French Louisianians: Difference between revisions

Adventurers led by [[Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville]] moved from [[Fort Maurepas]] in [[Biloxi]], Mississippi to a wooded bluff on the west bank of the [[Mobile River]] in early 1702, where they founded [[Old Mobile Site|Mobile]], which they named after the Maubilian IndiansNation. The outpost was populated by French soldiers, French-Canadian trappers and fur traders, and a few merchants and artisans accompanied by their families. The French had easy access to the IndianIndigenous fur trade, and furs were the primary economic resource of Mobile. Along with fur, some settlers also raised cattle as well as produced ships' timbers and naval stores.<ref name="meltonmclaurin">{{cite book |title=Mobile the life and times of a great Southern city|author=Melton McLaurin, Michael Thomason|year=1981|edition=1st|publisher=Windsor Publications|location=United States of America|pages=12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41. 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 88, 92, 105, 119, 120, 123}}</ref>

IndianIndigenous nations gathered annually at Mobile to be wined, dined, and showered with presents by the French. About 2,000 IndiansIndigenous descended on Mobile for as long as two weeks. Because of the close and friendly relationship between colonial French and IndianIndigenous peoples, French colonists learned the IndianIndigenous [[Lingua franca]] of the area, the [[Mobilian Jargon]], and intermarried with IndianIndigenous women.<ref name="meltonmclaurin" />

Mobile was a melting pot of different peoples, and included continental Frenchmen, French-Canadians, and various IndiansIndigenous people mingled together in Mobile. The differences between continental Frenchmen and French-Canadians were so great that serious disputes occurred between the two groups.<ref name="meltonmclaurin" />

By the mid-18th century, Mobile was populated by West Indian French Creoles, European Frenchmen, French-Canadians, Africans, and IndiansIndigenous people. This diverse group was united by Roman Catholicism, the exclusive religion of the colony. The town's inhabitants included 50 troops, a mixed group of approximately 400 civilians which included merchants, laborers, fur traders, artisans, and slaves. This mixed diverse group and its descendants are called Creoles.<ref name="meltonmclaurin" />

==Arkansas people of mixed French/Indigenous Indiansancestry==

During years of colonial rule of [[New France]], many of the ethnic French fur traders and ''[[voyageurs]]'' had an amicable relationship with the Quapaw, as they did with many other trading tribes.<ref>{{cite book | last=Havard| first=Gilles | title=Histoire de l'Amérique française | publisher= Flamarion| location=Paris| year = 2003 }}</ref> Many Quapaw women and French men married and had families together, creating a ''métis'' ([[Métis people|mixed French Indianand Indigenous]]) population. [[Pine Bluff, Arkansas]], for example, was founded by [[Joseph Bonne]], a man of [[métis|Quapaw-French ''métis'']] ancestry.

====People of mixed French Indiansand Indigenous ancestry in Louisiana====

New France wished to make Native Americans subjects of the king and good Christians, but the distance from Metropolitan France and the sparseness of French settlement prevented this. In official [[rhetoric]], the Native Americans were regarded as subjects of the [[Viceroyalty of New France]], but in reality, they were largely autonomous due to their numerical superiority. The local authorities of New France (governors, officers) did not have the human resources to establish French law and customs, and instead often compromised with the IndiansIndigenous people.

IndianIndigenous tribesnations offered essential support for the French: they ensured the survival of the New France's colonists, participated with them in the fur trade, and acted as guides in expeditions. The French alliance with IndiansIndigenous nations also provided mutual protection from hostile [[American Indian Wars|non-allied tribes]] and incursions on French &and IndianIndigenous peoples' land from enemy [[European colonization of the Americas|European powers]]. The French &and IndianIndigenous alliance proved invaluable during the later [[French and Indian War]] against the [[New England|New England colonies]] in 1753.<ref name="indianhistory">{{cite book |title=A Companion to American Indian History|author= Philip J. Deloria, Neal Salisbury|year=2004|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|pages=60 }}</ref>

The French & IndiansIndigenous peoples influenced each other in many fields: the French settlers learned the languages of the natives, such as [[Mobilian Jargon]], a [[Choctaw language|Choctaw-based]] Creole language that served as a trade language in use among the French and various IndianIndigenous tribesnations in the region. TheIndigenous Indianspeople bought European goods (fabric, alcohol, firearms, etc.), learned French, and sometimes adopted their religion.

Many French colonists both admired and feared the military power of the Native Americans, though some governors from France scorned their culture and wanted to keep racial purity between the whites and IndiansIndigenous people.<ref name="danielrayot">{{cite book |title=Divided Loyalties in a Doomed Empire: The French in the West : from New France to the Lewis and Clark Expedition|author= Daniel Royot|year=2007|publisher=University of Delaware Press|pages=122 }}</ref> In 1735, interracial marriages without the approval of the authorities were prohibited in Louisiana. However, by the 1750s in New France, the idea of the Native Americans became one of the "Noble Savage," that IndiansIndigenous people were spiritually pure and played an important role in the natural purity of the New World. Native Americans did marry French settlers, with IndianIndigenous women being consistently considered as good wives to foster trade and help create offspring. Their intermarriage created a large ''métis'' ([[Métis people|mixed French Indianand Indigenous]]) population in New France.<ref name="raceandethnicity">{{cite book |title=Race and Ethnicity in America: From Pre-contact to the Present [4 volumes]|author=Alan Taylor|year=2019|publisher=ABC-CLIO|pages=81, 82 }}</ref>

In spite of some disagreements (some IndiansIndigenous people killed farmers' pigs, which devastated corn fields), and sometimes violent confrontations ([[Fox Wars]], Natchez uprisings, and [[Chickasaw Wars|expeditions against the Chicachas]]), the relationship with the Native Americans was relatively good in Louisiana. French imperialism was expressed through some wars and the slavery of some Native Americans. But most of the time, the relationship was based on dialogue and negotiation.

When the United States of America began assimilating and Americanizing the parishes of the Cajun Country between the 1950s and 1970s, they imposed segregation and reorganized the inhabitants of the Cajun Country to identify racially as either "white" Cajuns or "black" Creoles.<ref name="nicholeestandford">{{cite book |title=Good God but You Smart!: Language Prejudice and Upwardly Mobile Cajuns|author=Nichole E. Stanford|year=2016|publisher=University Press of Colorado|location=United States of America|pages=64, 65, 66}}</ref> As the younger generations were made to abandon speaking French and French customs, the White or Indianmixed CajunsIndigenous and Cajun people assimilated into the [[Anglo-American]] host culture, and the Black Cajuns assimilated into the African American culture.<ref name="georgeepozzetta">{{cite book |title=Immigrants on the Land: Agriculture, Rural Life, and Small Towns|author=George E. Pozzetta|year=1991|publisher=Taylor & Francis|location=United States of America|pages=408}}</ref>

In 1700, Le Sueur was sent to the upper Mississippi with 20 men<ref name=FM/> to establish a fort in the [[Lakota people|Sioux]] country. His government intended to take over the copper mines of the Sioux Indiansnations in the interests of France. Meanwhile, the French had established forts and settlements in the [[Illinois country]]. Learning of the French colony at Old Biloxi, Canadians came by the boatload down the Mississippi from the upper country (today's Quebec).

The fort was to be the seat of government for the Illinois Country and help to control the aggressive [[Fox (Native American)|Fox IndiansNation]], which was seen as a threat. The fort was named after [[Louis of Bourbon, Duke of Orléans|Louis, duc de Chartres]], son of the regent of France. Because of frequent flooding, another fort was built further inland in 1725. By 1731, the Company of the Indies had gone defunct and turned Louisiana and its government back to the king. The garrison at the fort was removed to [[Kaskaskia, Illinois]] in 1747, about 18 miles to the south. A new stone fort was planned near the old fort and was described as "nearly complete" in 1754, although construction continued until 1760.