In days gone by, when the Indians of Mardi Gras were heard approaching your neighborhood, you would flee in terror and bar your door. Not any more.
In the old day, the Indians were violent; Indians would meet on Mardi Gras, it was a day to settle scores. - Larry Bannock, Chief of Chiefs, New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council
Update: This diary was first published on 20 Feb 2010. Sadly, Big Chief Larry Bannock of the Golden Star Hunters Tribe passed in 2014.
"If I had a heart attack at 92, I'd still mask. In New Orleans you don't need a reason to do what you do, you do it because that's the way it is." — Big Chief Larry Bannock
Histoire In the mid-19th century Louisiana, two of the many regional oppressed minorities bonded - African Americans and the indigenous Native Americans. Theories abound. It's possible that African Americans could circumvent oppressive laws by literally masquerading as Indians. Others suggest that Native Americans gave aid to runaway slaves, and masking as Indians was a form of tribute. All that was missing was a catalyst, but that wasn't long in coming in the form of Carnival-loving Caribbean Haitians who flocked to the area to pick sugar cane, and the Mardi Gras Indians were born.The Haitians lent the colorful costumes and the festival, and it all became a party. Hierarchy Typical Mardi Gras neighborhood organizations will form a "krewe" (think: neighborhood "gang"). The ranking structure of a Mardi Gras Krewe is a parody of royalty: King, Queen, Dukes, Knights and Captains... or some variation on that theme. Each krewe names themselves after an Indian tribe - Black Seminoles, Mandingo Warriors, Young Navajo, Creole Osceola, Yellow Jackets, Cheyenne Hunters. In recent years, there are 38 such tribes from the various wards in the Mardi Gras Indian Nation. Besides the "royalty", each tribe will have role players - chief, spyboy, flagboy, medicine man and 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. — Tootie Montana, past long-time Chief of Chiefs
Costumes The African American "Indians" worked all year to develop elaborate personalized costumes, songs, dances, and drum rhythms. Historically, through the socially permitted masking of Mardi Gras, African Americans preserved elements of their African heritage while appearing physically in public as Native Americans, which provided a kind of social sanction for overt expression of African pride, which in most cases and place were punished or suppressed the rest of the year. Each "Indian" designs and makes his own suit, assisted by family and friends to sew elaborate bead and feather work — a chief's suit can weigh up to 150 pounds and cost up to U.S. $5,000 — and traditionally a new suit is required each year. Ritual Today, the confrontations between the tribes at Mardi Gras in the streets of New Orleans are highly ritualized. The principal members of the tribe confront their counterparts in the opposing tribe – spyboy versus spyboy, then the opposing flagboys (who threaten to burn the opposing team's banner), 2nd, 3rd and 4th Chiefs, the Queens, and children. Finally, the Big Chiefs have their showdown, swaying and rotating and preening to show off their costumes. An acknowledgement of success is for the opponent to admit that the other’s costume is “pretty”. Iko Iko The patois runs thick in the song James "Sugar Boy" Crawford's iconic Iko Iko - so much so that there's a certain level of conjecture about what exactly the words mean. It's generally accepted that the hook, "jockomo fee na nay", says that the tribes aren't "joking around" and that they "mean business". The great Doctor John offers his own interpretations:
The song was originally called 'Jockamo,' and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. . . . It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and 'second line' in their own special style during Mardi Gras. . . . The tribes were like social clubs who lived all year for Mardi Gras, getting their costumes together. Many of them were musicians, gamblers, hustlers and pimps. - Doctor John
Today, Louisiana creole lingua specialists believe that the words originated as follows, in an extinct hybrid of Native American Choctaw and Chickasaw called Mobilian Jargon (genius.com/...):
Ena! Ena! Akout, Akout an deye Chaque amoor fi nou wa na né Chaque amoor fi na né
The Dixie Cups had the first big hit with Iko Iko in this rare clip (attrib: Michael Platt):
Iko Iko has been covered by Cyndi Lauper, the Grateful Dead (who made Iko Iko a constant staple in their live shows from 1977 onward), Cowboy Mouth, Warren Zevon, Long John Baldry, Dave Matthews & Friends, The Ordinary Boys, Glass Candy, and Sharon, Lois & Bram among others.
This version from the late, great Willy DeVille perhaps best nails spirit of the original tradition:
Willy, man . . . the good die young. (attrib: Kathy Lieberom)
--— First published 20 Feb 2010. Overhauled, edited, re-imagined, and updated.