The Black Masking Indians: banned in 1781, and their stated reason (New Orleans, 1746–present)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1746 · Places: Louisiana, Europe, Africa
SUMMARYThe Black Masking Indians: banned in 1781, and their stated reason (New Orleans, 1746–present) [Connections: Louisiana (deep), Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDWikipedia's "Mardi Gras Indians" article (citing Michael P. Smith and archival work) says that in 1781 the Spanish attorney general warned the City Commission about "a great number of free negroes and slaves who, with the pretext of the Carnival season, mask." It also cites archival records from 1746 of enslaved Africans dressing as Indigenous people, and travelers in 1804 and 1813 who saw Black men in Native attire. Smithsonian Magazine says the most popular theory is that maskers dress this way "to pay homage to the Indigenous people who'd helped them escape from slavery." Big Chief Estabon Eugene of the Golden Arrows calls it "paying tribute," "not about disrespect."
PATTERNSpanish officials policed Black masking as early as 1781. The maskers' own stated reason is gratitude to the nations who sheltered people escaping slavery
LENS (WW9)For more than 240 years they have suited up as the nations that took them in. To the client, that is remembering kin, not costume
DISPUTEDJeroen Dewulf argues the rituals rest on Kongo traditions. Brian Klopotek's "Still Not an Honor" (American Indian Quarterly, 2022) challenges the academic "Black Indian" narrative. Atakapa-Ishak council member Jeffery Darensbourg objects to tribe names like "Mohawk": "No one gets to use someone's tribal name unless they have some heritage in that tribe."
OPENVerify the 1746 record and the 1781 quote at their primary sources (Spanish Cabildo records)
SOURCESMardi Gras Indians (Wikipedia); What You Should Know About the Mardi Gras Indians (Smithsonian).