Hippy Ti O!!!!

• Hippy Ti O!!!  
• Cajuns were the first cowboys, not Texans!! 
•  (and other little known facts about us!)

I found the following article online written by Sharon LaFleur and have posted excerpts from it. Enjoy!!!

• The people who today are known as Cajuns came from a small area around Poitou on the central west coast of France.
• Tired of being tenant farmers for big land owners, these people left France and settled in the area they called l'Acadie now known as Nova Scotia in 1604, many years prior to the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts.
• L'Acadie as a name is said to be related to the Greek word Arcadia which means idyllic or beautiful place, but is more likely from the French version of the Native American Mi'kmaq (also spelled Micmac) word cadie, meaning  place, with a positive connotation.
• The Acadiens, unlike the English and Spanish, had good relations with and respect for Native Americans. In Acadie, the French settlers stayed on the perimeter of the island and the Mi'kmacs inhabited the interior. This relationship was carried forward by the Cajuns towards the Native American tribes of Louisiana. It is estimated by Larry Richard who was curator of the Mississippi Valley Museum at Acadian Village in Lafayette, La. that fully 40% of today's Cajuns also possess Native American ancestry.
• The Acadians reclaimed thousands of acres of salt water marshland in Acadie by utilizing a version of the Mi'kmaq lobster trap which washed the salt out the soil making it arable. This process took approximately three years. Acadiens were successfully able to grow wheat further north than any other settlers.
• Due to the back-and-forth political battles between the French and the English, the Acadiens chose to remain neutral. Depending on who was in power at the time, the soldiers forced the Acadiens to provide them with meat, grains and vegetables, and the Acadiens felt that they were safe from involvement in the warring factions because of their contributions.
• Acadiens in the community of Beaubassin in the area of the Chicnecto Isthmus, Canadaraised cattle in small herds which was unusual in those times - generally a family had one or two animals only. The Spanish in New Orleans knew this and recruited Acadiens to Louisiana after the French and Indian War. In exchange for a portion of the herd every year, the Acadiens were given land and tools. Nearly a hundred years prior to the advent of the Chisholm Trail, Cajuns had hundreds of registered cattle brands. It was actually the Cajuns, not Texans who were the original "cowboys." The expression "Hippy Ti O" is from an old, old French word for hunting dog, still used by Cajuns, taïaut."
• The Acadiens were expelled from Canada by the British in 1755 in what the Acadiens called "Le Grand Dérangement" or big upheaval. Families were torn apart, houses burned, people forced onto ships and scattered about the American colonies, back to Europe and throughout the Caribbean. Most of the 10,000 deportees died; about 3,000 eventually found their way to Louisiana.
• The English wanted the lands the Acadiens had cleared and planted for English settlers. Charles Lawrence, the British governor, concocted a scheme whereby he insisted that the Acadiens sign an oath of allegiance to the English king, renounce their Catholic faith and agree to fight against the Mi'kmacs. The Acadiens refused. Lawrence told his people that even if the Acadiens were to sign the oath, he would have them deported regardless.
• The stories of the horror the Acadiens endured are too numerous to mention. One example: in my birth state of Massachusetts 2,000 Acadiens on three ships (meant to carry less than half that number) spent the frigid winter of 1755 in Boston Harbor. The Acadiens were not allowed to disembark for nearly four months while the Massachusetts legislature debated their fate. There were no staterooms or restrooms on board the ships, just cargo holds. Many of the children on board were taken from their parents and "distributed" around the state to other families.
• Cajuns hold thousands of U.S. patents in machinery, oilfield equipment, medical devices and many other areas. Cajuns' ability to make "something out of nothing" and to solve problems with unique ideas is a point of pride.
• Cajuns for the most part did not own slaves nor did they approve of the idea of slavery. Many Cajun men of fighting age hid out in the Atchafalaya Basin for the duration of the Civil War rather than participate in it.
• French was the predominant language in south Louisiana until it was forbidden by law to be spoken in public schools in the early 1920s. Some children were so shamed by this (imagine needing to use the restroom, not knowing how to ask in English and not being allowed to ask in French) that their families refused to send them to school at all. Children sometimes were playfully reminded that they couldn't speak French (it depended on the viewpoint of the individual school) but others - and I know several still living today - who were forced to kneel on dried corn and/or paddled for speaking French, even on the playground.
• Cajun culture was so strong and embracing that no matter the national origin of an inhabitant, people would speak French rather than English which was actually called "American" and a put down was to call someone "un américain" which is the Cajun way of saying someone is a redneck. 
• There are reasons that illiteracy plagued Cajuns. In Acadie, some of the Catholic priests wanted to control communications between the Acadiens and the British and refused to educate Acadien children. If Acadiens couldn't read or write, they'd have to rely on the priests to read and reply to official documents. Of course, there was no public education at the time. Public education was not an option for many Cajun children when it was first introduced in Louisiana, for while the education was free, the books were not, and many families could not afford to buy the books. (In many Cajun homes in the past, there was a handmade triptych displaying the images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Huey Long - among other actions, because he made it possible for poor children to go to school when the books became free.) And for reasons explained above, French speakers started to keep their children at home rather than subject them to the treatment they were receiving in Louisiana public schools.
• Cajuns GI's in World War II took part in the French underground because unlike French-speaking Canadians and Belgians, the Germans could not distinguish between the Cajuns' French accents and native French accents. Even though there were nearly 400 years between the original Acadian/Cajun French language and WWII, their accents remained virtually unchanged. Cajun French is very close to the old French of Poitou whereas "standard" French has changed enormously. 
• The name Cajun is a corruption of Acadien "'Cadien." 
• The Cajun "national" dish of gumbo comes from the African word for okra, gombo.
• Generally speaking Cajuns are white, Catholic and can trace their origins to Acadie. Breaux, Broussard, Boudreaux are Acadien names, LaFleur is not. Créoles in Acadiana (according to Gwendolyn Midlo Hall who wrote "Africans in Colonial Louisiana," "Créole" has at least 30 different definitions and Créole people are those who are born in Louisiana of African ancestry) are black and Catholic. Both Cajuns and Créoles played what they called French music up until the time of World War II. Over the next couple of decades, Cajun music picked up country western influences and Créole music went R & B and became known as zydeco.
• By the 1960s all things Cajun were denigrated even in the Lafayette, La. newspaper, The Daily Advertiser. In an editorial, the paper called for the end of Cajun music saying it was embarrassment. Shortly thereafter, Dewey Balfa, a legendary Cajun fiddler, and his brothers were invited to perform at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. It was a revelation to them that festival attendees were thrilled by the their music, while many at home were ashamed. 
• The word coonass means Cajun. The origins of the word are unknown, though many theories exist. It has been a slur, is used by Cajuns amongst themselves affectionately, but should never be used by anyone other than a Cajun. 
• Cajuns can cook like crazy - men and women. Lafayette just won top honors in Rand McNally's Best Food in Small Towns in America and when Anthony Bourdain visited for "No Reservations" in June, he said the crawfish bisque and pork backbone stew rivaled anything he'd ever eaten at Spain's E Bulli - considered to be the best restaurant in the world at the time. And these dishes were made by home cooks. Cajuns can catch, clean and cook any fish or game, grow vegetables and are more self-sufficient as a group than most any other in America.

• Cajuns are recognized as a legal minority due to a 1980 court case, Roach v Dresser Inc., where a Cajun man was discriminated against because of his heritage, his perceived low capabilities, was called derogatory names, and lost his job. He was the engineer that reported faulty equipment made by the company he worked for that caused the Three Mile Island incident.
• While there are some Cajuns in New Orleans, New Orleans is not considered a Cajun city. In fact, very little Cajun food is found there. Cajun culture mostly thrives in the southwest portion of Louisiana, southwest of New Orleans, and the very eastern edge of Texas.
• CODOFIL (The Council For The Development Of French In Louisiana) was formed in 1968 to re-educate the youth in Cajun French, which was a dying language.
• Traditional Mardi Gras in Cajun Country is much different than the debauchery of the big parties and huge floats in New Orleans. The old fashioned Mardi Gras involved the "courir" or "the run". In modern times, it involves teams of people on horseback, or riding on flatbed trucks, usually with plenty of music playing. The riders go through a planned route, visiting local farms, and asking for a donation to the evening's meal. Usually, the farmer will offer a chicken, if the party can catch it after setting it free in a large open pasture, some rice or other ingredients, or sometimes a small cash donation. The farmer and family is then invited to the big dinner. The dinner is usually a gumbo, large enough to feed the entire crew.