Bonjour mes amis!

It's time to announce another gathering of Les Habitants!!

Thursday, October 24

7:00 p.m.

Michel Brouillet House (a.k.a. "Old French House")

On First Street, between Hart and Busseron Sts. , Vincennes

Come enjoy the truly historical ambiance of the Old French House, which surely will inspire us as we plan future events and discuss our mission.

Would anyone like to bring some refreshments?

Anyone is welcome to dress historically, to add to the atmosphere as well as discussion and education.

The following is the agenda:

A. Report on September 23 meeting

B. What do we do about dues?

C. Website

D. Reports on Research and Personas - if you are working on one, tell us what you are doing, what you have found out about it, etc., even if it's just a little bit. How close are we getting to doing presentations for schools, etc.?

E. Has anyone been to recent events (e.g. Feast of the Hunter's Moon, Mississinewa, etc.)? You are welcome to tell us about it!

F. Future events

1. trip to Ste. Genevieve, MO

2. shall we have a Fete Champetre?

3. Guillanee (New Year's Eve) celebration in Fort de Chartres, Ste. Genevieve or Vincennes?

4.. shall we have another Clothing Program in 2003?

5. Spirit-of-Vincennes Rendezvous

6. Living History workshop at Cahokia in June, 2003

7. Piankeshaw Trails

G. Sharing of any information, ideas, questions.

The last gathering of Les Habitants du Poste Vincennes was on Monday, September 23, 2002 in the McGrady-Brockman Building (the historical collection of the Knox County Public Library). Librarian Brian Spangle graciously gave us a tour of the collection, especially noting sources useful and interesting to Les Habitants. The tour was very interesting and informative. In the meeting that followed, we discussed developing personas in readiness to do presentations for schools, groups and events. We shared very useful information and ideas for getting started. Denise Chapin brought in materials as well as very pertinent website addresses. We began a discussion of a trip to Ste. Genevieve but were unable to continue due to closing time for the library.

We will continue a discussion on Ste. Genevieve in the October meeting, and I hope to have more information to share on that. If anyone else has information, books, photos, etc. on Ste. Genevieve and the surrounding area, please bring them.

We occasionally meet at a local library, as we did in September, to learn about resources useful to Les Habitants as well as how to use the collections. Sometime in the future I will develop bibliographies for each of these collections of resources pertinent to Les Habitants, making it easier for all of us to locate what we need. Any help on this is appreciated. Sometime in the future, we'll have gatherings at the Brute Library and Knox County Public Library.

It would be nice to have presentations at gatherings concerning history and/or interpretation. If you would like to do a presentation or know someone else to contact, please let me know or bring it up at a meeting.

The Les Habitants web site is being connected to search engines. I am also trying to get it updated and am gradually adding links. New resource information from Denise Chapin and others will be added to the Resource List. Any suggestions and ideas are welcome. Check out the new look at: rking.vinu.edu/leshab.htm

See you in the Old French House on October 24!

Terri Talarek King

812 726 4431

ttalarek@hotmail.com

Richard King and I were trying to find information on the term "Fete Champetre" (which refers to a rural or outdoor gathering.) We came across a site for an 18th century living history village called Vermilionville, in Louisiana. Vermilionville was a village formed from a settlement of Acadians, and was located on the site of present-day Lafayette, Louisiana. The web address is vermilionville.org/index.html

The village is called "A Cajun and Creole Living History Museum and Folklife Village". You can go there to see how Vermilionville looked and how the people lived. You can take a "virtual tour" by going to vermilionville.org/tour.html .

So, what do they mean by "Cajun" and "Creole"? "Cajun" is derived from the original "Acadian". The Acadians were French people who, in 1755, were driven from their homeland in Nova Scotia, Canada, for refusing to swear allegiance to the British Crown. They wandered for years until the King of Spain invited them to settle in their new home, in what would someday become the state of Louisiana.

The "Creole" term used in the history of the Illinois Country (or Upper Louisiana, in the 18th century), was applied generally and loosely to French settlers in this area, as well as those of mixed blood, being French and Native and/or African American. In Vermilionville and the bayou country in general, "Creole" referred to new-world descendents of Africans, West Indians and Europeans, and several North American tribes.

There are both similiarities and differences between the French/Creole cultures of the Vermilionville area and the French (Creole) of the Illinois Country, including Vincennes. A trip on the virtual tour of Vermilionville shows both. Some of the buildings, for example, are like the French Colonial structures of the Vincennes area, and others show influence of Creole culture or adaptations to the bayou area. Notice buildings such as Mouton House, The Acadienne House, Buller House, La Chapelle Des Altakapas, Le Presbytere (you can see a palisade fence there), and Broussard House, and the information given about the Blacksmith Shop. One major difference between the bayou and Illinois French is that, in Vermilionville, houses tended to be isolated from one another. In Vincennes, houses were clustered, on their lots (usually one arpent square), near each other in the village, and the farmers left the village to farm on their longlots in the common farmland.

There are also similarities and differences in terms used in the language. In the web site, there is an "Acadian Dictionary" - vermilionville.org/terms.html "Un Arpent" is a term shared by both the Cajuns and Illinois Country French, as it refers to the French land measure (192 linear feet) used to measure farm and village lots. " Un Petit Habitant" was a small farmer, often poor. "Les Sabots" were the handmade wooden shoes worn to protect feet from wet places. The existence of the same terms in both cultures for will-o'-the-wisps ("Un Feu Follet") and werewolves ("Les Loup-Garous") show that folklore is a common thread among North American French people. Both cultures built vertical-timber homes, using "bousillage" to fill in between the timbers, but the material for the filler depended on what was available locally. People in Vermilionville used "La Barbe Espagnole", but Spanish Moss was never available in Vincennes.

An excellent source for learning about the terms and words used by the people of early Vincennes is A Glossary of Mississippi Valley French, 1673-1850, by John Francis McDermott. It can be found in some local libraries, including the Byron R. Lewis Historical Library.

It would be helpful to have short, informative articles in each newsletter. If any of you have something you'd like to contribute (be it a short written article or just some information), please send it along!