“Coming out of slavery, being African American wasn’t socially acceptable. By masking like Native Americans, it created an identity of strength. Native Americans under all the pressure and duress, would not concede. These people were almost driven into extinction, and the same kind of feeling came out of slavery, ‘You’re not going to give us a place here in society, we’ll create our own.’ In masking, they paid respect and homage to the Native American by using their identity and making a social statement that despite the odds, they’re not going to stop.”
― Ronald Lewis, former Council Chief of the Choctaw Hunters, a Mardi Gras Indian tribe he helped to start in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana

houseofdanceandfeathers.org
Quote from and art based on photo from House of Dance & Feathers.