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Zachary Richard, the Cadien/Cajun songwriter and musician, refers to the Quebecois - the French inhabitants of Quebec - as a "Conquered People" and the Cadiens/Cajuns - the French speaking non-Creole inhabitants of Louisiana - as a "Deported People".  Meanwhile, the handful of French Creole communities located in the "Illinois Country/Le Pays des Illinois" - Illinois, Indiana and Missouri - could be called the "Forgotten People". 

In Quebec and Louisiana today only academics and those interested in history are aware that centuries old French Canadian culture and language live on in isolated pockets of the central Midwest.  To cultural anthropologists the Midwest French Creole people are indeed "Living Fossils" as they maintain traditions that have now disappeared in French speaking Louisiana and Canada.

For over a century researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, and American, Canadian and French universities have recorded and documented the disappearing culture of the Midwest French Creole communities of Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois; Vincennes, Indiana; and St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, and Old Mines, Missouri.

To thwart the potential disappearance of one of America's oldest cultural treasures the French Creole communities in the Illinois Country continue to expand their French Colonial theme festivals and resurrect long dormant traditions that were once key components in the rich cultural tapestry of life in the large expanse formerly known as New/Nouvelle France.

In February, 2007 the Festival du Mardi Gras was launched as part of the 275th Anniversary celebration honoring the founding of Vincennes, Indiana in 1732.