WRITTEN BY ANNE GABBIANELLI
Maine and Louisiana have a unique bond — that of their Acadian heritage. The Acadians were among the original French settlers of North America. When Acadians refused to pledge allegiance to British rule, they fled for places like Louisiana, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, which in part became the area of Maine known as the St. John Valley. Acadians today speak of their ancestors who struggled through harsh winters, yet prevailed, preserving their love of family, their religious faith, language, and culture.
Don Cyr of Lille (Lil) traced his ancestors back to the 1600s.
“We Cyrs are related to everybody,” he said. “My ancestors came here to the Valley in 1785. We were refugees from the Acadian deportation and lived with natives for about 30 years.”
Don Levesque, retired editor of the St. John Valley Times newspaper, dates his heritage to the 19th century.
“My great-grandfather, Louis Levesque, 17, came to the area with his brother Jean Baptiste, 19, in the summer of 1840,” Levesque said. “So, I am fourth generation.”
In Levesque’s quest to keep the Acadian culture alive, he started writing a bilinguinal column in 1988, and continues to do so in retirement.
“Practices such as speaking French have diminished,” Levesque said. “The great big and all-consuming American culture has overwhelmed and dominated, as it has many other multicultural places around the country.”
Another keeping the culture alive is Robert Daigle, French teacher at Fort Kent High School.
“I try my best to incorporate French history into my classes,” he said. “Being from the St. John Valley, I didn’t get a lot of French in K thru 12, but what I did get from my French family and community, plus my two years of high school French, was full immersion.
“We’re in an area where English is a second language and students are being asked to compete on standardized tests against students who only have English at home, so not speaking French in school was a suitcase that I was supposed to check at the door when I came to school,” Daigle said.
But that is not stopping Daigle from offering his students not only in-school learning, but school trips to France to promote their heritage and language.
Like the language, Acadian folklore and music are celebrated with several annual events. Fort Kent hosts a yearly Ploye Festival each July. A ploye is like a flatbread or buckwheat pancake, which was a food staple for the struggling Acadians.
In August, the Madawaska Acadian Festival offers many days of festivities. The Maine Acadian Heritage Council is integral in maintaining and restoring documents, protecting historic buildings, and offering educational resources.
Le Club français promotes French in the Valley with activities including Pre-K classes, a French spelling bee, and financial support of students’ trips to France. Local historical societies and Musée culturel du Mont-Carmel in Lille all continue to keep the Acadian culture in the forefront.
The Acadian Village in Van Buren, a collection of 17 buildings honoring the history and sacrifices of Acadians, is the largest Acadian Village in the United States outside of Louisiana.
As with keeping any culture alive, Patrick Lacroix, director of Acadian Archives at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, said, “A relevant culture is not something that is taken out of storage for display once a year. We have to maintain the visibility of the culture to ensure that young people internalize it as something that belongs to them. We have to transmit the culture as something that remains fluid and relevant to the next generation. It cannot be an archaic object that belongs to the past.”
