I think it's important to understand the history and nature of immigration to the United States, because it leads to an understanding of the political history of the US. The post from Observer above (click) is a copy-paste of a very misleading article that appears several places on the Internet, but not at anything that could be considered a credible Website. Each of the sites is marked with what appears to be a choking turtle with dollar signs for eyes - I don't know what that icon means, but the document certainly gives a distorted view of history.

Yes, it's true that there are many cities in the U.S. with French names, but most were trading posts scattered through the Plains States, with little population. The French territories were acquired by the new United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 - and it was after that, that settlement began. My French ancestors founded the City of Detroit with Cadillac in 1701, and there was still a small French-speaking community in Detroit when I lived there in the 1950s. But most of the French (and most of my French ancestors) settled across the river in Windsor, Ontario. When my wife was growing up in the mill town of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the primary language spoken on the streets was French, and my wife had to study French in school although she spoke Polish at home. During the middle and late 19th Century, a million French-speaking workers moved to New England from Quebec to work in the textile mills.
As far as I can determine, New Orleans is the only truly French city in the United States. And the French in New Orleans seem to be mostly working class. The ruling class are stereotypical Southern white people.

-Joe-