The people living in southern Louisiana today come from across the United States and many places in the world. Scarcity of dry land and difficulty of access kept many people from venturing into vast stretches of the region before the 1700s, initially restricting
development to the banks of rivers and bayous where hunting, fishing, and farming
supported first the Native Americans of the Chitimacha groups. During the 1700s, the
population of the region changed significantly as new arrivals continued to move into New
Orleans and outward in all directions. Several waves of French immigrants settled in the
region, African American slaves were brought to work the plantations, and Native
Americans of the Houmas group were driven south by westward expansion of Euroamericans.

Then, French Acadian immigrants deported from their Canadian homeland by the British
sought refuge in the relatively isolated region, Canary Islanders (Isleños) emigrated to
escape starvation and a failed reform attempt, and Irish immigrants helped construct
levees along the Mississippi. Later, German farmers were recruited to establish
settlements along the river, Slavic merchant mariners and fishermen fled the
Austro-Hungarian empire and established fishing communities along the Missississippi
River, and Chinese immigrants moved into the marshes to help create the dried shrimp
industry. By the 1940s New Orleans had a prosperous class of free black artisans, sculptors, businessmen, property owners, and skilled laborers in all fields.

For more information:

Austin, D.
2000   Oilfield Waste in Louisiana: Issues and Consequences of a Special Exemption. Report prepared for the community of Grand Bois, Louisiana and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. October 22.

Clarke, C.
1985   Religion and Regional Culture: The Changing Pattern of Religious Affiliation in the Cajun Region of Southwest Louisiana. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 24(4): 384-395.

Curry, J.
1979   A History of the Houma Indians and their Story of Federal Nonrecognition. American Indian Journal. 5(2): 8-28.

Dauphine, James G.
1993   A Question of Inheritance: Religion, Educaiton, and Louisiana's Cultural Boundary, 1880-1940. Lafayette: The Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Hallowell, Christopher
1979   People of the Bayou: Cajun Life in Lost America. NY: E.P. Dutton

Kniffen, F. B., H. F. Gregory, and G. A. Stokes
1987   The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press.

Spitzer, N.R. et al.
1979  Mississippi Delta Ethnographic Overview.. Prepared for Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, National Park Service, New Orleans. National Council for the Traditional Arts.

White, D.
2000  Cultural Gumbo