ABSTRACT
This chapter describes first effort at unravelling archaeologically the ethnically and socially complex antebellum Cane River region, but it already shows that material culture has the potential to make a real contribution to understanding the evolution of human relations in the time of American slavery. Cane River seems an ideal location to undertake Diaspora archaeology. Marie-Thrse is today considered the matriarch of the Cane River "Creoles-of-Color", and most of the community's members can trace their ancestry back to her. Coincoin's descendants eventually became one of the wealthiest lineages on Cane River. In August of 2001 people began their field investigations at the plantation Marie-Thrse established along Cane River in 1786 and at Yucca or Melrose Plantation, the 17961847 plantation of Louis Metoyer, Coincoin's second son, and his descendents. The land, reportedly granted to Louis Metoyer in 1796, spanned the north and south sides of Red River, the waterway that today is Cane River Lake.
