Becate Batiste, founder of the Creole Wild West: "African, French and Choctaw" (Seventh Ward, New Orleans, 1880s)

SUMMARYBecate Batiste, founder of the Creole Wild West: "African, French and Choctaw" (Seventh Ward, New Orleans, 1880s) [Connections: Louisiana (deep), Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDWikipedia describes Becate Batiste as "a young creole man of African, French and Choctaw heritage" who formed the Creole Wild West in the Seventh Ward in the 1880s, the first recorded Mardi Gras Indian gang. Smithsonian says archival evidence traces the tradition to the 1880s and Batiste's tribe. Tulane's Crescent Magazine (Porter Volk, May 3, 2019) calls him "reportedly of African-American, French, and Choctaw heritage" and says he "masked as an Indian at a Mardi Gras in the 1880s." Buffalo Bill's Wild West wintered in New Orleans in 1884–85. Wikipedia notes that Mardi Gras Indians themselves reject the idea that the show shaped their culture, saying that idea "emphasizes imitation over originality."

PATTERNThe first documented Mardi Gras Indian chief is himself described as Choctaw-descended. The masking may be ancestry as well as tribute

LENS (WW9)The first chief on record was Choctaw by blood. He was not playing Indian. He was an Indian, renamed Creole

OPENNeeds deep research. Find Batiste's census entries (1870/1880, Orleans Parish) and sacramental records to see what color label he was given, and confirm the Choctaw line

SOURCESMardi Gras Indians (Wikipedia); Cultural Appropriation and the Mardi Gras Indians (Tulane Crescent Magazine); Smithsonian.