The Choctaw Nation had the best name for New Orleans: Bulbancha, the place of many tongues. It speaks volumes about the defining feature of the city: that its colourful history has been shaped by many hands.
Long before the Europeans arrived, Native Americans came from as far north as Canada via the mighty Mississippi to trade with the tribes that lived in the river delta. By the time French explorers arrived towards the end of the 17th century, a thriving market had already been established on the land where the French Market sits today.
The landscape was very different then. Marshes and swamps surrounded the city, while the
