When the Maine state legislature funded the creation of the Acadian Archives (Archives
Acadiennes) at the University of Maine at Fort Kent in 1989 and the U.S. Congress
passed the Maine Acadian Culture Preservation Act in 1990, these official acts
sanctioned a cultural identity long recognized in the state’s Upper St. John River Valley,
located in the northernmost county of Aroostook. Acadians, many from Brittany and
Normandy, had settled in a region the French called “Arcadie” or “Acadia” after a
Micmac name for what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Their principal settlement of Port-Royal (now Annapolis, Nova Scotia) had been founded
by Samuel de Champlain in 1605 before he moved up the St. Lawrence River to found
Quebec in 1608.
The British and the French contested claims to Acadian lands for a century and a half.
The British governor in Nova Scotia deported many Acadians in 1755, questioning their
allegiance in the impending war with France. Some settled in the Upper St. John River
Valley, while others went down the Mississippi River to Louisiana, where they became
known as Cajuns. At the conclusion of the French and Indian war in 1763, more
Acadians from Cape Breton and Ile St. Jean (later Prince Edward Island settled in the
valley as well. La Grande Dérangement, as the Acadian Diaspora is called, lasted
officially from 1755 to 1763, but its cultural significance remains among Acadians in the
late 20th century. The Acadians were joined by French Canadians from Quebec by 1831.
Ahhough the Acadian cultural presence is more strongly marked in this region, its French
language and culture draw from both groups. Once the international boundary line
between New Brunswick and Maine was established in 1842, more settlers moved across
the border to augment the communities in the United States.
A number of folklorists have noted Acadian and blended-French folklife in the Upper
St. John River Valley in the 19th and 20th centuries. The bibliography Folklore and
Folklife in the Upper Saint John Valley (1994), prepared by folklorist Lisa Ornstein,
director of the Acadian Archives (Archives Acadiennes), shows that French folklorist
Geneviève Massignon, French Canadian folklorist Luc Lacourciere, Acadian folklorist
Catherine Jolicouer, and Franco-American folklorist Roger Paradis have been among
those who have documented the folk arts of the region. Paradis’ article, “FrancoAmerican Folk-Lore: A Cornucopia of Culture,” based on a series of lectures at the
University of Maine at Fort Kent, looks at the connections between folklore and
history—for example, in evaluating some of the region’s historical legendry, including
that about la guerre des sauvages (the French and Indian War) and the Acadian
Diaspora—within his argument for critcally recognizing this French regional folk culture
(Paradis 1974).
Paradis also briefly summarizes la coutume (social folk customs) of the early settlers,
which include domestic arts and crafts such as foodways, weaving and embroidery,
medicine making for the women, and lumbering, farming, hunting, and trapping skills for
the men. The American Folklife Center’s 1990–1991 Maine Acadian Cultural Survey,
with folklorists David A.Taylor as director and C.Ray Brassieur as field coordinator,
documented their retention and change in the valley in the late 20th century (Brassieur
1991). Foodways traditions, which Brassieur notes are both Acadian and regional, are
especially long lasting. Pâté chinois (a shepherd’s pie made of mashed potatoes, ground
meat, and corn) and “JoJo potatoes” (batter-fried potatoes), reflect the major agricultural
crop of the region. Buckwheat ployes (thin pancakes) are a regional specialty as are
tourtières (meat pies, originally Quebecois, made for special occasions).
Out migration to southern New England to work in the textile mills drew many
Acadians from the St. John Valley in the late 19th and 20th centuries as it had the
Quebecois. Acadian communities, therefore, are scattered throughout the New England
states, especially in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Brassieur writes that the connections
between the valley and these communities continue, evidenced most clearly in a whole
system of summer family reunions, the annual Acadian Festival Family Reunion being a
more public sign of the private get-togethers.