Mardi Gras Indians/Black Indians/Black Maskers/Black Masking Indians naming dispute erupts

This is a fight I never thought I would ever see but cultural appropriation caused by the Colonialists and Imperialists have caused this chaos (h/t to Prof Vaz-Deville for the educational tip)

Demond Melancon, of the Young Seminole Hunters, said that the term he’d like to see adopted by the public and the press is Black Maskers.

Melancon, 42, said that in 1992, when he began masking, “You were an Indian.” But now, he said, “the culture needs to evolve into what it really is. It’s been a hidden culture for 250 years and you have to know where it really comes from.”

“The narrative needs to change,” he said. “We need African stories in the schools and we need African stories in the streets.”

Melancon pointed out that the label Mardi Gras Indians may be instantly understood in New Orleans, but outside of the city and to out-of-towners it can be unclear. “We get profiled as Indians,” he said. “People ask us, ‘What are you, Cherokee?’”

Melancon said he’d like to avoid that sort of misunderstanding.

Tyrone Casby Sr., of the Mohawk Hunters, serves as secretary of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council, which represents 15 of the roughly 60 tribes. Casby, 67, said that he and the council prefer the term Mardi Gras Indians.

Professor Kim Vaz-Deville: Such misnomers are “a continuation of the afterlife of colonialism and imperialism,” she said.

Vaz-Deville said she prefers the term Black Masking Indian, because “it’s where contemporary practice usage is moving.”

Big Chief Darryl Montana: But he views it as a sort of inauthentic brand name and prefers the term Black Masking Indians.

Dow Edwards, of the Timbuktu Warriors tribe, said he uses “interlocking, interchangeable” terms, from Black Masking Mardi Gras Indians to, simply, Mardi Gras Indians.

Queen Dianne Honore said she prefers the term “Black Indian.”

NOLA: Someone call in the Calvary to restore order as the Indians are fighting