Colorful Characters: Andrew Justin - Runnin' Pretty, Mardi Gras Unmasked

Andrew Justin: Runnin’ Pretty
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The Wild Tremé’s motto is “With Beauty We Walk,” a line from a traditional Navajo chant; and indeed, Chief Drew’s familiarity with the ceremonial attire of that tribe has clearly influenced his own costuming art, particularly with regard to incorporating materials obtained from animals. Over the years, in addition to ostrich plumes and marabou—standard fare for Mardi Gras Indian suits—mink, sheepskin, coque quills and fox pelts have figured into his regalia.

“That’s why we The Wild Tremé—we dress wild,” he explains. “We dress different from any Indian gang in New Orleans.”

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Wild Tremé Trail Chief Patrick Tyler

For the Mardi Gras 2000 suit worn by his trail chief, Patrick Tyler, Chief Drew fashioned a crown from the head of a black wolf. Other elements of the suit included wolf claws and a wolf tail. Rounding out the ensemble: a staff stick incorporating a bobcat, which Chief Drew procured from a Navajo acquaintance in Tuba City, Az.

In developing his craft, Chief Drew had a stellar mentor in Harrison, a family friend who dedicated his life to sharing the history and traditions of Mardi Gras Indians with his family, school children and many others. For Harrison, who conversed regularly with Chief Drew via telephone, masking Indian was not something to be taken lightly: it was a source of strength, purpose and spirituality. In speeches at schools and through performances at hospitals and other venues, Chief Drew has spread this message on the West Coast.

In 1995, a Los Angeles-based organization, Women in Film, arranged for Harrison and his Guardians of the Flame Mardi Gras Indians to perform at an Academy Awards event at the House of Blues. Harrison, in turn, invited The Wild Tremé—six Mardi Gras Indians, plus Hothai—to share the stage. Also appearing was Dr. John, a musical ambassador for New Orleans whose songwriting has been influenced by Mardi Gras Indian traditions, and Donald Harrison Jr., one of the premiere jazz saxophonists of his generation.

For the occasion, Chief Drew donned a suit inspired by Navajo attire. Made from sheepskin, it represented quite a departure from the traditional Mardi Gras Indian practice of sewing beads and stones onto canvas.

Donald Harrison Sr. was perplexed. “ ‘Andrew, what the hell is that?’ ” Chief Drew recalls him asking. “ ‘It’s pure skin, Donald.’ And when he looked at it, he said, ‘I’ll be damned.’ He said, ‘Man, I’ve never in my life seen nobody in New Orleans with nothin’ like this. You should come home with this.’ ”

Taking Chief Drew under his wing, Harrison made it clear that he expected a lot from his protégé. According to Chief Drew, he said “I know your entire family. I don’t want you comin’ home runnin’ like a little renegade like the rest of these loose guys—getting all drunk, loaded. Come home with class.”

The Wild Tremé, accompanied by the Shake ’Em Down Second Liners, first appeared at Mardi Gras in 1996, performing in the Zulu parade. The invitation to roll with Zulu came after the second liners’ Doc Robinson approached Zulu’s chairman of Carnival activities, Joseph Falls. Turned out that Falls had for years been wanting Mardi Gras Indians to join in the Zulu parade, but the idea had fallen on deaf ears—gangs tended to regard Zulu as part of “mainstream” Carnival, and didn’t want to depart from their time-honored tradition of parading through neighborhood back streets.

But Chief Drew had no qualms about showing off to the assembled masses on the main parade route. “Why just let the neighborhood see ya?” he reasons. “When you roll with Zulu, you can let the world see how pretty you are.”

For his first outing with Zulu, Chief Drew appeared in an apron trimmed with wolf pelts. His boots were made from badgers—sewn into the eye sockets were 30-milimeter stones—while his daffodil-yellow crown, trimmed with purple plumes, included a 15-foot train. Impressive, but perhaps not best thing to be dragging along a parade route littered with horse manure from mounted units.

Toward the end of the route, recalls Chief Drew, “I say, Damn. Why is my crown so hard to pull?” Some of the younger members of his extended family, who were tagging along with the gang, were laughing. “Uncle Andrew,” one of them announced, “you got about four or five feet of shit on your plumes.” A nephew produced a straight razor, and, following the big chief’s instructions, severed the train. “And I left that shit right there in the middle of the street,” says Chief Drew. “But I kept rollin’.”

When The Wild Tremé and the Shake ’Em Down Second Liners returned to New Orleans to parade with Zulu again in 1998, Donald Harrison Sr., who had stopped masking Indian at Mardi Gras, was waiting at the corner of North Galvez St. and Orleans Ave. Chief Drew spun around and sang a song for his mentor which included the lyrics “I’m pretty in the front, I’m pretty in the back/I’m a Wild Tremé Indian, and I dress like that.”

Eyeing his protégé’s knock-out lime-green suit, Harrison said “Damn. I done created a monster.”

Harrison died two months before Mardi Gras 1999, which would have marked the 50th anniversary of his first appearance as a Mardi Gras Indian. Before he passed, he told Chief Drew that he was tired of sewing and ready to retire.

Chief Drew had begun planning for his own retirement after arriving back in Los Angeles from Mardi Gras 1998. He knew that he wanted to go out with a bang at the millennial gala, with a top-of-the-line suit that would make eyeballs pop.

After consulting with his wife, a counseling psychologist at the University of California Riverside, Chief Drew proceeded to order $12,000 worth of glass crystals and stones from a dealer in New York City. That’s not counting an additional $4,500 worth he subsequently bought for his son Kevin’s suit.

For almost two years, Chief Drew labored for 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, on his retirement suit and other attire for Mardi Gras 2000. One visitor to his home—where the chief offered a preview of his regalia during the summer of 1999, along with a demonstration of his musical prowess on a set of five conga drums—couldn’t help but notice that his fingertips looked as if they’d gotten caught in a meat grinder. “I got more holes in my fingers than they have people in the Charity Hospital [in New Orleans],” he cracked.

Chief Drew works in the so-called “Uptown” Mardi Gras Indian tradition, which is characterized by allegorical beadwork. But whereas other practitioners sometimes incorporate depictions of Native Americans engaged in acts of violence, or being victimized by acts of violence, Chief Drew favors representations of religious and historical subjects.

His retirement suit, as well as the suit he made for his son for Mardi Gras 2000, displays an obvious knack for evocative story telling. Arranged vertically in the center of his front apron is a series of three patches depicting Native American subjects. The top patch has a black hand and a red hand, with palms facing out. A chain that once bound the hands together has been broken—symbolizing, says Chief Drew, “how the red man helped the black man to break away from slavery.”

The green background has a smattering of red stones, symbolizing drops of blood. Below it are patches depicting a peace pipe and other Native American symbols. “The peace was broken by the white man when he violated our land and shed the blood on this land,” relates Chief Drew.

African motifs also figure prominently in the patchwork. Around the front apron are designs featuring warriors from various tribes. The outside of his left cuff depicts the African continent. There’s also a large stone surrounded by ivory beads, representing slave ships en route to the United States.

Befitting a Zulu warrior masking in the guise of a Mardi Gras Indian, Chief Drew chose to accessorize his regalia with a spear sporting a 22 1/2-inch blade. He imported the blade from Kenya, had it triple-dipped in chrome, and then mounted it on a broomstick. Seen up close in the sunlight, he says, “it’ll blind you.”

A stunning—and highly intimidating—piece of folk art, it’s trimmed with silk ruffles and coque quills. Mounted in raised relief on the bottom is a beaded patch depicting a ju ju doctor. Possessing protective powers, the ju ju doctor—alternatively known as a witch doctor or voodoo doctor—is an iconic figure found in the folk cultures of New Orleans, Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. “I had a dream of how I would be as a ju ju doctor, spreadin’ my wings out to cover my people that’s in harm’s way, to protect them,” says Chief Drew.

His ivory-colored, plumed staff stick, symbolizing purity, features a beaded image of dream catcher. A Native American religious icon, Chief Drew says that it represents “all the good dreams that have been given to me.”

“Some people say I’m cray-za,” he remarks, by way of explaining the source of his creative inspiration. “Cray-za means people think you’re crazy, but I’m not crazy. I just have the gift from the Holy Spirit..., and this [Mardi Gras Indian finery] is my blessings.” (next page)

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