Madison Grant on Cajuns

[Boudin]

In Louisiana French is still spoken by the Creoles of New Orleans and by the French and Negro mixture called "Cajans."

There are several things wrong with this statement that make the value of his book, "Conquest of a Continent", questionable.

1. "Cajans" are what they were called in Alabama, not Louisiana. He is unaware of this distinction (as was I until just now but I didn't write a book on this subject), and apparently even the existence of French-speakers in Alabama.
2. Neither Cajuns nor Cajans are a primarily "French and Negro mixture". Lieutenant George C. Harding, in 1863, was significantly more accurate:

   I will try and tell what a Cajun is. He is a half-savage creature, of mixed French and Indian blood, lives in swamps and subsists by cultivating small patches of corn and sweet potatoes.

   But a small and inconsistent percentage of Indian (or even Negro) does not make them a "mixture".

Given these errors it makes me wonder how valid his criticisms of the Quebecois are, or even the rest of his book.

[Boudin]

Ethnologists insist that, though French in name, these Acadians are in fact, Nordic in race. Tall as the tallest Teuton, the Cajan may still be plentifully found in “The Country of Evangeline.” His hair and skin are often persistently fair, his eyes insistingly blue. “Norman French” is the explanation of the ethnologists. “Is not Norman Nordic?” they ask.

I will try and tell what a Cajun is. He is a half-savage creature, of mixed French and Indian blood, lives in swamps and subsists by cultivating small patches of corn and sweet potatoes.

You must not use the word Cagin, implying thereby that there is any n----- blood in the party to whom you are talking.

[NSXD60]

Cajuns are indistinguishable from most Central Euro derived White Southerners racewise. Of course Cajun derives from A-cadien = Cadien = Cadzien = Cadjein, the latter standard form phonetically modified by English speakers as Cajun.

[Boudin]

Cajuns are indistinguishable from most Central Euro derived White Southerners racewise.

I agree. I just wanted to contrast what the newspaper claimed ethnologists said, with what ethnologists of the time actually said. "Nordic in race" versus "French and Negro mixture".

[Flashball]

Cajuns are mostly French with few amerindians and subsaharians, that's correct?