Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Awards — Celebrating a Culture

8th August 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

The 18th Annual Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Induction, Awards & Memorial Ceremony, which takes place at the Ashe Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 14, doesn’t rely on glam or popularity polls. It strictly celebrates the amazing contributions of those who are truly involved in the Black Indian culture. As Hillary Rodham Clinton pointed out in her book, It Takes a Village, many people are required to build a wholesome community. That statement stands true for the Black Indian Nation. The Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans have long been central in binding the ties of their neighborhoods by their participation in every day goings-on, by standing by their friends and neighbors in times of happiness and sorrow and by bringing joy to their family and neighbors as well as all of those who admire their magnificence and the intensive labor of their creations. Sewing tables include many people – wives, mothers, brothers, cousins – who never put on an Indian suit. Those in the rhythm sections wielding tambourines and chanting play a significant part in the Mardi Gras Indian spectacle though they rarely get props for their contributions. They do it out of love for the culture.

Big Chief Keith “Keke” Gibson of the Comanche Hunters, who will be presented the Hall of Fame’s prestigious Crystal Feather award this year, remembers back in the 1970s and 1980s when the power would often go off in the Lower Ninth Ward where he lived – a common occurrence at that time. He recalls that the Indians would hit the streets, banging buckets and singing their chants. “It kept the neighborhood alive,” says Gibson on what otherwise would have certainly been dark and gloomy nights.

Chief Keke, 48, first masked Indian for just one year when he was seven years old. Even at such a young age the tradition obviously got into his blood. It wasn’t until he was 25, after being discharged from the Army that he started masking Indian again.

“I have always been a part of it – I always followed the Indians but I just couldn’t afford to do it” says Chief Keke, who used to “go behind” gangs like the Ninth Ward Warriors and the Ninth Ward Hunters led by Chief Rudy Bougere. “And my parents couldn’t afford for me to mask either. I waited until I got myself together and then I had the extra money to do what I love to do. The bead work, the feather work and the singing just really got into my soul.”

When Gibson was ready to get back in the game, he joined up as a gang flag with the Ninth Ward Hunters. He credits several Indians for teaching him how to sew including Joe Scott a member of the White Eagles under the leadership of Chief Gerald “Jake” Millon and flagboy Austin Earl of the Ninth Ward Hunters. “He’s still with me today,” Chief Keke proudly exclaims. “Walter (Chief Walter Cook of the Creole Wild West) is like a mentor to me. He taught me how to build those big old crowns.”

In 1993, Gibson “went renegade,” forming the tribe the Ninth Ward Comanches. He felt it was necessary to do because Chief Rudy’s Ninth Ward Hunters were sitting out Mardi Gras. “We were the only ones masking in the Ninth Ward at the time,” says Gibson who explains that he established the gang but didn’t consider himself a chief.

There was a tribe of very young Indians called the Comanche Hunters organized by a man named Percy. “He came to me and said, ‘Hey man, we’ve got the children and you’ve got the adults, why don’t we get together and form a tribe. While they’re young, you can teach them.’ I said, okay and that’s when (in 1994) I became the chief of the Comanche Hunters. All of my Indians treat me like a father because they’ve been masking with me since they were kids.”

One of Chief KeKe’s trademarks that makes him immediately recognizable is that he often wears a decorated hat, that’s flat on the top and he call his derby. “When I take my crown off, I still have something on my head,” he says mentioning that other Indians sometimes wear a headband or a visor.

On Mardi Gras morning, it’s a tradition for the chief – who got his nickname Keke from his mother “and it stuck” – and his gang gather at Charbonnet and Rocheblave streets in the Lower Ninth Ward. “My final destination is Shakespeare Park (A.L. Davis Park) – yes we still go all the way Uptown,” he says. “We walk straight up Claiborne Avenue. If you use a U-haul (truck), you lose your second line. I never walk back though. I’m tired when I get up there.”

“My main thing is that I make it my business to parade around the Ninth Ward first and visit the elderly.”

“My favorite part of being a Mardi Gras Indian is sewing and when I put my suit on in the morning and watch everybody’s eyes just light up. I’ll sing “Indian Red” and they (the members of the gang) will show themselves off as I call the positions. That’s my time right there.”

Big Chief Keke and the Comanche Hunters participated in the very first Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame awards ceremony presented in 1998 at Haley Elementary School. Co-founded by Cherice Harrison-Nelson who taught there and Haley’s principal Dr. Roslyn Smith, the Hall of Fame event found an eager audience of young students sitting wide-eyed in the school yard.

“My tribe was there in full suits,” Chief Keke remembers with great pride.

The Mardi Gras Indian Hall of Fame Induction, Awards & Memorial Ceremony, a multi-faceted program, is free and open to the public. Children are welcome.

This article originally published in the August 8, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.