Acadiana (; French and Louisiana French: L'Acadiane or Acadiane), also known as Cajun Country (Louisiana French: Pays des Cadiens), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population.
Many inhabitants of Cajun Country have Acadian ancestry and identify as Cajuns or Creoles. Of the 64 parishes that make up the U.S. state of Louisiana, 22 make up this intrastate region. Lafayette Parish and the seven surrounding parishes are identified as the "Cajun Heartland, USA" district.
Etymology The word "Acadiana" reputedly has two origins. Its first recorded appearance dates to the October 15, 1946, when a Crowley, Louisiana, newspaper, the Crowley Daily Signal, coined the term in reference to the area of Louisiana in which French descendants of the Acadians settled. However, KATC television in Lafayette independently coined "Acadiana" in the early 1960s, giving it a new, broader meaning, and popularized it throughout southern Louisiana. Founded in 1962, KATC was owned by the Acadian Television Corporation. In early 1963, the ABC affiliate received an invoice erroneously addressed to the "Acadiana" Television Corp. Someone had typed an extra "a" at the end of the word "Acadian". The station started using it to describe the region covered by its broadcast signal.
Today, numerous business, governmental, and nonprofit organizations incorporate Acadiana in their names, e.g., Mall of Acadiana and Acadiana High School. Notably, KLFY-TV, the regional CBS affiliate, used the term in its "Hello News" branding campaign as "Hello Acadiana". KATC hosts a morning television show, "Good Morning Acadiana".
History Historically part of French Louisiana, present-day Acadiana was inhabited by Attakapa Native Americans at the time of European encounter. After the expulsion of French-speaking Acadian refugees from Canada by the victorious British at the end of the Seven Years' War, many Acadians settled in this region. Most Acadians can trace their ancestry to approximately 50 families who lived in Port Royal, Acadia, now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The Acadians intermarried with other settlers, forming what became known as Cajun culture.
In 1971, the Louisiana State Legislature officially recognized 22 Louisiana parishes and "other parishes of similar cultural environment" for their "strong French Acadian cultural aspects".House Concurrent Resolution No. 496, June 6, 1971; authored by Carl W. Bauer of St. Mary Parish It made "The Heart of Acadiana" the official name of the region, although the term Acadiana is the more common name for the region. The official term appears on regional maps and highway markers.
Effects of hurricanes Like much of Louisiana, this area is subject to damaging hurricanes. On October 3, 2002, the central Acadiana region suffered a direct hit from category one Hurricane Lili. The hurricane caused most of Acadiana to lose power, and some areas lost phone service. In addition, some high-rise buildings in downtown Lafayette had windows broken, and the roofs of many homes were damaged throughout the region. The high winds of Lili toppled the tower of KLFY TV-10 onto the station's studio facilities. Only one injury inside the station was reported from the tower's collapse.
The eastern Acadiana region was somewhat affected by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, although the damage was limited compared to the severe flooding farther east in Greater New Orleans. This area was used by many evacuees when they returned to the region as a "last stop" of temporary domicile before returning to Greater New Orleans. The Greater Baton Rouge area had already been handling numerous evacuees. Governor Kathleen Blanco made a public request that those returning not try to seek lodging in the capital due to this crisis of overpopulation.
Lafayette and several other municipalities set up both public and church-run shelters to handle the influx. The largest of these shelters, run by the Red Cross, was the Lafayette sports arena (the Cajundome), holding a reported 9,800 persons.
The western Acadiana region and east Texas were most affected by Hurricane Rita which hit on September 24, 2005. The Greater Lake Charles metropolitan area suffered the majority of the damage.
On Labor Day 2008, Hurricane Gustav caused severe damage to the region. Although Lafayette, Saint Martinville and Crowley had little damage (comparatively) and some residents still had power, the rest of the region was severely affected. From Alexandria to the coast and Baton Rouge to Lake Charles, massive power failures and flooding were reported. Most notable was the flooding south of Louisiana Highway 14 and the communities there. U.S. 90 was shut down for several days due to the flooding caused by Hurricane Gustav.
The total death toll from Hurricane Gustav in Acadiana was limited. This was attributed to the evacuation and mitigation plans that had been drilled by state and local official, and to a strong presence of representatives from both the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In total, almost two million people along the Louisiana coast were evacuated in over two days. Gustav preparations comprised the largest evacuation in Louisiana history, and one of the most successful evacuations in the nation's history.
In 2020, Hurricane Laura caused significant damage to the western-most portion of Acadiana, including Calcasieu, Cameron, Jeff Davis, and portions of Vermilion and Acadia. A confirmed 18 people died in the storm and its aftermath. In addition, Intracoastal City saw a storm surge of . Storm surge also flooded over SH 317 at Burns Point in St. Mary Parish, and flash flooding surrounded homes in Abbeville.
Six weeks later, Hurricane Delta made landfall near Creole, Louisiana, with winds of 100 mph. Virtually the same parishes were affected by Hurricanes Laura and Delta. Over 740,000 residents had no power following both storms.
Geography
Acadiana consists mainly of low, gentle hills in the north section and dry land prairies, with marshes and bayous in the south closer to the Gulf Coast area. The wetlands increase in frequency in and around the Calcasieu River, Atchafalaya Basin, and the Mississippi River Delta. The area is cultivated with fields of rice and sugarcane.
Acadiana, as defined by the Louisiana legislature, refers to the area that stretches from just west of New Orleans to the Texas border along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and about inland to Marksville. This includes the 22 parishes of Acadia, Ascension, Assumption, Avoyelles, Calcasieu, Cameron, Evangeline, Iberia, Iberville, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Charles, St. James, St. John The Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion, and West Baton Rouge. The total land area of Acadiana is . If Acadiana was a U.S. state, it would be larger than Maryland; if it were a sovereign state, it would be larger than the Bahamas.
Three of the parishes (St. Charles, St. James, and St. John the Baptist) are considered the River Parishes and made up the area formerly known as the German Coast or les côtes des Allemands, because of settlement by German immigrants in the 18th century. Ascension Parish is sometimes included within the River Parishes; the River Parishes border the first and third largest regions in Louisiana by population (the Greater New Orleans area and Florida Parishes). St. James and Ascension parishes were originally known as the Comté d'Acadie (Acadia County) because of the initial settlement of 18th-century exiled Acadians. St. James Parish was known as the First Acadian Coast and Ascension Parish was known as the Second Acadian Coast. Collectively they were known as les côtes des Acadiens, the Acadian Coasts.
Major cities The largest metropolitan areas in Acadiana are Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Houma-Thibodaux. Other cities and towns within Acadiana are Abbeville, Berwick, Breaux Bridge, Broussard, Bunkie, Carencro, Church Point, Crowley, Delcambre, Donaldsonville, Erath, Eunice, Franklin, Gonzales, Gueydan, Jeanerette, Jennings, Kaplan, Lutcher, Mamou, Marksville, Maurice, Morgan City, New Iberia, New Roads, Opelousas, Patterson, Plaquemine, Port Allen, Rayne, Scott, Simmesport, St. Amant, St. Gabriel, St. Martinville, Sulphur, Sunset, Ville Platte, Vinton, and Youngsville.
Demographics
At the 2000 U.S. census the total population of Acadiana was 1,352,646 residents. At the 2019 American Community Survey, the tabulated population of Acadiana was an estimated 1,490,449. In 2020, the tabulated population of Acadiana's parishes was 1,486,345.
The quasi-eponymous Cajuns are the descendants of 18th-century Acadian exiles from what are now Canada's Maritime Provinces, expelled by the British and New Englanders during and after the French and Indian War (see Expulsion of the Acadians). They prevail among the region's visible cultures, but not everyone who lives in Acadiana is ethnically Acadian or speaks Louisiana French. Similarly, not everyone who is culturally Cajun is descended from the Acadian refugees.
German and Polish settlers found their way to this area as early as 1721, settling an area that became known as the German Coast. They preceded the Acadians.
Acadiana is home to several Native American tribes, including the Chitimacha, Houma, Tunica-Biloxi, Attakapas, and Coushatta. Acadiana also is home to other ethnic groups, including Anglo-Americans, who came into the region in increasing numbers beginning notably with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Since the late 20th century, political refugees from Southeast Asia (Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, among others) have brought their families, cultures, and languages to the area, and have contributed significantly to its fishing industry.
The region also boasts a large population of Creoles, descendants of the region's original settlers who arrived in Louisiana before and after the arrival of the Acadians. In the broadest sense, the term "Creole" has been used to denote anyone who is "native to Louisiana", regardless of race or ethnic origin. In this sense, Creoles can identify as black, white, and persons of mixed-race origin. The term has also come to denote cultural origins in addition to racial classification. While many in Acadiana associate Creoles specifically with those people descended from the (free people of color), others cling to the word's original definition, so Creoles of every ethnic background are still present in the region. Some Creoles also identify as Cajuns (and vice versa), whereas others reject association with one identity while claiming the other.Wolfgang Binder (ed.): Creoles and Cajuns. French Louisiana – La Louisiane Française. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main, 1998.Marcia Gaudet und James C. McDonald: Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco: Readings in Louisiana Culture. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson: 2003, p. viii: "Cajuns and Creoles, while maintaining strong cultural and ethnic identities, are also part of mainstream American and Southern culture. {...} Louisiana Cajuns are a diverse group (including the Prairie Cajuns, the Wetland Cajuns, and the River Cajuns) who share common bonds of traditions and language. They are descendants of the Acadians, colonists from France who first settled Acadie (now Nova Scotia) {...}" Documents written in Acadiana throughout the 19th century often make references to Acadiana's "Creole populations" that are understood to include people of Acadian descent.