July Ceramics

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Painted Ceramics July 11

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July Ceramics

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Prairie des Femmes Road July 6, 2026

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Prairie Artifacts from the Cane Field

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Siltborn

"Well the rumor is, back in the Indian days, when there was Indians in the territory... we not that far from Opelousas and there was an Opelousas tribe and they claim when the tribe would go to war, they'd come over here and hide their women. That's how they got the name of Prairie of the Women."

 

Siltborn

Cameron Escoyne and his grandfather | Deer Hunting The Louisiana Bayou | Project Hunt

PDF Instagram

 

Prairie Tags

 

In the Fields of Prairie des Fermes

​I watch the fields of Prairie des Femmes. They rotate soybean and sorghum most years, with a fallow year in there also. Some of the old timers will call the prairie "Prairie des Fermes" (Prairie of the Farms) because it was and still is an agricultural enclave. Some of the most persistent stories about this place revolve around the women (les femmes) who ran the farms (les fermes) and dairies while the men left to work or fight. However this anecdote is true in most places around the country in war times. The wars that the neighbors have given vary from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, WW1 or 2. Further research suggests that the memory of the prairie is older than American wars and that the wars in question were of the native Opelousas, Chitimacha or Atakapas tribes and may not have been traditional wars at all. Prairie des Femmes was said to be the peace zone between tribes. It is also said the men hid the women back here, or simply went hunting and never came back. Some say they were nomadic and just moved along the Teche while leaving this prairie as the base village for the women and children. It's even more interesting when one considers that we are on the western edge of the Teche Escarpment and tucked behind the ancient alluvial bluffs of Grand Coteau, where the Mississippi itself flowed.  I also suspect that Grand Coteau was ceremonial grounds of some sort to the natives of this prairie.

This year there's a special atmosphere along the road because the close fields are in sugarcane and it creates the loveliest (for a prairie girl) vignettes while we search for broken ceramics in the late light of the summer afternoon.

Grande Ronde Attempted at PDF Dance

 

          

   

Grande Ronde in Point Blue

Opelousas Clarion could do well Publishing in PDF

 

Clarion 1895

Vilify Prairie des Femmes? Mais Jamais says the Clarion, 1897

"The Clarion's mission upon earth is not to vilify Washington-not more so than it is to vilify Opelousas, or Grand Coteau, or Ville Platte, or Prairie des Femmes, or an other place."

 

June 23 Ceramics

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37 Prairie Aux Femmes 1763

Black Spear Point- Olivier Site

​I'd spent a decade or more walking what used to be a mound, now plowed a few times a year, called the Olivier Site. I am friends with the daughter of the owner of this field, which rotates soybeans and sorghum. I monitor this field. It was a prehistoric stone working place at the very edge of the Teche escarpment. The first artifacts I found there were scores of knapping shards, still very fine and sharp after all these years. They were multicolored, and since rock doesn't exist naturally in this prairie delta the imagination wonders to the origins of the white, blue, black, grey and red stone chips. Finding each one was thrilling for me. 

I had been told that the neighbors found many artifacts in that field, but I never found more than the knapping pieces and maybe a small broken point or two. They are concentrated on the north edge of the rise of what used to be a great mound. 

One day in 2019 I was walking the field as usual. I had never found a full artifact before. I found a white marble that reminded me of the full moon and some knapping and ceramics when all of a sudden I saw a piece of bone in the soil. I don't know what kind of mound was here before, but its likely it was burial. I picked up the piece of broken bone and just held it, out there in the field. It was leg or arm. In that moment I heard in my head, "You're going to find a point." I walked three steps and there was the black spear point on the dirt. 

Prairie des Femmes 2004

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Prairie Landscapes Summer 2023

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La Gallerie Chez Moi

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La Cuisine Chez Moi

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