Out of The Ashes
In the post-Reconstruction South, residents of the Maroon Camps were free to move back into the city proper. Many of them were either descendants of interracial, French Creole & Indian relationships or were themselves the progenitors. Whole communities were built, away from the affluent city center, establishing neighborhoods in New Orleans peripheral out of the direct line of sight of white inhabitants. Historic Treme, located adjacent to Congo Square, the 7th Ward, 9th Ward, and Marigny, were such areas. In 1885 New Orleans newspaper, The Times-Democrat, journalists documented some of the first official sightings of Black Masking Indians, “As usual the maskers assumed all classes and nationalities as characters, but the Indian predominated, and whole tribes of Red Men were to be seen marching up and down the streets” (Lief 2019, 94). These were the first groups paying homage to the life-saving kindness and friendship of the Amerindians.
Above Photo: African American soldiers of the Native Guard regiments of the Union army at Port Hudson, Louisiana, 1862-1864
The Wild Indians
African American soldiers who fought in the Civil War comprised many of the early tribes, or Social Clubs, in New Orleans. The first known tribe to form coincided with Buffalo Bills Wild West show visiting New Orleans in the 1880s. Becate Batiste, a French Creole African American with Choctaw heritage, formed The Creole Wild West tribe in 1885 (Smith 2015). Becate started the formal Black Masking Indian tradition of sewing elaborate Indian headdresses, aprons, and patches to form a Mardi Gras day suit. It was a show of respect, in addition to honoring another minority who had sacrificed and helped enslaved people achieve freedom.
Photo by: Matthew Hinton. Allison Montana’s mother is pointed out in a family photo from the 7th Ward in the early 1900s. Becate Batiste, the Big Chief of the Creole Wild West is one of two men in the back row.
Violence between the tribes became common place in the years leading into the twentieth century and beyond. Even through years of violence, these men were using the opportunity presented twice a year to practice their unique cultural traditions, solidifying them while flouting government regulations. Black Masking Indians would remain hidden on the back streets of New Orleans through most of the twentieth century while white revelers took over the French Quarter at Carnival.
Picture by: George Ernst Durr February 1915.
Mardi Gras
February 25, 1903
Appearing in the Times Democrat, this is the earliest known pictorial documentation of Black Masking Indians.
