Editing St. Martinville, Louisiana (section)

==History==
[[File:Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site-1.jpg|thumb|[[Longfellow-Evangeline State Historic Site]]|left]]
[[File:StMartinChurchWM.JPG|thumb|[[St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church (St. Martinville, Louisiana)|St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church]]|left]]
In the 16th century, the area between the [[Atchafalaya River]], in Louisiana, the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and [[Trinity River (Texas)|Trinity River]], in [[Texas]], was occupied by numerous tribes or subdivisions of the [[Attakapan]] people. The territory was not closed to outsiders, and several traders roamed through it on business.

Europeans did not begin to settle there until French explorers claimed and founded the colony of Louisiana in 1699.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Colonial Louisiana|url=https://www.crt.state.la.us/louisiana-state-museum/online-exhibits/the-cabildo/colonial-louisiana/index|access-date=2021-07-31|website=Louisiana State Museum|language=en}}</ref> They referred to the territory between the Atchafalaya River and [[Bayou Nezpique]], where the Eastern Atakapa lived, as the Attakapas Territory, adopting the name from the Choctaw language term for this people. The French colonial government gave land away to French soldiers and settlers.

''Poste des Atakapas'' (Attakapas Post) was founded as a trading post on the banks of the Bayou Teche, and settlers started to arrive. Some came separately from [[France]], such as M. Masse, who came about 1754 from [[Grenoble]]. Gabriel [[Fuselier de la Claire]], a Frenchman from [[Lyon]], and some other Frenchmen from [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], in present-day Alabama, arrived in late 1763 or early 1764. Fuselier bought land between [[Vermilion River (Louisiana)|Vermilion River]] and [[Bayou Teche]] from the Eastern Attakapas chief [[Kinemo]]. Shortly after that, the rival Appalousa ([[Opelousas]]) invaded the area via the [[Atchafalaya River|Atchafalaya]] and [[Sabine River (Texas-Louisiana)|Sabine]] rivers, and exterminated much of the Eastern Atakapan. Gabriel Fuselier's son Agricole Fuselier was prominent in settling what developed as [[New Iberia, Louisiana]].

Gradually groups of more French speakers arrived, such as the first [[Acadians]] from [[Nova Scotia]]. They were assigned to this area in 1765 by [[Jean-Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie]], the French official who was administering Louisiana for the Spanish. They had been [[Expulsion of Acadians|expelled from Acadia]] by the British,<ref>{{Cite web|title=From Acadian to Cajun - Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/jela/learn/historyculture/from-acadian-to-cajun.htm|access-date=2021-07-31|website=www.nps.gov|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Cajuns|url=https://64parishes.org/entry/cajuns|access-date=2021-07-31|website=64 Parishes|language=en}}</ref> who had defeated France in the [[Seven Years' War]] and taken over its territories in North America east of the Mississippi River. Spain took over Louisiana and other territories west of the Mississippi but tended to rely on French colonists to administer ''[[La Louisiane]]''.

The Acadians were led by [[Joseph Broussard]]. In 1768-1769, fifteen families arrived from [[Pointe Coupee]], another French colonial community. Their members had migrated from [[Saint-Domingue]] (now [[Haïti]]) or from [[Paris]] via [[Fort de Chartres]], in present-day Illinois. Between the arrivals of the two groups, the French captain Étienne de Vaugine came in 1764 and acquired a large domain east of Bayou Teche.

On April 25, 1766, after the arrival of the first Acadians, the census showed a population of 409 inhabitants for the Attakapas region. In 1767, the Attakapas Post had 150 inhabitants before the arrival of the 15 families from Pointe Coupee.

In 1803, after losing his effort to regain control over Saint-Domingue during its slave revolt, [[Napoleon]] sold Louisiana in 1803 to the United States through the [[Louisiana Purchase]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Milestones: 1801–1829 - Office of the Historian|url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/louisiana-purchase|access-date=2021-07-31|website=history.state.gov}}</ref> The U.S. settlers and territorial government organized the Attakapas Territory between 1807 and 1868. After Louisiana became a state, [[Saint Martin Parish]] was created. Attakapas Post was renamed as Saint Martinville and designated as the parish seat.

In 1867, Governor [[Benjamin Flanders]] appointed [[Monroe Baker]] as mayor who was one of the earliest if not the first African-American mayor to serve in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Ken |last= Grissom|authorlink=   |title=Baker First Black Mayor   |newspaper=[[Teche News]]|date=July 12, 2006 |url=  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108091942/teche-news/|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref>