So Spain is in control of the Louisiana territory at this
point and sells it back to France. The
French government is in control of Louisiana for only 20 days, before it
officially sells Louisiana, to the United States on December 20th,
1803. The US really only wanted the Port
of New Orleans, so they could continue to use the Mississippi River, and have access
to the Gulf of Mexico. The US paid 11
million for the Louisiana Purchase. Other
then South Louisiana there were few settlers in the Purchase at this time, a
lot of this territory was still owned and controlled by tribal people. The Purchase added 828,000 square miles to
the United States. Most of you know that
President Thomas Jefferson, sent Lewis and Clark, to explore this new area of
the US.
On April 30th, 1812 Louisiana became the 18th
state in the Union, well most of it anyways.
From the early days of French and Spanish exploration in Louisiana, the
western border had been disputed. The Spaniards
said that the state of Texas went all the way to the Red River. The French said their western boarder was a
river deep into Texas, several hundred miles on
the other side of the Red. This is part
of the reason that Fort St. Jean Baptist was in Natchitoches, in order to
protect France’s western border, as well as protect settlers to that part of
Louisiana.
Spain set up a mission and presidio (fort) outside of what
is modern day Robeline, Louisiana.
Robeline is about 15 or 20 miles west of Natchitoches. The mission was officially called, “San
Miguel de Linares de los Adaes.” The presidio, was called, “Nuestra SeÑora del
Pilar de Los Adaes (Our Lady of the Pillar of the Adaes). The mission was there
to convert the Caddo Adai tribe that lived there, and protect Spain’s Eastern
border. It was also the capital of Texas from 1729
until 1770. Los Adaes was not supposed to
buy goods from France, but it took 6 months for them to be restocked by Mexico
City. So out of necessity, they began to
trade with Fort St. Jean Baptist, and they began to intermarry as well. Remember that thing I told you about the
shortage of women. All that mattered is
that they be Catholic.
In 1819 the Adams-Onis Treaty was signed. That brought Florida into the United States
and also established the Sabine River as the western boundary of
Louisiana. In 1823 Fort Jesup was
established outside of Many, Louisiana, 30 miles west of Fort St. Jean Baptist
and 15 miles west of Los Adaes. Today
all three of these are state parks. I would have the joy of working at 2 of
those 3, and relating its place in history to 100’s of tourists, both from this
country and around the world.
For twenty years, between 1803 when Louisiana was purchased,
until 1823 when Fort Jesup was established, the land between the Red River and
the Sabine River was a No Man’s land, sometimes called the Neutral Strip. It was a wild lawless and godless area, full
of murders, robbers, and anybody who was running from the law. I think some of them never left. They were untouchable by either the Spanish
or the Americans.
Fort Jesup was established to clean the area up, provide
stability and law to the new territory, and assist settlers both coming to
Louisiana and on their way into Texas.
Spain could not keep enough people in Texas, so they opened it up to
anyone who was Catholic and would swear allegiance to Spain. Many of those on their way to Texas passed
thru here. One of the Jesup soldiers
jobs was to help Americans, going to Texas not be robbed by bandits, still in
the Neutral Strip. Fort Jesup was also
established to watch the Mexican border, and protect the United States from
what they felt would be an impending conflict.
That did not happen until the 1840’s, when the fort closed and every one
left to go fight in the Mexican-American War.
The Red River at this point was still pretty much
impassable. The great log jam extended
400 miles North West of Natchitoches. Enter
Captain Henry Miller Shreve “who designed and built the first snag boat, which
removed stags, a hazard for river travel” (Garvey & Widmer, PP. 84). In 1833 he commands a group of U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and begins to clear the Red River. The Great Raft was all these old rotting and
uprooted trees, and eroded soil that filled the river. So great and deep was it that at some points,
trees grew on top of the floating logs. The
river was not officially completely cleared until 1874.
Now the Caddo were still in the area at this time. Their population had been decimated by
disease, as most first peoples had no immunity to western diseases. On July 1st, 1835 the Caddo sold
their lands, which include most of North Louisiana to the United States
Government. For
his years of service, Larkin Edwards, translator and friend to the Caddo was given
640 acres of land. This land he would
sell and it would eventually become downtown Shreveport. The Caddo moved west into
Texas, which was then held by Mexico. In
1859 the Caddo were removed to Oklahoma.
They now make their home in Binger, Oklahoma. They are still alive there and they
number over 5000 strong. They are a
proud and wonderful people struggling to hang on to their way of life and their
language.
So by the 1830’s Louisiana was now owned by the US, the Red
River was clear up to Shreveport and the Caddo were gone. Beginning in the 1840’s great numbers of
settlers began to move in to north Louisiana.
Most of them being white, of Scotch-Irish and English decent and
Protestant, a massive contrast to Catholic and French speaking South
Louisiana. These new settler were from
the Appalachia’s, or from descendants of the Appalachia’s. Many of them continued to carry with them a
distrust of government and the idea of total self reliance. They had moved from the mountains across into
northern Georgia, into Northern Alabama, Mississippi, North Louisiana, and
right on into East Texas.
My family came out of Lowndes County in Alabama, just south
of Birmingham. They travel by wagon and
it takes the more than a month to get here.
Slaves had been sent two years before, to begin clearing land and building
houses. Records have our family living
in Keatchie by 1858. We have been there
ever since. Yes we owned slaves, and no
there is nothing that I, or anyone else can do about that. It was simply a fact of the times back then.
There remains a huge gap in the way North Louisiana is
treated. The state capital of Louisiana
is in Baton Rouge, in South Louisiana.
When you go into South Louisiana the roads are better and the schools
are better. Why? Because South Louisiana has all the money and
all the power. In South Louisiana the
only thing that matters is the French culture.
It is engrained in everything they do.
So much so, that until the last 10 or 15 years, when the governor of
Louisiana took their oath of office, it was first done in English and then in
French. When I was a child, it was not
believed a governor could be elected who did not speak French or have a French
back ground. Gods help you if you were
not Catholic as well. There have only
been a few protestant Governors and very few from North Louisiana.
North Louisiana is treated like the red headed step child
that is locked in the attic. Another
example, recently a woman lost her child in a car wreck on I-20. The accident happened on one side of the
road, one of the cars, crossed across the median. It traveled over and caused the death of this
young woman on the other side of the road.
Had there been cable barriers across the median, like there are in South
Louisiana, the young lady might have been saved. The mother of the young lady lobbied for
several years for these cable barriers to be put in place. I remember the news conference announcing
that they would be installed, on more than 20 miles along I-20. The reason they said that South Louisiana had
them and not us, is that they had a higher population then we did, and
therefore more traffic.
There was also a movement some years ago for North Louisiana
to secede from South Louisiana. I do not
however advocate that, as this would leave us landlocked and I feel much
poorer. I do know that from living in South
Louisiana, many there did not consider me to be a real Louisianan, because I
did not take French in High School (it was not even offered), I was not
Catholic, and not of French, Cajun, or Creole decent. Even though we all root for the Saints on
Sunday. Yes even though I am from North
Louisiana I am a member of the Who Dat! Nation.
I will never root for the Cowbags.
I remember one of my friends telling me I was from “the hills.” When I came home I didn’t realize how much
hillier the land was then South Louisiana.
I kept a blown up map of North West Louisiana in my room, to show my new
friends , where I was from, and that I was in fact just as much a Louisianan as
they were. I am not the only person to
go thru this, I know many other people who have similar experiences.
Louisiana remains a corrupt and polluted state. Our long time governor Edwin Edwards was put
in the federal pen for crimes he committed while in office. I believe it safe to assume that almost every
politician is crooked. As my mother
likes to say, “He’s so crooked, they going to have to screw him in the ground
when he dies.” I remember being in
college and hearing that a garbage scowl from New York was not allowed to dump
it’s trash in New Jersey. It was all
finally dumped here in Louisiana. As a
child, we were told not to eat out of the rivers and lakes, because they were
full of toxic waste. I know there were
many politicians who took kick backs for turning my paradise into a toxic waste
dump. For many years, Louisiana has been
the $20 dollar hooker for the US, allowing them to do whatever they want to us,
and dumping whatever they pleased here.
I had hope as a young woman that the corruption in my state
could be changed. So I voted out the old
and in the new, and had hope, but now I know now it will never change. Although I will continue to vote, and spend
time researching those who I will vote for, and I encourage you to do the same,
I have lost what hope I had for Louisiana ever recovering. We have become Pandora, once beautiful and
wild, and now used up.
I think many of the politicians get into office, so they
might become rich off of the kick backs and from the lobbying groups. I think it has been this way for a long time,
maybe back to the beginning of our state.
I feel it has always been their plan to strip Louisiana, of her natural
resources, and leave her people with nothing, few if any of them try to protect
or promote what is beautiful and unique about our land. With each election I have renewed hope and by
the end of their term, I know that nothing has been done to improve the roads,
or the schools, there are no new jobs, and fierce competition for those that do
exist. If Louisiana will not invest in
herself, who will? I have watched
generation after generation leave this place for somewhere better. Like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
If people would only fight for Louisiana! Even if I was to become Governor, I don’t
believe that I could make a real difference.
I don’t have the family name, connections, money, or political clout to
be able to change the system. The people
of this state are often just trying to keep food on the table for their
families, living from paycheck to paycheck and trying not to end up
homeless. Those of us who are educated
and smart, and are somehow still here, feel stuck at what few morsels we are
thrown. I believe the situation is hopeless,
we are all doomed, and it will never get any better.
Ilsa
This article could not have been possible without the help
of : Louisiana: the first 300 years,
by Joan B. Garvey and Mary Lou Widmer, Garmer Press, New Orleans, Louisiana,
2001.
No comments:
Post a Comment