Lafayette Historic Register
Colorized photo of Lafayette’s Jefferson Street taken in the 1920s. Photo is provided courtesy of Louis J. Perret, Lafayette Parish Clerk of Court. A Brief History of Acadiana Before European influence, Acadiana’s population consisted mainly of the indigenous Ishak (Atakapa), Chahta (Choctaw), and Sitimaxa (Chitimacha) peoples. It was not until 1541 that the first people of the lower Mississippi Delta region first encountered Europeans in any noticeable number. European influence was still negligible until 1682 when France colonized Louisiana under King Louis XIV, and even after another 100 years, the population of European settlers remained small. However, by 1720, South Louisiana had became home to small groups of Spanish, French, and English working as ranchers, trappers or traders. Europeans named the region using the Choctaw word for the Ishak inhabitants, which was Atakapa. By 1800, the two largest population groups were French refugees from Nova Scotia, now called Acadians, (also called Cajuns), and enslaved Africans. Acadians were brought to Southwest Louisiana to clear and cultivate the fertile river- bottom land. Some were given Spanish land grants to cultivate the land along the various rivers, bayous, and lakes. At the same time, Africans were brought to the Atakapa Region to be sold into slavery for work on Louisiana farms and plantations. For several decades, the Catholic Acadians, deported by the British, made up the largest European-heritage population. Additional French and other Europeans settled in the Atakapa Region in greater numbers after 1785. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, “Des Americans” began to settle in the Atakapa Region, and significant numbers of other Europeans began to arrive between 1820 and 1870; Germans searched for affordable land, Irish wished to escape famine, and more French citizens fled from religious persecution.
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