In Memory of Gilbert Martin

In October of 1973, Martin became interested in the roots of his culture, and went into research. He soon discovered that no one had ever before written about the roots of Creole Culture. Other writers, including those who wrote disparagingly and/or incorrectly about Louisiana Creoles, did not take their thoughts beyond the confines of the state of Louisiana. That realization was so fascinating that Martin became obsessed with the thought of revealing that the Creole phenomenon did not originate in Louisiana.

His research took him back through the West Coast of Africa and through the great Mali empire to the smelting of iron in ancient Ghana in 300 B.C. Consequently, with an abundance of information on hand, coupled with certain breached conditions in the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, he concluded that Louisiana French Creoles are entitled the respectable status of nationhood. So, in 1979, Martin founded the International French Creole Cultural Society. Afterwards, he began to advocate the reunification of French Creoles, not only in the United States, but also with their cultural kin in the French West Indies and in other parts of the world.

Martin, in 1994, initiated the Louisiana Reclamation Movement. This movement is designed to reveal the fact that the Louisiana Territory was Creole country before it became an American possession, and by breaching the treaty the United States actually lost its jurisdiction over the land and its people. Additionally, Gilbert E. Martin, Sr. is the author of Creole Chronology, Passe pour Blanc and French Creoles: A Shattered Nation.

Currently, Martin is promoting CAMPAIGN NITTY-GRITTY 2000. This is a simple activity he designed to bring the issue of Creole treaty rights to public attention. The participants will merely write letters to politicians, legal experts, educators, and civic organizations, requesting answers to three (3) simple questions. The answers provided should serve partly in the direction he intends to take in further pursuit of the rights mentioned above.

Martin argues that the French Creoles of Louisiana are entitled to tax exemptions and tax refunds, not only from federal government but from each and every State where they have been made to pay income or property taxes. He makes that assumption because he said that, the United States did indeed, received and made use of 908,380 square miles of territory. And for that acquisition, martin claims, that U.S. guaranteed that it would comply with the treaty and provide to the French Creoles and their descendants many rights they did not receive.