When most people think of Louisiana, they reduce it to Mardi Gras, French heritage and New Orleans. Residents have developed their own stereotypes as well. One of the most pervasive stereotypes is the idea that northern Louisiana is a boring cultural wasteland while southern Louisiana, the “true Louisiana,” contains everything that makes the state great.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Northern Louisiana actually shares a lot of heritage and history with southern Louisiana, in addition to its own quirks that make the area special.
The first difference people think of between northern and southern Louisiana is the upper region’s supposed lack of French influence. However, there are pockets of strong creole heritage in northern Louisiana that date back over centuries.
One of these pockets is Natchitoches, a small town located between Alexandria and Shreveport. Founded in 1714 by French colonists, it is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase, even older than New Orleans and Lafayette.
The early settlers were a mix of French and Spanish colonists, African slaves and local Native American tribes. They brought with them the same Creole traditions and cuisine common to southern Louisiana.
Natchitoches has become famous throughout the South for its meat pies. This popular regional dish,which originated in this area, and the Lasyone’s restaurant in downtown Natchitoches is famous for its excellent meat pies and other creole dishes. Natchitoches Parish is still inhabited by many of the colonial inhabitants’ descendants. Just outside of Natchitoches in the Cane River-Cloutierville area is a thriving Creole community.
In addition to its French heritage, northern Louisiana is a cultural melting pot in its own right. Contrary to the popular image of northern Louisiana as a blandly homogenous area dominated only by Protestants, the area is actually very culturally diverse. Shreveport has an established community of the descendants of Lebanese, Jewish, Italian and German immigrants. Minden, Louisiana, was founded by German immigrants in 1824. Minden residents continue to keep the city’s German heritage alive with events like Fasching, a festival that occurs every November with German inspired food, clothes and dances.
Even the descendants of the British and African American populations aren’t quite like any others in the American South. They have blended Mardi Gras with their Protestant faiths and happily adopted Creole and Cajun cuisine and music. Northern Louisiana may have a more Protestant Anglo-American influence than the rest of the state, but the people still participate in the traditions associated with Louisiana heritage.
Northern Louisiana is also home to some of the most beautiful natural sites in the state. It’s largely because of this region that the state has earned the nickname of “Sportsman’s Paradise.” The region’s forests and clear lakes are popular destinations for nature lovers. The state’s only national forest, Kisatchie Park, is located there, across 604,000 acres of land. Toledo Bend, located near Logansport, is one of the top five bass fishing lakes in the country, and the docks, parks and log cabins near the shore make it a lovely weekend swimming and boating destination.
In addition to the area’s natural beauty, the low population of the area has also helped to preserve important landmarks of Louisiana colonial and pre-colonial roots. Poverty Point, a historical site with prehistoric earthworks and mounds built around 1650 and 700 B.C. is a popular site for tourists and archaeologists to learn more about Louisiana’s early native American communities. Los Adaes, located in modern day Robeline, was the site of a Spanish colonial fort and was once the capital of Spanish Texas. It’s one of the most intact former Spanish colonial sites in the world. Today, the site is an exhibit dedicated to educating tourists about Spanish Texas. Natchitoches was once the site of the French Fort St. John Baptiste, and the nearby community of Isle Brevelle still has some of the original homes and other buildings of the early planter’s intact.
With all northern Louisiana has to offer, other residents of the state shouldn’t be so quick to write it off as merely an extension of Arkansas. Northern Louisiana isn’t exactly like its southern counterpart, but neither is most of southern Louisiana anything like New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Every region of the state has its own unique traditions, and it’s these differences that give Louisiana the cultural diversity it’s so famous for.
We might have a little influence from Arkansas and Texas, but we still love LSU, crawfish and Gumbo, and our Mardi Gras celebrations are pretty impressive. Before you draw that border between the “real Louisiana” and “south Arkansas,” come and see what we have to offer.
Osie Evans is a 20-year-old English junior from Natchitoches, Louisiana.