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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu
)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
8/25/2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES- National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella learned about the work the NSU Creole Heritage Center is doing to preserve and promote Creole heritage around the world during a visit to the Natchitoches area this week.
Mainella also visited the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, a unit of the National Park Service located on the NSU campus. She also toured downtown Natchitoches and the Cane River Creole National Historical Park.
The NSU Creole Heritage Center receives funding from the Cane River Heritage Area Commission.
In recent years, the Creole Heritage Center has developed and maintained a Web site and developed a mechanism for a nationwide listing of contacts database and a cataloging system of data from nationwide sources.
The Center has also hosted conferences and conventions in California, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Natchitoches. Collaborations have also been developed with Tulane University's Deep South Regional Humanities Center and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. A Creole Heritage education program is also being developed.
"We hope to make it easier for people to find out about their history," said Mainella. "This is a partnership that brings people together nationally and internationally. Since Sept. 11 people want to know more about themselves and their ancestors."
The Creole Heritage Center has developed a quarterly newsletter distributed to more than 6,000 people. It also published volumes one through five of the Creole Chronicles as well as a Cane River Genealogy Research Guide.
"The most enjoyable part of my job is linking people with their past," said Janet Colson, associate director of the Creole Heritage Center. "So many people across Louisiana and nationwide have roots along Cane River."
Mainella said the National Park Service would place a link to the Creole Heritage Center on its Web site to make it easier for people to access its services.