Mardi Gras Indians...

Indians Coming! You can't buy a suit like this, you must string and sew beads all year long to be ready by carnival time. I love making pictures of the Mardi gras Indian tribes when in New Orleans. You can check my pbase photo link for more, these are may be the second best I have taken.

The tribes have names like Red Hawk Hunters, Wild Magnolias, 9th ward Hunters and so on, roughly 38 tribes. This is a tradition that began in the 19th century Wikipedia says " 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 laws by representing themselves as Indians."

Each Indian is a character of some sort, the big chief, spy boy, flag boy, first queen and so on. The tribes stated out violent, fought each other but has developed into a competition on who has the best suits and songs.

I have been looking around for a book on drumming in this style, but no luck. Guess I'll just have to park it on the couch with a drum and the recordings and learn it the hard way.