Growing up deep in the heart of Acadiana, also known as Cajun Country, Beau learned to speak French before he learned English—a skill he hoped might help him secure a choice assignment in the military. “I was hoping for beautiful French women and wine,” he recalls with a laugh. “Instead, I got Eskimos and icebergs. They told me, ‘You’re going to northern Greenland.’”
For many Northwest residents the name Battle Ground is a familiar one. This town just northeast of Vancouver is assumed by many to have derived its name from a historic battle waged at the location. The truth, however, is far more complex, tracing back to a series of events in the mid-19th century, when Washington was but a territory of the United States and relations between white settlers and Indigenous were violent.