St. Landry Parish, Louisiana: History
=== French and Spanish Territory ===
The land that became St. Landry Parish was inhabited since at least 10,500 B.C., as deduced from excavations of three prehistoric dwelling sites. By the 15th century, the Opelousa Indians settled in the area situated between Atchafalaya River and Sabine River (at the border of Texas-Louisiana). The Opelousa were war-like and preyed on neighbors to defend their own territory.
Tradition says the first European in the Opelousas territory was a French trader named Michel de Birotte. He came in 1690. Nine years later, France named Louisiana as a colony and defined the land occupied by the Opelousa as the Opelousas Territory. The area south of the Opelousas Territory between the Atchafalaya River, the Gulf of Mexico and Bayou Nezpique, occupied by the Atakapas Indians (Eastern Atakapa), was named Atakapas Territory.
French colonial records indicate that early traders Jean Joseph LeKintrek and Joseph Blainpain, who had formed a partnership to trade with the Opelousa Indians, came in the early 1740s. They brought three enslaved Africans, the first to live in the area.
Some Indians sold land to the newcomers. When the Eastern Attakapas Chief Kinemo sold all the land between Vermilion River and Bayou Teche to Frenchman Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire in 1760, however, the angry Opelousa tribe exterminated the Attakapas (Eastern Atakapa).
Although France had to cede Louisiana and its territories to Spain in 1762, the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau by which it was ceded were not revealed to the Louisiana colonists until spring of 1764, and Spain did not take full control of the territory until 1766, when the new Spanish governor arrived in the colony. Nevertheless, in 1764, France had established the Opelousas Post slightly north of the contemporary city of Opelousas (near present-day Washington). It was a major trading organization for the developing area. In addition, France had established the Attakapas Post (near the present-day St. Martinville) in the Attakapas Territory in 1765. France gave land grants to soldiers and settlers to encourage development. Most settlers were French immigrants from Acadia.
Under Spanish rule, the Opelousas Post became the center of government for Southwest Louisiana. By 1769 about 100 families were living in Opelousas Post. Between 1780 and 1820, the first settlers were joined by others coming from the Attakapas Territory, from the Pointe Coupée Territory, and east from the Atchafalaya River area. They were joined by immigrants from the French West Indies, who left after Haiti/Saint-Domingue became independent in a slave revolution in 1804. Most of the new settlers were French, Spaniards, French Creoles, Spanish Creoles, Africans and African-Americans. …