00:00I ride the white buffaloes through these city streets.
00:04I'm the one, they come from miles and miles around to me.
00:09And oh, when I dance.
00:11Gold and diamonds fall underneath my feet.
00:15I'm that queen.
00:17Pretty, pretty queen.
00:19Creole Wild West.
00:22Creole Wild West.
00:24My name is Eleonora Brown.
00:28But I go by Rukia.
00:32I am a Mardi Gras Indian.
00:35My tribe is Creole Wild West.
00:38My big chief is Chief Howard Miller.
00:42I'm Howard Miller.
00:44And I'm chief of the Creole Wild West.
00:46Mardi Gras Indian.
00:47First tribe.
00:48The oldest tribe.
00:49Granddad of them all.
00:52Tyrone Cassidy.
00:55Big Chief Mohawk Hunters.
00:57And Algiers.
01:04We are celebrating a culture where, from the beginning, the people that created this subculture was about the enslaved Africans or enslaved people.
01:21I am a ruler.
01:23I am a cackle.
01:25My tribe dates back to the late 1700s or early 1800s.
01:29In fact, we have a charter that says we were first chartered in 1835.
01:34And at that time, slavery was still existing here.
01:37Being a seaport town of Louisiana is one of the major slave ports here in the country.
01:41So, from that, you had a gumbo here.
01:44You had Africans from all over the world here in slavery.
01:47New Orleans was different with slavery.
01:50They had, like, Sundays off.
01:53And the enslaved people, they would go into Congo Square.
01:58And they just gathered there because that's where they intermingled.
02:03Their dancing and their trading went on there.
02:07And it was on Sundays that they were free to do this.
02:11The Indians would come into Congo Square.
02:15And they would socialize.
02:18And upon leaving, they would take some of the enslaved people with them.
02:24They would take them to their villages, which was, like, in the swamps areas.
02:30And they would put, say, a feather on them, put a bunch of feathers on them, drape them with a wrap.
02:42And they would take them out.
02:45And they would live amongst the Indians.
02:48And what the slave traders, they couldn't really tell them apart because they looked the same.
02:57They were melanated.
02:59They were copper-toned.
03:00So they would blend in.
03:02And what we were trying to do is, here in America, to hold on to our African culture.
03:07So this is where the practices that we found safe haven with the Native American,
03:12allowed us to practice our culture.
03:15And we were seen out there as Indian because we couldn't be ourselves.
03:20So we went up under the disguise as Indian to practice our African culture
03:25because here in New Orleans, everywhere in the South, anything about Africa was forbidden.
03:30So behind the mass, the suit is the mass, and behind that is the African culture being practiced.
03:36And it's one of the greatest kept secret in the world.
03:39It's about what we do and why we do it.
03:41And spiritual expression is what it really is.
03:46We have our own language and our own songs, and you'll never hear it sung the same way by any one person.
04:05Everybody got their twist, even on Indian Red.
04:09In Indian Red.
04:10Mare kutifayo.
04:15In Indian Red.
04:19In Indian Red.
04:23We are the Indians.
04:28In Indian.
04:30Indians of a nation.
04:31Indians of a nation.
04:33That make the whole wild.
04:34In kombatifayo.
04:35In Indian Red.
04:36Oh a nation.
04:37In Indian Red.
04:38I won't find out.
04:39You won't find out.
04:40That make the whole wild.
04:41That make the whole wild.
04:42You won't find out.
04:43That make the whole wild –
04:45That make the whole wild creation.
04:46That make the whole wild,
04:47What outcome,
04:47that make the whole wild creation.
04:48Cuz we won't provide out.
04:49That make the whole wild快 Ó defenses…
04:50In Indian Red.
04:52You won't find out.
04:53Out on that crown,
04:53We ain't dirty crown.
04:54crown.
04:56Because it does take the day
04:56Call my Indian Red.
04:57And we love to hear you call
04:59My Indian red.
05:00this building. It came from us. Some people think that this may have been the first form of music
05:09here in this city was the rhythm and the vibration of the chants, the chants that we was doing.
05:20Some people think it was here first, then it got into the fields and slavery,
05:28singing and have a calling and respond.
05:32We're the people from all over the land. We have hand in hand, and we all are saying.
05:39The men are chatting, and it's coming from their spirit. And I don't know how they do it,
05:45where every time everything rhymes, everything goes together with what they're saying. And then
05:53you get the drums, the tamarins, if you ever heard it. They are just saying stories. They
06:03talking about their lives. They talking about this culture and what's going on. And it's
06:12just a joyful thing. It just feeds your soul. It just takes you somewhere else.
06:19From the beginning was the fish scales. Fish scales and turkey feathers. Africans use feathers. We use feathers.
06:40We use plumes. Africans use plumes. Also the Native Americans. So it's a mixture that you put all
06:52that together. And then we put that twist on it. You know that New Orleans twist, you know,
07:00and make it ours. So we really don't look like the Africans. We really don't look like the Indians. We look
07:12like Mardi Gras Indians or Black Mask Indians. We do everything big. We do like masterpieces. It's like crazy.
07:24But we also tell a story of what's going on with our suit. So it's a story within itself. It's a message. And it's also a visual art.
07:40I've been mastering since 1969. And with me it's been the same thing every year. Nine months for a year to complete that suit. I'm truly
07:52spiritual connection with this here. And I think that I'm being led by the magical, mystical power of the needle and
08:00tread when I'm sewing. It's come to me as I lay it down. As I lay my beads down on my stone. I might have a, I
08:08idea of what I want to do. And when I started doing it, it seemed like stuff started coming to me which way and how I should do it.
08:18At the end of the day, what you make is you. And what you put on is you. I can reflect back on a 2008 suit, which I made. I call it my Barack Obama suit.
08:28So on my suit, I have a head of a black man coming out of a dragon, which symbolized he came out the belly of the beast.
08:38And as he did that, he won the election. He was standing on top of the world. And then at the top, I had two dragons and the figurehead of a black chief.
08:48Even though he was on top of the world, you actually was still being attacked by those dragons. You still, even though you came out that beast, you still was being attacked.
08:57Simply indicating that even though Barack was on top of the world or the black man was on top of the world at that time, even though he was there, he was still being attacked.
09:06This is a woman and she's carrying a peacock. And I did the story about when a peacock strut. So my suit had peacock feathers. And I'm talking about how we in New Orleans survive after all the tragedies, Hurricane Katrina, Ida.
09:33And when a peacock opened up his wings, how he spreads them out and he shakes. And then he walks around prancing. And I'm like, yeah, that's New Orleans. It's like, no matter what, we strut.
09:49When the Indians come out, people get happy and excited, you know, everybody get jolly. But this is what it was about. When we was coming out there in the beginning, to bring spiritual joy, to uplift your people, saying to them, to let them know that better days are coming.
10:14They got a light at the tunnel. And we can see that. And just hold fast. That's what it was about.
10:23We do transform. So whoever I was, when you saw me yesterday, Mardi Gras Day, you're gonna see somebody else. And that somebody else is a big queen.
10:37And that somebody else is gonna love her people. She gonna dance for her people. And she gonna show them that they can be anybody that they want to be.
10:52We're not just chiefs on Mardi Gras. Yeah, there you go. We chief every day. Every day, you know, that's who we are in our neighborhood and our community.
11:04It's a pillar. It's like a griot. You know, a griot in the villages of Africa. That's the person everybody went to. And in your community, the big chief is the one you go to.
11:13I mean, even to this day, you know, folks that come to Mr. Cavs, like, chief, chief, chief, you know, yay. If I can, I will.
11:19It's not about the suit. The suit is on the mask. And what's behind that suit, that's what makes a difference, what counts.
11:27You think about it, the spirituality of what you do. You know, when you put that suit on, it's a spirituality thing.
11:33Because anyone could make a mask, an Indian suit, but they don't have it from the heart. They can't do it.
11:38You know, you have folks that ask you, hey, man, I want to be an Indian. You have Mardi Gras Day and you're black.
11:43You know, it's in your spirit. When you hear them drum beats, you got to be ready to roll with it.
11:47To me, it's a symbol of being still resilient. And it's a way to still fight back. And resilience is what we're all about.
12:05It's like we're never going to stop. We're going to keep doing what we do, no matter what you take from us,
12:14no matter what you do to us, we're going to continue. And the word that we say is,
12:22no whom bow. We will not bow down.
12:26.
12:37.
12:38.
12:39.
12:40.
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