as well as articles
and monographs.
Eisenman (2004) provides a review of two books focused on Cajun culture: “The Cajuns: Americanization of a People,” by Shane K
Bernard, and “Mardi Gras, Gumbo and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana
Culture,” by Marcia Gaudet and James C. McDonald.
17 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns
Jumonville (2002) offers a compliation of more than 6,800 sources
that have been arranged into a variety of a categories. This bibilography organized the literature into categories such as environment,
antebellum Louisiana, Civil War and Reconstruction, modern Louisiana and the people of Louisiana.
Louisiana Division of the Arts (1999) has developed a website (URL:
http://www.louisianafolklife.org)that documents the folk cultural
resources of Louisiana. This website presents literature and general
information on folk life and how to conduct folk life projects in Louisiana.
McKernan (2010) addresses the overall Cajun experience. Beginning
with the arrival of the Cajuns in Louisiana, this article then discusses
the Cajun landscape, demographic characteristics, cultural heritage,
familial customs and the Cajun culture in today’s society.
Uzee (1985) presents a compilation of genealogies and life histories of
individuals of Cajun decent living in the Lafourche region of Louisiana. The contents of the entries cover a wide range of topics including
settlement in the area, land development and culture.
Valdman 1997 offers a variety of perspectives on the development
and change of the French language in Louisiana. A collection of
authors have created chapters covering various topics, including the
language shift among Cajuns, the language structure of Creole and
French folklore.
Works Cited
Abbott, Lee M. 2006. “Coming to a Post-Colonial Poetics of Being
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Authors
Crystal Paul, Louisiana State University
Amanda D. Cowley, Louisiana State University
Mark J. Schafer, LSU AgCenter
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/communications/authors/MSchafer.htm
Troy Blanchard, Louisiana State University
Acknowledgements
This research was funded in part by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management as part of a larger project studying ethnic groups and enclaves in the Gulf of Mexico region. We would like to acknowledge
Harry Luton from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for his
feedback and encouragement throughout this project. We also would
like to thank Diane Austin, Thomas McGuire, Britny Delp, Margaret Edgar, Lindsey Feldman, Brian Marks, Lauren Penney, Kelly McLain, Justina Whalen, Devon Robbie, Monica Voge, Doug Welch and Victoria
Phaneuf, from the University of Arizona, for providing a database of
literature and support. Similarly, we would like to acknowledge Helen
Regis, Carolyn Ware, Bethany Rogers and Annemarie Galeucia, of Louisiana State University, for their comments and feedback. Finally, we
would like to thank Huizhen Niu, of Louisiana State University, for her
assistance with GIS mapping.
www.LSUAgCenter.com
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center
William B. Richardson, Chancellor
Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station
John S. Russin, Vice Chancellor and Director
Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service
Paul D. Coreil, Vice Chancellor and Director
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The LSU AgCenter is a statewide campus of the LSU System
and provides equal opportunities in programs and employment.
22 LSU AgCenter Research Report #118 Racial and Ethnic Groups in the Gulf of Mexico Region: Cajuns