Pretty Oak Trees
Suzy and I
Two words: Good Timing.Sunday, March 18 2007-Super Sunday. The Mardi Gras Indians.
No, they aren’t really Indians. But their history is so long, special and secretive they may as well be. There are a couple of stories about how they came to be. Amanda told me them both yesterday. The first is that when the Buffalo Bill Wild West show came to town, they would dress up the black men as Indians in their show. The show stayed all winter for the warm weather and the successful earnings and the “Indians” just liked it so much that they continued to wear the costumes.
The other story (and my favorite one for sure) is that back in the days of slavery, local indian tribes used to hide runaway slaves in their regalia and help them to freedom. Now a days, the Mardi Gras Indians are paying tribute and honoring their history by donning the full costume and parading through the streets.
About those costumes. Your surely asking yourself, Why Greta, I thought the Native Americans wore loin clothes. Well, you would be right. Amanda also told me about that in the beginning, in the eighteen hundreds, the Mardi Gras Indians did wear traditional Indian clothes and (more importantly) colors. Back then the different groups of Indians would parade to meet each other and were very violent. They would compete in bloody battles for bragging rights. But then, the city passed a law that no black man could wear feathers. So the Indians disappeared for a while. And when they came back, their costumes were the brightly colored, extravagant ensembles that we see today. Now they compete with their costumes. Instead of the strongest, it is the prettiest that takes the bragging rights.
To be a Mardi Gras Indian you have to be born into it. Young children are often seen in full costume. The day they parade on is always a Sunday (called Super Sunday) and always in March, but the exact date and location are often kept super secret (haha) and can change frequently and without notice. You just keep your ear low to the ground and look for the police cars and swarms of cameras.
This is the Wild Man. You can see his antlers here. His job is to clear the path for the rest of the parading Indians. They are always surrounded by various percussion instruments and song and dance. Here is a video of them last year when they surprised us at Riverfest. It gives you a better idea of the routine.
