It has been 400 years since the first Frenchmen established a settlement in Acadie, today known as Nova Scotia. There, in the wilderness of the frontier, a community was built and a new identity was born: the Acadians. After their deportation by the British in 1755, a group of Acadians moved south to rebuild their lives and community in Louisiana: they became Cajuns. Since then, the Louisiana Purchase, the War for Southern Independence, the railroad, the discovery of oil, and the Louisiana Constitution of 1921 forbidding French on all school grounds were among the events that changed the face of the Cajun culture.; This research is a social, historical, and political essay, that explores how the Acadian identity was born in Acadie and how it later evolved in Louisiana. Through the conceptual framework of Albert Memmi's Portrait du colonise , this study explores how the colonization of Louisiana by the Americans---following the Louisiana Purchase and, in the 20th century, through the state's school system---affected the people known as Cajuns. Colonization, as presented by Memmi, offers a plausible explanation as to why a majority of Cajuns voluntarily assimilated themselves into the American mainstream, beginning at the turn of the last century. However, even if the experience of the Cajuns can be viewed as colonization, Cajuns cannot liberate themselves by liberating their nation first and by later freeing themselves as individuals, as Memmi asserted. Cajuns never had a "nation."; This study concludes that liberation (or de-colonization), in this case, can only be achieved on an individual basis. By detaching themselves from the political system of the "colonizer," Cajuns can not only retain their true identity, but they can preserve it for generations to come. Finally, this research explores the current development of a new frontier within our borders through the members of de-colonization movements identified as "Cultural Creatives," and practitioners of "la simplicite volontaire."
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