Sierran Creole people

Sierran Creole people (: Créoles de Sierra, : Criolloserranos) are a ethnic group, who have ancestry from African (primarily  and ), European ( and, , and sometimes Asian ( and ) ethnic groups. Many Sierran Creoles are descendants from inhabitants of colonial Sierra during the period of Spanish and Mexican rule, and the Channel Islands when it was under French control, as well as the  and Haitian  who immigrated to Sierra during the late 19th-century. The term creole was and is still used today in Sierra to refer to Sierrans of multiracial descent, although biracial Sierrans may or may not be considered Creole (a notable example are the Sierran Hapas). Sierran Creoles are predominantly  and . They are counted as one of the "Big Five" (including the Sierran Jacobites) constituent groups in Sierra who are primarily Catholic.

In the 18th-century, hundreds of French colonists settled the Channel Islands, while Spaniard soldiers and missionaries lived along the Sierran mainland coasts. Over the years, a new race of people, known as the, emerged from the intermarriages between the colonists and the indigenous natives. During the Mexican period, thousands of white Anglo-Americans and moved to Sierra, in search of settlement and economic opportunity. Some people from these groups married into the mestizo families, and became known as the creoles under the casta system. In addition, more and more families of the French Channeliers moved into the mainland, primarily in the Gold Coast, due to land and water shortages in the Channels. After the Anglo-American California Republic gained independence in 1848, the growing Anglophone community soon became the majority, threatening the cultural integrity of the Hispanophones and Francophones. As such, the emerging Creole community often lived in urban, where the Sierran Creole culture was developed and preserved from the confluences of outside forces.

The Sierran Creoles faced widespread discrimination and even persecution under the California Republic. Generally darker-skinned, Catholic (as opposed to Protestant), and largely French or Spanish-speaking, the Creoles were labeled as outcasts and perpetual foreigners, and were largely shut out from political and economic opportunities. Despite this, the Creole community was able to flourish within their neighborhoods and communities, which the Californian government tolerated, albeit under tense conditions. The brought in new waves of immigration from not just Anglo-America and Europe, but Latin America and Asia as well. Although the majority of prospectors returned home penniless, the few that acquired riches, and chose to remain in California, did so by settling throughout the country, and some in the Creole communities.

By the time the Kingdom of Sierra was formed just ten years after the gold rush, a small class of affluent, middle-class Creoles emerged, particularly in the Francophone city of Grands Ballons. Although the Creoles continued to experience prejudice by the new government, local leaders gained legal victories which expanded Creole rights at the community level, and defended Creole culture from suppression. Politically, the new Creole class aligned themselves with the Royalists, united together in their common support for the Catholic Monarchy and inclusive economic policies that reflected urban issues. The arrival of Louisiana Creoles and African Americans during and after the helped reinvigorate and strengthen the Sierran Creole community, thereby solidifying the group as a formidable and cohesive sociopolitical force. Although the Creoles embraced the political advancements made during the 1900s Sierran Cultural Revolution, the majority of its people resisted assimilation to the "new culture", creating a cultural divide between the Creoles and the Hapa-led "new culturalists" (consisting mainly of whites and East Asians).