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Before European explorers came to claim Louisiana, the Natchitoches Indians inhabited the area that would come to be named for them. A division of the Caddo, whose original homeland encompassed parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the Natchitoches were settled in small communities that ranged in size from single homesteads to hamlets and villages that extended along both sides of Red River, now Cane River, for some distance.
 Eight
years after explorer Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, claimed Louisiana for
the French crown, his lieutenant, Henri de Tonti, visited the Natchitoches settlement
near the present day U.S. Fish Hatchery on Highway 1. During his brief stay
in 1690, Tonti found a well developed society with a central temple at which
his Taensa Indian guides worshiped as a sign of respect and peace. The Natchitoches
were in alliance with two other local tribes and represented the southern extent
of the Caddo trading network. The primary resource traded by the Natchitoches
was salt, which they gathered near present day Clarence, Louisiana.
In 1700, Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, visited the area, followed later
in the year by his brother, Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville, and French Canadian
soldier and entrepreneur, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. These Frenchmen smoked
the calumet to establish social and political relations with the Natchitoches,
and visited other nearby tribes including the Yatasi, the Doustioni, the Ouachita
and the Adai, whose descendants still live near Robeline, Louisiana.
 The
advantages of the Natchitoches territory did not escape the French, who were
interested in Indian trade as much as settlement. The Natchitoches were placed
at the juncture of north/south and east/west trade routes, and the French hoped
to utilize these established routes to further their own commercial enterprises.
St. Denis was instrumental in establishing a permanent French presence in the
area. Fort
Saint Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches was founded in 1714 and St. Denis served
as commandant from 1721 until his death in 1744.
French soldiers and administrators, traders and tradesmen came to settle the
region. Names like Prud’homme, Brevel, Deblieux, Rachal, and Roque reflect the
legacy of French culture within the heritage area. The Natchitoches and their
Caddo relatives formed a permanent alliance with the French community. Even
after Spain obtained Louisiana in a 1763 treaty, French Creole
citizens continued to serve as administrators for their new government and worked
to maintain these important Indian partnerships.
 Despite
amicable relations with their Europeans neighbors, the Natchitoches like all
Native Americans, suffered devastating population loss due to the introduction
of European diseases for which they had no immunities. Indian/European marriage
was a common response to both population loss and to the shortage of marriageable
French women in the colony. Women of the Caddo, immigrant tribes like the Choctaw
and Apalachee, as well as formerly enslaved Apache married into French families,
sharing their culture and forging bonds of kinship that persisted well into
the 19th century.
The Caddo were forced to cede and vacate their lands in Louisiana to the United States in 1835. The various divisions of Caddo eventually merged into a single tribe, the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Caddo people still maintain close ties to their old homelands, and visit often to participate in dances, conferences, and powwows.
 Early
in the French administration, enslaved Africans entered the area as local French
planters purchased labor to manage their cash crops of indigo and tobacco. This
new population contributed to the cultural heritage of this area and to the
local plantation economy, as well. Craftspeople produced baskets and quilts,
wood and metal works, and architecture that reflected the roots of their own
African heritage. They also enjoyed a certain amount of freedom, traded at plantation
stores and with local Indians, hunted for themselves and their masters, and
in some cases lived in small settlements away from the houses of their French
masters.
Enslaved women - both Indian and African - bore children for European men, often forming lifelong relationships despite French and Spanish laws forbidding miscegenation. In the 1770s, Marie Thérèse Coin Coin bonded with Frenchmen, Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer, to produce a lineage that blended French, Spanish, Indian, and African cultures. These gens des couleurs libres were commonly manumitted and educated by their fathers, and were given or purchased tracts of land as free people.
Like many of their French and Spanish fathers, these people were identified
as “Creole,”
a term that was variously applied to people, livestock, produce, and architecture
to indicate that something or someone was born in the New World from European
stock. A creole community was established by the children and grandchildren
of Marie Thérèse and C. T. Pierre Metoyer on Isle Brevelle in the latter part
of the 18th century. Within the next hundred years, families of Chinese immigrants,
as well as a Russian minister, joined the Isle Brevelle community. The descendants
of this complex heritage still own almost 90% of their original colonial lands
on Cane
River. They maintain a strong Creole community built on a framework of enduring
family traditions and centered around the Saint
Augustine Catholic Church.
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 gave the United States control over the vast Louisiana territory and its agricultural bounty. Fertile, alluvial soils and hardwood forests attracted Anglo-American planters and farmers to Red River and cotton became the new cash crop. These new settlers brought with them Protestant churches, public schools, and new attitudes about race and culture, causing relationships between slaves and free people to become more complicated. Steamboats from the port of New Orleans brought Jewish, Italian, and Syrian immigrants who worked as traders, merchants, and craftspeople in the growing community.
 In
the mid-19th century, Red River changed its course and bypassed the town of
Natchitoches. The former main channel of the Red River became Cane
River, which still remained an important conduit to link the town to the
outlying agricultural areas. After the Civil War, African American communities
developed around the old plantations and continued to contribute to the agriculturally
based economy. African Americans sharecropped or became tenant farmers, handled
livestock, and worked in a variety of other capacities. Some were able to purchase
land and start their own farms and businesses, and they established their own
schools, churches and social activities. The advent of mechanized cotton farming
in the 1960s broke up many of these rural communities, as people were forced
to move to larger population centers to seek employment.
 The
Cane
River area maintained its agricultural character into the 20th century,
but also became an educational center when the Normal School was established
in 1884. The growing military presence in Alexandria and Leesville, as well
as the institution of higher education that is now Northwestern State University,
brought a wealth of diversity into the region in the 20th century. Asians and
Indians, people from the Middle East, Mexico, and Latin America, came to teach
and learn, to serve in the armed forces, and to establish businesses, homes,
and families.
The cultural history of the heritage area is rich and complex. From first nations to new citizens, the heritage area is home to a wealth of traditions and ethnic communities that contribute to the multi-cultural character of the region.
—Dayna Lee, Regional Folklorist, Louisiana Regional Folklife Program
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