Winding through Time: The Forgotten History and Present-Day Peril of Bayou Manchac

Notes

49 Notes NativeAmerican cultural periods: NativeAmerican cultures in the LowerMississippiValleyregionaredividedintothefollowingperiods: 250 B.C.–200 A.D. Tchefuncte 200–400 A.D. Marksville (first appearance of burial mounds) 400–00 A.D. Troyville/Coles Creek (earthen mounds at the Kleinpeter site most probably built during this period, used to support temples or ceremonial buildings) 00–450 A.D. Plaquemine (introduction of farming) 450–700 A.D. Mississippian 600–Present Historic period, after European contact. Muskogean linguistic group included the languages of Bayou Goula, Acolapissa, Mugulasha, and others.  Isle of Orleans: When France divided its territory in 763, the Isle of Orleans became a Spanish territory.The following is a translation of the pertinent text from theTreaty of Paris defining its geography: 50 In order to reestablish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove for ever all subject of dispute with regard to the limits of the British and French territories on the continent of America; it is agreed, that, for the future, the confines between the dominions of his Britannick Majesty and those of his Most Christian Majesty, in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the River Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence, by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea; and for this purpose, the Most Christian King cedes in full right, and guaranties to his Britannick Majesty the river and port of the Mobile, and every thing which he possesses, or ought to possess, on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated.  William Bartram: Bartram is recognized as America’s first nativeborn naturalist/artist as well as the first to pen a journal of both scientific observation and personal experience. His lengthy southern journey in the late eighteenth century took him through the pristine environment of eight modern-day states: North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. The account of his adventure, known as Bartram’s Travels, first published in 79, includes his impressions, letters, travel notes, and natural history observations, and has been widely read. His path has been commemorated by the establishment of an informal series of routes known as the Bartram Trail, identi- fied on the Bartram Trail Web site, http://www.bartramtrail.org.  Francisco Bouligny: Bouligny owned land in the Manchac area that he neglected or chose not to develop, as Gilbert C. Din reports in Francisco Bouligny: A Bourbon Soldier in Spanish Louisiana:“In Notes 5 792 Manchac residents complained in a memorial to the governor about absentee landowners, including Bouligny, who failed to maintain their levees, which harmed their properties. Governor Carondelet gave the absentee owners instructions to repair the levees by November or face a one-hundred-peso fine.”At the turn of the century, Bouligny still owned abandoned lands at Manchac.  Los Isleños: In August 777, the Spanish crown commanded the governor and commandant general of the Canary Islands to enlist seven hundred men for service in Louisiana. Preference was given to married men who would bring families to populate and stabilize the community. Mulattoes, gypsies, executioners, and butchers were prohibited from volunteering. The Spanish government paid each traveler 45 reales upon agreeing to go to Louisiana, a half peso per day while awaiting departure, and 45 reales upon arrival. (A reale was one-eighth of a Spanish peso, or piastre, a coin that was sometimes cut into eight pieces, giving rise to the phrase“pieces of eight.”) In 778–79, over two thousand Canary Islanders left on ships for Spain’s Louisiana colony, where they were dispersed to Galveztown and to three other south Louisiana settlements—New Iberia,Terre-aux-Boeuf, and Valenzuela.  William Darby: Darby’s extensive travels in Louisiana in 86 were recorded in his report, The Geographic Description of the State of Louisiana, which combined detailed observations of terrain and physical geography with knowledgeable commentary on natural history. His description of the forests of West Florida near the Mississippi River, including the upper bank of Manchac, is as revealing as that of William Bartram. Notes 52 Darby noted “a thick forest, of which the most remarkable [species] are Liquidamber styraciflua (sweet gum), Pinus taeda (loblolly), Pinus rigida (pitch pine), Cupressus disticha, Ulmus...