The Louisiana Purchase territory was home for many of the Cajuns after the British forced them to leave from their former home of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Some of the Acadians who had been relocated to France subsequently left for Louisiana, where their descendants are now known as Cajuns.

Cajuns of southern Louisiana carry the same mutation that is seen most commonly in Ashkenazi Jews.

Cajuns (; or les Acadiens, ) are an ethnic group mainly living in the U. S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles ( French-speakers from Acadia in what are now the Canadian Maritimes ).

While Lower Louisiana had been settled by French colonists since the late 18th century, the Cajuns trace their roots to the influx of Acadian settlers after the Great Expulsion from their homeland during the French and Indian War ( 1754 to 1763 ).

Since their establishment in Louisiana the Cajuns have developed their own dialect, Cajun French, and developed a vibrant culture including folkways, music, and cuisine.

Some Cajuns live in communities outside of Louisiana.

Not all Cajuns descend solely from Acadian exiles who settled in south Louisiana in the 18th century, as many have intermarried with other groups.

Since the mid-1950s, relations between the Cajuns of the U. S. Gulf Coast and Acadians in the Maritimes and New England have been renewed, forming an Acadian identity common to Louisiana, New England, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

During the 18th and 19th century, " Cajuns " came to be identified as the French-speaking rural people of Southwestern Louisiana.

Over the years, many Cajuns and Creoles also migrated to the Beaumont and Port Arthur area of Southeast Texas, in especially large numbers as they followed oil-related jobs in the 1970s and 1980s, when oil companies moved jobs from Louisiana to Texas.

Jake and Gumbo both come from the bayou and have a cajun accent most reminiscent of Cajuns in the New Orleans, Louisiana locale.

Their direct ties to Europe set them apart from the Acadians ( Cajuns ) of southern Louisiana.

The name of the parish is derived from the former French colony of Acadia in Canada ( which consisted of the modern provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and much of Maine ) many of whose French-speaking inhabitants were deported to France and then migrated to Louisiana in the Great Upheaval ( see Cajuns ).

One of the first Cajuns to settle in south Louisiana along with his brother Alexandre, in 1765.

Lafayette is home to the Louisiana – Lafayette Ragin ' Cajuns, the athletic teams of The University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

** Cajundome-13, 500 seat multi-purpose arena ; home of the Louisiana – Lafayette Ragin ' Cajuns men's basketball team

** Cajun Field, nicknamed " the Swamp ," home to the Louisiana – Lafayette Ragin ' Cajuns football team.

* La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns-sponsored by La Grande Boucherie des Cajuns, Inc., a Louisiana non-profit organization benefiting the youth of St. Martinville and other civic projects

People living in Acadia, and sometimes former residents and their descendants, are called Acadians, also later known as Cajuns after resettlement in Louisiana.

The Creoles are a community with varied non-Anglo ancestry, mostly descendant of people who lived in Louisiana before its purchase by the U. S. The Cajuns are a group of Francophones who arrived in Louisiana after leaving Acadia in Canada.

Jazz's roots come from the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, populated by Cajuns and black Creoles, who combined the French-Canadian culture of the Cajuns with their own styles of music in the 19th century.

Many Cajuns also have ancestors who were not French.

Besides advocating for their legal rights, Cajuns also recovered ethnic pride and appreciation for their ancestry.

Today Easter is still celebrated by Cajuns with the traditional game of ' paque ', but is now also celebrated in the same fashion as Christians throughout the United States with candy-filled baskets, " Easter bunny " stories, dyed eggs, and Easter Egg hunts.

If language is taken into consideration the term Anglo-American also excludes Franco-Americans such as the Cajuns of Louisiana, but would include them when language is excluded as a criteria.

Advertisements and banners reading " University of Louisiana at Lafayette ," " Ragin ' Cajuns ," and " www. ragincajuns. com " also were installed around the black retaining wall that surrounds the field.

Acadians are natives of Acadia, a region of northeastern North America ( see also Cajuns ).

In an interview on National Public Radio, Canada's Ambassador to the United States said that in addition to the basic desire to help a neighbor in need, many Canadians also remember the ancestors of Louisiana's Cajuns were expelled from what would become Canada by the British in the 18th century, which he felt gave an extra historical dimension to Canadians ' desire to help the people of Louisiana during the recovery operation.

In the rural Acadiana area, many Cajuns celebrate with the Courir de Mardi Gras, a tradition that dates to medieval celebrations in France.

Outside the city, Cajuns and Creoles often intermingle socially and culturally, and chances are that the cooking of Cajuns and Creoles living in Lawtell for example, have more in common with each other than the Creole dishes of a Lawtell resident and one from Isle Brevelle.

Cajuns, along with other Cajun Country residents, have a reputation for a joie de vivre ( French for " joy of living "), in which hard work is appreciated as much as " passing a good time.

The history of this region is filled with stories of the early Midwestern Settlers from Kansas, Illinois and Iowa to the French Canadians ( Cajuns ) to Jean Lafitte's pirates along the Old Spanish Trail.

There has been a true multicultural community in St. Martinville, with Cajuns, Creoles ( French coming via the French West Islands-Guadeloupe, Martinique and Santo Domingo ), French, Spaniards, Africans and African Americans.

A pirogue is a small, flat-bottomed boat of a design associated particularly with the Cajuns of the Louisiana marsh.

Treen worked with the Lafayette delegation, including Representatives Mike Thompson and Ron Gomez, for construction of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Ragin ' Cajuns stadium, the Cajundome.

The Cajuns and Creoles of Louisiana have long constituted a distinct minority with their own cultural identity.

In his college career, Bako caught for the Ragin ' Cajuns during two consecutive conference championship seasons: 1991 in the American South Conference, when they finished with a 49 – 20 record, 14th-best among Division I squads ; and 1992 in the Sun Belt Conference, when Southwestern Louisiana's pitching staff amassed a 3. 50 earned run average, 29th-best in Division I.

Although the family name comes from an English ancestor, the Stagg family was of French Catholic descent, commonly called Cajuns.

Delhomme was born to Jerry and Marcia Delhomme, both Cajuns ; the last name Delhomme translates into " of the man ".

Many Acadians or Cajuns living in North America can trace ancestry to this region as their ancestors left from here in the 17th century.

Today, the Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population, and have exerted an enormous impact on the state's culture.

The Acadia region to which modern Cajuns trace their origin consisted largely of what are now Nova Scotia and the other Maritime provinces, plus parts of eastern Quebec and northern Maine.

The Cajuns retain a unique dialect of the French language and numerous other cultural traits that distinguish them as an ethnic group.

Cajuns were officially recognized by the U. S. government as a national ethnic group in 1980 per a discrimination lawsuit filed in federal district court.

La., 1980 ), hinged on the issue of the Cajuns ' ethnicity.

Cajuns fought in the American Revolution.

Living in a relatively isolated region until the early 20th century, Cajuns today are largely assimilated into the mainstream society and culture.

Historian Carl A. Brasseaux asserted that it was this process of intermarriage that created the Cajuns in the first place.

During World War II, Cajuns often served as French interpreters for American forces in France ; this helped to overcome prejudice.