Il avait les blues, chère! Cher Bon Dieu li connait son affaire j't'guarantee!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Origin Stories
I have heard many stories of the origins of the Prairie des Femmes. The most common is that there were "a bunch of women" out here, or, a more girls than boys ratio among the settlers. The oldest residents have confirmed that it's "an old name, yeah" and that possibly the "Indian women looked good", and that's why it's La Prairie des Femmes. They also told me things like it was where the Civil War widows came to live, or it was where the women and children came in the flood of 1927 to escape the crevasse and flood. The Prairie des Femmes is a higher prairie, a small and abundant prairie. Those stories may all have elements of truth to them, but maps showing the Prairie aux/des Femmes exist that predate the Civil War by 50 years or more.
Prairie aux Femmes, in the V of the bayous under Opeloussas, Barthelemy Lafon - Map of Louisiana - 1806 |
As I dug deeper, the Indian stories started coming in. They say the PDF was a place of high native traffic, and I have heard a few variants of the same story: that there was a village of only native women and children here when the French settlers came upon the Prairie.
The first one is that the Attakapas who moved along the prairies of the Teche left a group of old women behind, as was custom, when it was time to strike camp. Then Miss Mavis told me that she heard that the braves had left for battle or to hunt and simply never came back. Then Mr. Paul told me more recently a more complete variant of the story that takes in the accounts of it being a place for widows. He said the tribe that lived in this area became too successful and began to overflow their lands. They would go to war with the other tribes (the Opelousas?) in the hills of Grand Coteau, where they would go to fight with honor. When the braves would die, their widows would come to live together in the village at Prairie des Femmes, at the site near the junction of the Bayous Fuselier and Bourbeux, and that when the explorers came up the Bayou Fuselier, (Fuselier de la Claire? Darby?) they discovered only Indian women, children and old people there.
For now, I am really enjoying the stories and searching for the origins of La Prairie des Femmes...
Labels:
Femmes
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Flood
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Grand Coteau
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La Prairie des Femmes
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map
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maps
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memes
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Origins
Saturday, January 18, 2014
No Arrowhead Today
There are three things that I have been searching for in the Prairie des Femmes: a red cardinal feather, an arrowhead, and the origin of the place name, Prairie des Femmes. Despite the PDF being a place of high native traffic back in the day and the dozens of red cardinals that swoop across the road as you drive, I have made the most headway with the name origins and found no arrowheads or red feathers.
Recently, though, I realized with the help of Mr. P. LaHaye (who has found all kinds of ancient Indian artifacts out here) that I had actually found an Indian clay marble a while back in the oxbow woods. Today we walked down the road and walked a few meters into the woods on an afternoon walk. I had the feeling I might find something, so I brought a short spoon. I looked and cleared the leaves a little, but with my two little men with me, it wasn't easy to focus on finding anything. I did see a palmetto shoot waving in the wind like a signal, it was being shaken by a small blackberry vine. It should be noted that in the hour we were walking and exploring, no car or truck passed on the Prairie des Femmes Road. The woods are impassible in summer and still a little wild in winter, full of spiny trees and palmettos. Soon we turned to exit onto the road and right where we did, there was a cardinal feather in the gravel on the side of the road. Gettin close!!
Recently, though, I realized with the help of Mr. P. LaHaye (who has found all kinds of ancient Indian artifacts out here) that I had actually found an Indian clay marble a while back in the oxbow woods. Today we walked down the road and walked a few meters into the woods on an afternoon walk. I had the feeling I might find something, so I brought a short spoon. I looked and cleared the leaves a little, but with my two little men with me, it wasn't easy to focus on finding anything. I did see a palmetto shoot waving in the wind like a signal, it was being shaken by a small blackberry vine. It should be noted that in the hour we were walking and exploring, no car or truck passed on the Prairie des Femmes Road. The woods are impassible in summer and still a little wild in winter, full of spiny trees and palmettos. Soon we turned to exit onto the road and right where we did, there was a cardinal feather in the gravel on the side of the road. Gettin close!!
Labels:
La Prairie des Femmes
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Origins
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
LaGrange Garden of Flowers
The house makes sure you understand it was for the
workers and inhabitants who carved the curved rafters and wall-papered
the walls in flowers, for the women who planted the holly and Narcissus and wisteria that bloom wildly in the dooryard. The whole place is still white, green and red. The green tar paper, the exposed whitewash, the chipping red chimney and rust. The enormous abandoned holly bush in the front has glossy green leaves and red berries. The clumps of paperwhites along where the walkway was are bright green and their white blooms leave a musky scent through the woods, even on New Year's Day. Even inside the house, flowers still bloom:
Labels:
La Prairie des Femmes
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LaGrange House
Prairie des Femmes Girl on Horseback
If you listen hard, you can hear them talking, and then Nonc talking about paneling.
I was standing in the sunlit doorway of the old Lagrange House on a warm Sunday afternoon, the second one of the New Year, 2014. I had come to the oldest standing homestead in the Prairie des Femmes again to record her and show her to my friend Nonc, who studies these things and was reporting to me about the bousillage fibers he was finding behind the paneling.
I was listening for trouble. I have permission to be there, but it's not my place. That place belongs to another realm. On the road I was hearing voices and dogs and a 4-wheeler. Then, like a dream, I heard the gallop of a bande of horses and the sharp Creole yelps of the men. I wanted to take cover, but realized they couldn't see me, or could they? Then I thought one of the men was yelling at the others to come and see the house. I got nervous and jumped down into the overgrowth. I heard the neighbors' dogs across the field bark loudly as a dozen riders galloped by, men, women and children, at full speed. I could see the riders through the thin winter woods and started moving toward the road. I got some pretty bad blackberry bush scratches on my arms, but I made my way out of the woods to the road where I could see them making the 3rd turn. Me and Nonc jumped in the truck and followed them to the bayou, where I knew they would corral at the new vine fence. On the ride we watched them, the Creole men and Indian boys, gallop around curves along the Bayou Bourbeux I watched the brothers I know cut across orange winter fields on horseback and carefully through tree lines, the boys, and this time, their sister on a cream colored horse, real Prairie des Femmes.
"Love Y'All" |
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
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