Besides Mardi Gras, Super Sunday is the most significant tradition for the Mardi Gras Indians. This celebration falls on the third Sunday of March around St. Joseph’s Day. The festivities begin at noon in A.L. Davis Park at Washington Avenue and LaSalle Street, where Mardi Gras Indians dress in their suits and feathers to meet with other “gangs” — a tradition that has existed since 1969. 

Tulane University student and New Orleans native Terrence Cormier has been involved with Mardi Gras Indian culture since he was 13 years old. 

He started sewing at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music as a hobby until one of his teachers, Mardi Gras Indian Spy Boy, Gregory Sellers, decided he was good enough to make a suit. Sellers passed away before it could happen, but Cormier started making suits two years later. 

Cormier is now a Flag Boy for the Golden Feather Hunters and has participated in several festivities such as Mardi Gras, Super Sunday and St. Joseph’s Day. 

“The tradition in whole is something that really honors those who come before us … It also speaks to the relationship between Africans, enslaved Africans and the Indigenous people of New Orleans and Louisiana,” Cormier said. “New Orleans in itself has done a lot to preserve the culture and keep the tradition alive.” 

Mardi Gras Indians, or Black Masking Indians, are named after Native Americans to pay respect to their assistance in helping enslaved Africans escape slavery and accepting them into their society.

The leading members of these tribes are known as “Big Chiefs,” who command members and direct the ceremonial processions on Mardi Gras, Super Sundays and St. Joseph’s Night. They create intricate, hand-beaded suits that honor Native American, African and local traditions. 

Cormier sees the celebrations as both a way to preserve New Orleans culture and spread joy. 

“When you see people’s faces and their reactions to the amount of work and the beautiful culture, it just brings smiles to people’s faces,” Cormier said. “Kids will run up to me and … want to hug me … see the pieces on the suit and touch and play with it.” 

Many things can inspire the designs for the Mardi Gras Indian suits. Cormier said this year’s theme was spring, so he drew inspiration from flowers, butterflies and pastel colors. He said sometimes he gets input from his family for designs, but other times it’s “something that pops up in my brain and I put it on paper.” 

Designers start making suits a day or two after the last Mardi Gras or event, in preparation for the next year’s festivities. 

Cormier’s girlfriend, New Orleans native Angelica Petit, helps him make the suits. For her, it’s more about paying homage to her late great-grandmother, Eunice Petit Belfield, an artisan who had a distinguished career as one of the premier costume designers of Mardi Gras for several decades. 

“This is what she did for a living,” Petit said. “This is how I feel close to her and connect with her.”

Working on the suits brings the whole family together. Petit said Cormier’s nephew and nieces are eager to help sew, even though his nephew is only two years old. 

“Sometimes [the kids] want to put on his suit and his headpiece,” Petit said. “[Seeing] the elderly people that sit on the streets or sit on their porch … this is what they grew up looking at … And I know that they love to see the culture still alive and well.”