Entry · catalog no. 1226
masking Indian
/ /ˈmæskɪŋ ˈɪndiən/ /MASK-ing IN-dee-un
verb phrase · New Orleans — especially the Seventh Ward, Treme, Central City and Uptown · 1880s
✓ Verified
1.
In New Orleans, to take part in the Black Masking Indian tradition: to hand-sew a beaded and feathered suit over the course of a year and come out in it on Mardi Gras morning with your tribe. Masking is a full-year obligation, not a costume choice, and the suit is a new one each year, made by the person who wears it. Tribes meet other tribes in the street and confront each other through song, chant, posture and the beauty of the suit rather than through violence. A person who does this is said to mask, and to say someone masked for fifty years is a statement about a life, not about a hobby.
“He masked Indian for thirty-one years and never wore the same suit twice.”
2.
Used with a role or a tribe to state one's position in that structure, as in masking with a named tribe or masking in a specific role such as Big Chief, Spy Boy, Flag Boy or Wild Man.
“She started out masking with her uncle's tribe before she was ten.”
Origin & Attribution
The tradition belongs to Black New Orleanians who were shut out of white Carnival krewes, and it honors Native people who sheltered Africans escaping slavery in the surrounding bayous. The Creole Wild West, generally credited to Becate Batiste, is named as the first documented tribe and is usually dated to the mid-1880s, with 1885 the most commonly cited year. The documentary trail includes Les Blank's Always for Pleasure in 1978, which filmed the tradition in the street, Michael P. Smith's photographic study Mardi Gras Indians in 1994, and Lisa Katzman's Tootie's Last Suit on Big Chief Allison Tootie Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas, which premiered at Full Frame in 2007 and was released in 2009. Many practitioners and New Orleans institutions now use Black Masking Indian; Mardi Gras Indian is the older press and tourist label, and this entry records the community term first.
1885
Creole Wild West, credited to Becate Batiste, named as the first documented tribe
1978
Les Blank's Always for Pleasure films the tradition in the New Orleans street
2009
Tootie's Last Suit documents Big Chief Allison Tootie Montana and the Yellow Pocahontas
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The South
New Orleans — especially the Seventh Ward, Treme, Central City and Uptown · 1880s
Spoken by
Black Masking Indians of New Orleans, their families and tribes, and the neighborhoods that follow them on Mardi Gras morning and St. Joseph's Night
$MASKINThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady141 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
57/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1885
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@nolakid
New Orleans, LA
@htxdri
Houston, TX
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Michael P. Smith, Mardi Gras Indians, foreword by Alan Govenar, Pelican Publishing, 1994
book · printed
■
Always for Pleasure, directed by Les Blank, Flower Films, 1978
film · video
■
+ Cite a sourceTootie's Last Suit, directed by Lisa Katzman, premiered Full Frame 2007, released 2009
film · video
See also