Attakapas, Louisiana Submitted for the LA GenWeb Archives by Frances Ball Turner, Jan. 1998. ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives http:/www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************ History of Louisiana, by Chambers Vol. I., pg. 270 Chapter: First Coming of the Acadians ----------------------------------------- "All over Southwestern Louisiana were broad stretches of prairies whose succulent and abundant grasses made ideal grazing grounds. To this region known as the Attakapas, (footnote: Pronounced Tuck-a-paw.) meaning "man-eaters," so named from a resident tribe of Indians supposedly given to canabalistic practices, went these Acadians with their cattle. Sluggish streams or bayous traverse this region. Small wooded clumps of "isles" dot its surface, resembling oases in a level desert. Along its eastern edge meanders one of the most picturesque streams of America, Bayou Teche, flowing between its twin fringes if Druidical oaks. On this stream was located the old post of the Attakapas, now St. Martinville, which shares with the posts of Opelousas and Natchitoches the distinction of being historically significant in the colonial chronicles of the western section of the state. Along the Teche stand several "Evangeline Oaks" named after the heroine of Longfellow's famous poems, each held to be by enthusiastic believers, the "only genuine" arborial retreat under whose spreading branches Evangeline is supposed to have sat in saddened meditation over her absent and elusive lover. Weight of authority, however, fixes the one at St. Martinville as THE Evangeline Oak." ----------------- Frances (Ball) Turner Vancouver, WA # # #