Mardi Gras Indians are African-American Carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 revelers in New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans, Louisiana

New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, who dress up for Mardi Gras

New Orleans Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, is a Carnival celebration well-known throughout the world.The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Christian season of Lent, starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany . It is a season of parades, balls , and king cake parties...

 in suits influenced by Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 ceremonial apparel.

Collectively, their organizations are called "tribes". Many of the tribes also parade on the Sunday nearest to Saint Joseph's Day on March 19 ("Super Sunday") and sometimes at the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival

The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, often known as Jazz Fest, is an annual celebration of the music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana...

.

There are about 38 tribes. They range in size from a half dozen to several dozen members. The tribes are largely independent, but a pair of umbrella organizations loosely coordinate the Uptown Indians and the Downtown Indians.

History

Mardi Gras Indians have been parading in New Orleans at least since the mid-19th century, possibly before. The tradition was said to have originated from an affinity between Africans and Indians as minorities within the dominant culture, and blacks' circumventing some of the worst racial segregation

Racial segregation

Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

 laws by representing themselves as Indians. There is also the story that the tradition began as an African American tribute to American Indians who helped runaway slaves. These slaves married into the tribes on occasion. An appearance in town of Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...

's Wild West Show in the 1880s was said to have drawn considerable attention and increased the interest in masking as Indians for Mardi Gras.

When Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 communities started to spring up in New Orleans, their culture was incorporated into the suits, dances and music made by the "Indians".

In the late 19th century and early years of the 20th century, the tribes had a reputation for brawling with one another. This part of Mardi Gras Indian history is immortalized in James Sugar Boy Crawford's song, "Jock O Mo" (better known and often covered as "Iko Iko

Iko Iko

"Iko Iko" is a much-covered New Orleans song that tells of a parade collision between two "tribes" of Mardi Gras Indians. The song, under the original title "Jock-A-Mo", was written in 1953 by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford in New Orleans. The story tells of a "spy boy" or "spy dog" "Iko Iko" is a...

"), based on their taunting chants.

As the 20th century progressed, physical confrontation gave way to assertions of status by having better suits, songs, and dances. Generations ago when Mardi Gras Indians came through neighborhoods, people used to run away; now people run toward them for the colorful spectacle.

A tradition of male-only tribes ended in the late 20th-century as women began appearing in costume as well.

Suits

Generally each "Indian" makes his own suit, assisted by family and friends to sew elaborate bead

Bead

A bead is a small, decorative object that is usually pierced for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under to over in diameter. A pair of beads made from Nassarius sea snail shells, approximately 100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest known examples of jewellery. Beadwork...

 and feather

Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...

 work—a chief's suit can weigh up to 150 pounds (68 kg) and cost up to U.S. $5,000—and traditionally a new suit is required each year. Beads and materials were once reused from one year's suit on the next.

On St. Joseph's night the Indians would come out and parade their suits one last time before taking them apart and burning anything they didn't reuse. In recent years, however, there has been a market for selling suits after they are worn for display by museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

s and private collectors.

Hierarchy

The Mardi Gras Indians play various traditional roles. These include the "chief", the "spy boy" who goes out in front of the group, the "flag boy" who bears the tribe's standard and uses it to communicate between the chief and the spy boy, and the "medicine man".

Long-time Mardi Gras Indian "Chief of Chiefs" Tootie Montana

Allison ‘Tootie’ Montana

Chief Allison ‘Tootie’ Montana was a New Orleans cultural icon who acted as the Mardi Gras Indian "chief of chiefs" for decades...

 on Indian hierarchy:

"You've got first chief, which is Big Chief; First Queen; you've got Second Chief and Second Queen; Third Chief and Third Queen. First, Second, and Third chiefs are supposed to have a queen with them. That's just tradition. I found them doing that. Your fourth chief is not called fourth chief, he's the Trail Chief. From there on it's just Indians, no title. You also have your Spy Boy, your Flag Boy and your Wild Man. Your Spy Boy is way out front, three blocks in front the chief. The Flag Boy is one block in front so he can see the Spy Boy up ahead and he can wave his flag to let the chief know what is going on. Today, they don't do like they used to. Today you're not going to see any Spy Boy with a pair of binoculars around his neck and a small crown so he can run. Today a Spy Boy looks like a chief and somebody carrying a big old stick. It's been years since I seen a proper flag. Today everybody has a chief stick. The Wild Man wearing the horns in there to keep the crowd open and to keep it clear. He's between the Flag Boy and the Chief."

Tribes of the Mardi Gras Indian Nation

• 7th Ward Creole Hunters
• 7th Ward Hard Headers
• 7th Ward Hunters
• 9th Ward Hunters
• Black Cherokee
• Black Eagles
• Black Hawk Hunters
• Black Feathers
• Black Seminoles
• Blackfoot Hunters
• Burning Spears
• Carrollton Hunters
• Cheyenne Hunters
• Comanche Hunters
• Congo Nation
• Creole Osceola
• Creole Wild West
• Fi-Yi-Yi
• Flaming Arrows
• Geronimo Hunters
• Golden Arrows
• Golden Blades
• Golden Comanche

• Golden Eagles
• Golden Star Hunters
• Guardians of Flames
• Hard Head Hunters
• Mohawk Hunters
• Morning Star Hunters
• Red Hawk Hunters
• Red White and Blue
• Seminole Hunters
• Seminole (Mardi Gras Indian Tribe)
• White Cloud Hunters
• White Eagles
• Wild Apache
• Wild Bogacheeta
• Wild Tchoupitoulas
• Wild Magnolias
• Wild Mohicans
• Yellow Pocahontas
• Young Navaho
• Young Brave Hunters
• Young Monogram Hunters
• Young Cheyenne

In popular culture

• The HBO series Treme
  Treme (TV series)
  Treme is an American television drama series created by David Simon and Eric Overmyer that premiered on April 11, 2010 on HBO. It takes its name from Tremé, a neighborhood of New Orleans...
  
   features one tribe of Mardi Gras Indians in one of the major plot lines weaving through the series, featuring preparations, the parades as well as strained relationships with the police department.

• The song "Iko Iko
  Iko Iko
  "Iko Iko" is a much-covered New Orleans song that tells of a parade collision between two "tribes" of Mardi Gras Indians. The song, under the original title "Jock-A-Mo", was written in 1953 by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford in New Orleans. The story tells of a "spy boy" or "spy dog" "Iko Iko" is a...
  
  " mentions two Mardi Gras Indian tribes.

External links

• American Dreams: "Super Sunday"
• "Mardi Gras Indian Entertainment"
• St. Joseph's Night in New Orleans: Out After Dark with the Wild Indians
• Rick Bragg, "Another Battle of New Orleans: Mardi Gras", New York Times, February 19, 1995
• Mardi Gras Indian Influence on the Music of New Orleans
• "Big Chief Kevin Goodman and Mardi Gras Indian tribal history", Austin Chronicle
• Backstreet Cultural Museum