Arkansas Creoles
Arkansas Creoles, or Arkansas Metis, are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of Colonial New France & French Louisiana, including the Creole Corridor and Arkansas, during the periods of French and Spanish rule, before it became a part of the United States or in the early years under the United States. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, Louisiana French, and Creole languages,, and predominantly practice Catholicism.
The term Créole was originally used by French Creoles / French Louisianians to distinguish people born in Louisiana from those born elsewhere, thus drawing a distinction between Old-World Europeans and their descendants born in the New World. The word is not a racial label—people of European, African, or mixed ancestry can and have identified as Louisiana Creoles since the 18th century. After the Sale of Louisiana, the term "Creole" took on a more political meaning and identity, especially for those people of Latinate culture. The Catholic Latin-Creole culture in Louisiana contrasted greatly to the Anglo-Protestant culture of Yankee Americans.
Although the terms "Cajun" and "Creole peoples" today are often seen as separate identities, Cajuns have historically been known as Creoles. Today, the most famous Creole groups are the Alabama Creoles, Arkansas Creoles, Louisiana Creoles, and the Missouri French. Currently some Arkansans may identify exclusively as either Cajun or Creole, while others embrace both identities.
Creoles of French descent, including those of Québécois or Acadian lineage, have historically comprised the majority of white-identified Creoles in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. In the early 19th century amid the Haitian Revolution, refugees of both whites and free people of color originally from Saint-Domingue arrived in New Orleans with their slaves having been deported from Cuba, doubled the city's population and helped strengthen its Francophone culture. From there smaller numbers travelled up the Mississippi River, Arkansas River, White River, Cache River, Bayou des Arc, Little Red River, Black River, L'Anguille River, St. Francis River, Cossatot River, Saline River, Caddo River, Boeuf River, Antoine River, and Ouachita Rivers. Francophones also lent the names of the mountain ranges in Arkansas upon exploring them. Originally the Ozarks Mountains and Ouachita Mountains, both French names as well, were known as the Masserne or Mazern Mountains, possibly a derivative of the name Mont Cerne.
The first settlement was at Poste de Arkansea in Southeastern Arkansas, then locations like Cadron in central Arkansas, and Belle Pointe in Western Arkansas, and even more remote locations in Arkansas. Poste de Arkansea, or Akansa or Aux Arc, become one fortified trading location along the Mississippi Creole Corridor along with Vincennes, Kaskaskia, Ste Genevieve, and Cahokia. Later 19th-century immigrants to Arkansas, such as Irish, Germans, and Italians, also married into the Creole group. Most of these immigrants were Catholic.
Historical context
Créole is derived from Latin and means to "create", and was first used in the "New World" by the Portuguese to describe local goods and products. The Spanish later used the term during colonial occupation to mean any native inhabitant of the New World. French colonists used the term Créole to distinguish themselves from foreign-born settlers, and later as distinct from Anglo-American settlers.Créole referred to people born in Louisiana whose ancestors came from other places. Colonial documents show that the term Créole was used variously at different times to refer to white people, mixed-race people, and black people, both free-born and enslaved. The addition of "-of color" was historically necessary when referring to Creoles of African and mixed ancestry, as the term "Creole" did not convey any racial connotation until after the colonial period.
During French colonization, social order was divided into three distinct categories: Creole aristocrats ; a prosperous, educated group of multi-racial Creoles of European, African and Native American descent ; and the far larger class of African slaves and Creole peasants. French Law regulated interracial conduct within the colony. An example of such laws are the Louisiana Code Noir.
Though interracial relations were legally forbidden, or restricted, they were not uncommon. For a time, there were customs regulating relationships between white men and young women of African or mixed ancestry, whose mothers would negotiate the terms. These often included freedom for an enslaved woman and any children of the union, property settlement, and education. Mixed-race Creoles of color became identified as a distinct ethnic group, Gens de couleur libres, and were granted their free-person status by the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1810.
Social markers of creole identity have included being of Catholic faith, being a speaker of French and/or another French-derived language, having a strong work ethic, and being a fan of literature. Many may acquire Louisiana French or Louisiana Creole from familial exposure, but learn Standard French in school, particularly in Louisiana. There has been a revival of French after its systematic suppression for a period by Anglo-Americans. The approach to revitalization is somewhat controversial as many French Louisianians argue the prioritization of Standard French education deprioritizes Louisianisms.
File:Jacques Amans, Creole in a red headdress.jpg|thumb|200px|Portrait of a Creole woman in a red tignon c. 1840, painted by Jacques Amans
For many, being a descendant of the Gens de couleur libres is an identity marker specific to Creoles of color. Many Creoles of color were free-born, and their descendants often enjoyed many of the same privileges that whites did, including property ownership, formal education, and service in the militia. During the antebellum period, their society was structured along class lines, and they tended to marry within their group. While it was not illegal, it was a social taboo for Creoles of color to marry slaves and it was a rare occurrence. Some of the wealthier and prosperous Creoles of color owned slaves themselves. Many did so to free and/or reunite with once-separated family members. Other Creoles of color, such as Thomy Lafon, used their social position to support the abolitionist cause.
Origin
The Quapaw
The Quapaw reached their historical territory, the area of the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, at least by the mid-17th century. The Illinois and other Algonquian-speaking peoples to the northeast referred to these people as the Akansea or Akansa, referring to geography and meaning "land of the downriver people". As French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet encountered and interacted with the Illinois before they did the Quapaw, they adopted this exonym for the more westerly people. In their language, they referred to them as Arcansas. English-speaking settlers who arrived later in the region adopted the name used by the French, and adapted it to English spelling conventions.In 1686, at the request of the Quapaw, the French commander Henri de Tonti built a post near the mouth of the Arkansas River, which was later known as the Arkansas Post. This was the very first European settlement along the Mississippi River. This settlement was established at the Quapaw's design and request, primarily because the Quapaw wanted European firearms to use against their enemies who had already received them from the British. Tonti arranged for a resident Jesuit missionary to be assigned there, but apparently without result. About 1697, a smallpox epidemic killed the greater part of the women and children of two villages. In 1727, the Jesuits, from their house in New Orleans, again took up the missionary work.
The Quapaw were staunch allies of the French and backed them in regional conflicts. In 1729, the Quapaw allied with French colonists against the Natchez during the Natchez War, which was also referred to as the Natchez Revolt. This conflict ultimately involved multiple tribes allying with the French against the Natchez, ultimately resulting in the practical extermination of the Natchez tribe. The Quapaw also allied with France during the Chickasaw Wars, which spanned from 1721 to 1763.
File:Stati uniti, valle del mississipi, quapaw, pelle dipinta da indossare per la danza del bufalo, 1750 ca.jpg|thumb|Robe of the Buffalo Dancers,. Musée du Quai Branly—Jacques Chirac, Paris, France.
The French and Indians influenced each other in many areas. The French settlers in Arkansas learned the languages of the natives, such as Quapaw, which was a Dhegiha Siouan language group closely connected to the Omaha, Ponca, Osage and Kaw/Kansa. This language served as a lingua franca among the French and Indian tribes in the region. The Indians bought European goods, learned French, and sometimes adopted their religion.
The French relocated the Arkansas Post upriver, both to avoid flooding and to maintain close proximity to the Quapaw who were also moving up the river for defensive purposes. After France was defeated by the British in the Seven Years' War, it ceded its North American territories to Britain. This nation exchanged some territory with Spain, which took over "control" of Arkansas and other former French territory west of the Mississippi River. The Spanish built new forts to protect its valued trading post with the Quapaw. Relationships with the Spanish were more strained than they had been with France due to a variety of complications. Eventually the Spanish and the Quapaw would come into good terms however, and the Quapaw even signed a treaty during this time.
During the early years of colonial rule, many of the ethnic French fur traders and voyageurs had an amicable relationship with the Quapaw, as they did with many other trading tribes. Many Quapaw women and French men cohabitated. Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was founded by Joseph Bonne, a man of Quapaw-French ancestry.
Shortly after the United States acquired the territory in 1803 by the Louisiana Purchase, it recorded the Quapaw as living in three villages on the south side of the Arkansas River about above Arkansas Post. In 1818. as part of a treaty negotiation, the U.S. government acknowledged the Quapaw as rightful owners of approximately, which included all of present-day Arkansas south and west of the Arkansas River, as well as portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma from the Red River to beyond the Arkansas and east of the Mississippi. The treaty required the Quapaws to cede almost of this area to the U.S. government, giving the Quapaw title to between the Arkansas and the Saline in Southeast Arkansas. In exchange for the territory, the U.S. pledged $4,000 and an annual payment of $1,000. A transcription error in Congress later removed most of Grant County, Arkansas and part of Saline County, Arkansas from the Quapaw claim.
Under continued U.S. pressure, in 1824 they ceded this also, excepting occupied by the chief Saracen, a French Quapaw creole, below Pine Bluff. They expected to incorporate with the Caddo of Louisiana, but were refused permission by the United States. Successive floods in the Caddo country near the Red River pushed many of the tribe toward starvation, and they wandered back to their old homes.
Sarrasin, their last chief before the removal, was a Roman Catholic and friend of the Lazarist missionaries, who had arrived in 1818. He died about 1830 and is buried adjoining St. Joseph's Church, Pine Bluff. A a memorial window in the church preserves his name. Fr. John M. Odin was the pioneer Lazarist missionary among the Quapaw; he later served as the Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans.
In 1834, under another treaty and the federal policy of Indian Removal, the Quapaw were removed from the Mississippi valley areas to their present location in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, then Indian Territory.
In 1824, the Jesuits of Maryland, under Father Charles Van Quickenborne, took up work among the local and migrant tribes of Indian Territory. In 1846, the Mission of St. Francis was established among the Osage, on Neosho River, by Fathers John Shoenmakers and John Bax. They extended their services to the Quapaw for some years.