- Dazzling, hand-made suits — beaded, feathered and bedazzled — are built all year for Mardi Gras and are the centerpiece of the city’s most striking street pageant.
- Tribes stage playful “mock battles” where big chiefs compete to be the “prettiest,” coordinated by spy boys, flag boys and wild men using secret hand signals and crowd control.
- The tradition honors Native Americans who sheltered escaped enslaved people and serves as a proud, community-centered outlet for Black New Orleanians excluded from historic parade routes.
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