It is the cultural center of the Cane River area's historic French, Spanish, Native American and Black Creole community.

"[6] Tradition also describes the role of Augustin's brother Louis (founder of the nearby Melrose Plantation, a National Historic Landmark ), as the chapel's designer and builder.

Surviving pew records show that the front seats were occupied by the Créole de couleur Metoyer family who built the chapel.

Seated behind them were the families of prominent white planters and other Creoles within the community with surnames Blanchard, Brevelle, Garcia, Landry, and Lemoine.

Tradition holds that early furnishings included paintings of patron saints Augustine and Louis, in honor of the Metoyer brothers,[10] as well as an altar brought from Europe by other family members.

[16] He is the son of Jean Baptiste Brevelle, a Parisian-born trader and explorer, and his Adai Caddo Indian wife, Anne des Cadeaux.

[17] Brevelle was granted the island by David Pain, the subdelegate at Natchitoches in 1765 for his service to the French and Spanish crowns as a Caddo Indian translator and explorer of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.

When the parish priest filed charges against the black Coincoin for bearing mixed-race children while living in the residence of a white man, and threatened to sell her away to New Orleans, Metoyer bought her from her owner and privately manumitted her.

Together, her offspring and their families created a large Créole of color community in Natchitoches Parish that spread the length of Cane River Lake.