In 2018, I was astonished to learn via a podcast that New Orleans had a name before the Europeans came here. Then, I was pretty infuriated that I didn’t know that before, as a native Louisianan who attended public school through LSU. I started de-colonizing Bulbancha on a minor scale by telling everyone who would listen.

I grew up off of Choctaw Road, near the Bogue Chitto river in a town called Bogalusa. I learned that Bogue Chitto meant Big Creek and Bogalusa meant Black Creek as a child. The Washington Parish Free Fair, the largest free county/parish fair in the United States by some claims, includes an exhibit and demonstration of local indigenous people. A road that historians believe Europeans used since 1542, the Old Choctaw Trail, is in Washington Parish.

LSU is in a town called Baton Rouge because the French just translated what the people who were already there called it — Istrouma or Red Stick. There, you can find the LSU Campus Mounds, some of the oldest man made structures on North America (older than the Egyptian pyramids). Unfortunately, during my time at LSU, we regularly climbed the Mounds with no real interest in what they may mean or why they were there (you can no longer walk on the Mounds today).

I grew up eating pecans, grits, cornbread, crawfish, red beans, and tabasco peppers, all of which I learned are actually Indian foods, not Cajun foods!

With so much native language, history, and culture in my life, how did I never know about Bulbancha? Why was I never interested in what was here before the colonizers came?

Decolonizing Myself

Last weekend, I attended the Indigenous History: Decolonizing Bulbancha Tours seminar organized by Frank Perez and the Tour Guide Association of Greater New Orleans to try to rectify that and fill in some of the gaps.

In addition to Frank’s overview of indigenous history in Louisiana and the Natchez Attack on Fort Rosalie, Dr. Jeffery Darensbourg spoke on “Indigenous Enslavement and Linguistics”, Dr. John DePriest spoke on “Jean Baptiste Baudrau II: An 18th Century Case Study of Colonial/Indigenous Relations”, and Joseph Darensbourg spoke on “Inter-Tribal Creole Identity”.

Dr. Darensbourg is the scholar who taught all the white people that Bulbancha is still a place. He explained that his own birth certificate from 1972 lists his parents as negra/negro. The practice of using these and other terms instead of the Indian terms was an intentional erasure. He is Ishak, the people who were in south Louisiana before Europeans. They are sometimes called the Creole Indians. Sometimes they are called Atakapa or “Maneaters,” a misnomer that he explained was because of their tradition of taking people into their tribe, not cannibalism. He is working to spread Ishakkoy, the language they speak.

Dr. DePriest is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and a professor at Tulane. He provided rich history about one of the original Creoles, Jean Baptiste Baudrau II.

Baudrau’s mother was indigenous and his father was French. He only lived about 40 years, but his adventures were enough for many lifetimes. Jean Baptiste Baudrau knew Bienville, the four time governor of Louisiana and “founder” of the city of New Orleans, which probably helped him out of trouble as much as it could.

Baudrau was arrested for smuggling, kidnapping, salvaging a wreck, and even for a rebellion he wasn’t part of. Eventually, the French made an example of him because they could not control him, and he became one of only two men in what is now the United States whose body was broken on a wheel. He was thrown into the Mississippi River. His descendants installed a plaque at that spot commemorating his life.

Baudrau fell between worlds as a Creole, not French but not Indigenous either. His existence along with the other original Creoles provided a reason for the colonizers to begin creating their elaborate classification and caste system for people. Dr. DePriest ended his talk by proclaiming that the colonial government did everything to silence Baudrau, but his descendants, of which there are many, prove they were not successful.

Monument Builders

Joseph Darensbourg closed out the day by sharing a song and introducing the next chief of the Ishak people, reiterating that the people who were here before colonization are not extinct.

Joseph reminded us that, in this age of…dubious monuments, our indigenous ancestors were also monument builders. Beyond the ancient Mounds at LSU, Poverty Point and several other sites still exist around the state.

There used to be several mounds in Bulbancha, too, such as where St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Nanih Bvlbancha team, there is a prominent one in Bulbancha again. Here they can hold celebrations without having to leave the city, like they used to before the colonizers.

I ended my weekend by visiting it. Monuments are important, and the people of Bulbancha knew that. We still know that, even if we pretend to be blind to the propaganda. What we choose to build in materials that will last far longer than us tell the future humans what we valued. I’m glad that part of our stories is removing old monuments that no longer align with our values while adding new monuments that move us a little closer to de-colonizing Bulbancha.