Lafourche Water District 1

Lafourche Water District 1 Drinking Water Report Info
The history of Bayou Lafourche can best be told by describing the history of the French, Spanish English and German speaking families who settled its banks in the mid 1700's. In under 200 years, their descendants, joined by Acadians ousted from Nova Scotia, merged those cultures, customs and heritages into a society known as "Cajun Country." Early settlers investigated a descending fork of the Mississippi River that mapmakers had named "LaFourche Des Chetimachas." This distributary march, its name soon shortened to "LaFourche," served the early settlers well as a means of communication, a method of transportation, and a source of fresh water. The sound was even used as a point of reference when giving directions. The present residents every now and again allude to a given area as "up the inlet," "down the narrows," or "across the straight." It was not well before a close sew community of farmers and fishermen had broadened the length of the sound town settlement for many miles. Control of the successive narrows overflows had an important influence in the early residents' settlement design. Laws considered every landowner responsible for the construction and maintenance of an inlet levee for his own assurance and that of his neighbors. Land grants had a width of less than 600 feet however with tremendous profundity. Many farmers and plantations in the mid 1700-1800's had a profundity of in any event a mile and a half. An example created consisting of a narrow straight front farm with a long "lace" of land streaming behind it. Each approached the sound, and each had less levee to maintain. Historians, observing the one of a kind example of housing development, with one residence after another arranged fronting for around 50 miles from Thibodaux to Golden Meadow, started alluding to it as "the longest street in the world." It is said that a baseball thrown from "front yard to front yard" could be started in Thibodaux and be in Golden Meadow an hour later. Isolation resulted when Lafourche's residents exploited having the narrows for a front entryway and the swamp as their back yard. The inlet contained an unlimited nourishment supply that could be eaten or traded. The swamps and marshland contained copious animal life which could be chased for nourishment or for their pelts. Perhaps it was their vivid language, maybe their strong religious beliefs and work ethics, or their affection for a decent time. Maybe it was the sheer power of numbers since families of 15 or 20 were normal, however whatever the reason, in time, the Acadian culture, language, and religion absorbed the others. Within a time of their appearance, Acadian was the predominant culture on the march. Cajun French is a rich tapestry of the French that was spoken in the 18th Century by Acadian and French immigrants and the French and African Creoles who came to Louisiana. Just include some Spanish, a few words from the nearby Native American tribes, a little African jargon and some English together, and the result is the Louisiana French that is spoken by the majority in this state. As with every single living language that keep on developing, the complement and expressions of Louisiana French are one of a kind. French students were not allowed to speak French in schools here and had to learn English. When away from school, kids spoke French with their parents, friends and neighbors thus mixing the languages together forming Cajun French. Many efforts have been made to preserve the Cajun French language here. Groups have been formed to preserve the way of life that our ancestors assembled..