Editor’s Note: No Depression is honored to share this essay by Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. — which explores the confluence of New Orleans roots music, environmentalism, and cultural heritage — during release week for his new album with The Wild Magnolias, Chip Off The Old Block. Additionally, more information about the history and music of Mardi Gras Indians can be found in a feature from the Summer 2021 issue of No Depression.
As a Black Masking Indian Chief, I carry the weight and honor of tradition on my shoulders — feathers stitched by hand, songs sung in the voice of our ancestors, steps danced into the dirt of New Orleans’ streets that remember everything. Our culture is not just performance; it is resistance. It is memory. It is medicine. And in this age of rising waters and scorching heat, it is also endangered.
Climate justice and cultural preservation are not two separate conversations for us—they are one and the same. Our traditions, rooted in honoring the legacy of both African and Indigenous survival, are intimately tied to the land, the rhythm of the seasons, and the people who hold the knowledge. But the climate crisis threatens all of that. As storms grow stronger and neighborhoods flood more often, the spaces where we gather, rehearse, sew, and celebrate are disappearing. The cost of rebuilding is high. The toll on our spirits is even higher.
Mardi Gras Indians have always masked in defiance of oppression. Our ancestors were pushed to the margins — enslaved, exploited, displaced — and yet, they created something beautiful out of survival. We honored Native peoples who took in our ancestors when they escaped bondage. We stitched that gratitude into beaded suits, into chants that echo down Claiborne Avenue, into calls of “Won’t Bow Down.” We don’t bow to systems that try to erase us — not then, not now.
But what does it mean to protect this tradition when the ground beneath us is literally disappearing?