What prevents us from unearthing our Cajun origins?

In 1765 Joseph Beausoleil Broussard led more than 200 Acadians to Nouvelle Acadie in present-day Iberia and St. Martin parishes.

Many died in the months after their arrival, including Beausoleil and his brother, Alexandre, according to the New Acadia Project/University of Louisiana at Lafayette website. The founders of New Acadia were buried at the places they settled along the Bayou Teche, referred to as premier camp d'en bas, dernier camp d'en bas, and camp Beausoleil, the website says. Their gravesites and homesteads remain unmarked and unknown 250 years later, in what is today known as Acadiana – the homeland of the Cajuns.

So, right under our noses — somewhere out there along the Teche Ridge south of Loreauville — could lie the remains of Broussard and some 30-40 others, as well as their homesteads.

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A resistance fighter against the British in Acadie, Broussard and more than 200 Acadians were forced out of their homeland and found refuge in south Louisiana, first New Orleans and then St. Martin and Iberia parishes.

An epidemic did what the British couldn’t — still Broussard’s heart.

But there’s more to the story than finding a man who led the fight against injustice and also led his people to Louisiana; because where lies Broussard so do the homesteads and graves of the very first Acadians to settle here. The people proudly known as Cajuns.

The world well knows these Cajuns; their music, food and joie de vie have spread far and wide. Cajun music is instantly recognizable and honored with Grammy awards; Cajun bands have performed dances, concerts and festivals around the globe; and likewise, Cajun food has not only garnered awards, but TV shows have popped up around it, too.

Both the food and music are often imitated, but never duplicated and that’s okay — imitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery.

But what’s not alright is that this culture’s very beginnings here in south Louisiana — the tap root of the tree of a determined people hell bent on survival — remains lost to history.

Associate Professor of Anthropology at UL Mark Rees, however, wants the mystery solved. And with the New Acadia Project, he aims to do it.

The New Acadia Project combines public archaeology, history, and community outreach in a collaborative study of the 18th century settlement of New Acadia, its website says. In addition to providing unique historical and cultural knowledge of the first major Acadian settlement in Louisiana, this research supports heritage conservation and commemoration, and promotes development of the cultural economy.

The expedition to discover the lost settlement of Nouvelle Acadie involves archaeological survey and remote sensing, historical and archival research, oral histories and genealogies, public outreach, and community engagement, according to the website.

Time — especially in the subtropical climate of south Louisiana — is of the essence. Funding, too, that fuels the archaeological survey, remote sensing and digs is running out and is difficult to come by. And that, to me, is more baffling than the actual whereabouts of the first Cajuns and their homesteads.

And I’m not alone.

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Bart Bourque, a resident of Loreauville, attended Rees’ Aug 15 update on the New Acadie Project in St. Martinville’s Acadian Memorial and the Cultural Heritage Center. See what he has to say here.

Indeed, it is puzzling a state geared to tourism and promoting the Cajun and Creole cultures has not the foresight to see this project needs funded to completion. It’s not to say there aren’t other priorities like education, healthcare and infrastructure — then again, we see how they’ve been treated — so one can only wonder what goes on in our state government.

Enter Brad Clifton, interim mayor of Loreauville since Al Broussard died in a wreck in April. Clifton said Loreauville is looking to put up an Acadian Odyssey Monument in a town park and other projects like the dig, but funding was an issue there, too.

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“That’s exactly one of the first things Mayor Broussard brought it to our attention, I was an alderman, I just couldn’t believe that Louisiana as a state wasn’t falling all over itself trying to fund this thing,” said Clifton, adding there’s even more significance to consider: “A lot of the Broussard family was involved in mapping out the Louisiana Purchase. So, it gets a lot bigger than just getting here and settling here and becoming the Acadiana like we know it today.”

When the idea of the monument initially came up, it was during the planning of New Orleans Tricentennial in 2018.

“You can pretty much forget funding for at least a year, year-and-a-half, two years until all that’s over with,” Clifton said. “But at the same time, it gives a lot of private individuals the opportunity to get involved and really take a hold of that because sometimes with state funding, it’s not as personal.

“That’s where we’re going to go with our park project,” he said.

Dominick Cross is the culture, history and religion writer for the Times of Acadiana and the Daily Advertiser. Contact him at dcross@theadvertiser.com.