Come with me down the road a bit to the historic little town of St. Martinville, Louisiana. Located on the Bayou Teche in St. Martin parish in the heart of Acadiana, this sleepy little town has a colorful past which is like a treasure. One only needs to look to find it, because it surrounds and embraces you in St. Martinville. This treasure is found in its historic buildings, old oak trees, people and culture.

It strains the imagination to think of the very first inhabitants of this land of sugar and spices: the Attakapas Indians, a powerful and feared warrior tribe who dominated the region. The Attakapas, whose name means "man-eater" in the Choctaw language, were wiped out in a big battle by the three surrounding tribes: the Choctaw, the Opelousa, and the Alibamon. These three tribes banded together to destroy their hated enemy, the Attakapas, whose practice was to eat their prisoners of war. (CLICK HERE) to see the only reminder of the mighty Attakapas, a bronze statue of an Attakapas Warrior in the church square.

Later inhabitants were exiles, people without countries, and slaves: the Acadians who were thrown out of their homes in Canada in 1755; the Frenchmen who fled the turmoil created by the French Revolution in the late 1700s; and the black slaves from Africa who were up-rooted from their homelands. These restless and weary settlers arrived on the muddy banks of the Bayou Teche in St. Martinville unsure of their futures. But the rich land, bayous, and mix of cultures provided them with the raw materials to create a unique way of life and culture that in many ways lives on today in the sleeply little town of St. Martinville.

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