Mardi Gras Indians spend months preparing hand-sewn suits
The Mardi Gras Indians, or Black Masking Indians, have been around since the 1800s. Members spend months painstakingly handcrafting suits to be worn while marching through New Orleans' neighborhoods.
Every year, on Mardi Gras morning, something extraordinary emerges from the backstreets of New Orleans – groups of Black revelers most tourists will never see. They call themselves Mardi Gras Indians, or Black Masking Indians, and they roam the city's neighborhoods in dazzling, hand-sewn suits. The tradition dates to the 1800s as a way to honor their ancestors and, according to Mardi Gras Indian lore, is rooted in profound respect for Native Americans, said to have sheltered enslaved Africans who had escaped. It's an expression of joy, protest and pride, passed from generation to generation. On this Easter Sunday, you'll meet the artists and musicians preserving the culture and take in the sights and sounds of one of America's last true secret societies.
If you're lucky enough to find them, you'll discover a vibrant tapestry of African, Caribbean and Native American threads, part of the cultural gumbo that is New Orleans.
These extravagant suits — plumed, bejeweled, beaded and sequined — are handcrafted in secret for an entire year, to be unveiled on Mardi Gras day.
Chawaa - that's Big Chief Demond Melancon of the Young Seminole Hunters announcing his arrival.
Big Chief Demond Melancon: Chawaa. Who the best? Who got the best beadwork? Who got the best rhinestones? Who can sing the best? Who got the biggest tribe? Who don't. That's what it is.
There are dozens of groups, calling themselves tribes. The leader is known as the big chief, who, along with his big queen and their crew, strut through historically Black neighborhoods searching for other tribes.