New Orleans Unmasked

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New Orleans Unmasked	Visiting My Great-Grandmother in New Mexico, A Place Her Feet Never Touched Going to New Mexico with Students at the Center and Xavier University's Center for the Advancement of Teaching was a very exciting opportunity for me. I have always loved to travel. I can recall when I was a little girl always waking up on the weekends awaiting the long drive or the trip that my parents had prepared for us that time. I am still that way at eighteen years of age. Whenever the opportunity is presented, I always reach for it, even if I do not fully understand the nature of it. Well, naturally that was my attitude about going to New Mexico. "Lesley, you have an opportunity to travel to New Mexico", my teacher explained. My instant reply was, "okay." After later and further explanation, I learned that this trip would be a culture exchange between a group of young African-Americans from New Orleans and a few Native tribes in New Mexico. I immediately knew that trip would be enjoyable. I went home and stared at the picture of the elderly, gray-haired women with the black streak down the middle that hangs on my dresser. This woman was my great-grandmother, and word is that she was a Native American. That was the word. However, it was never followed by detailed stories of her beliefs nor of her ancestry. Immediately I looked toward this trip as a chance to link together the missing pieces of the knowledge of my ancestry. I realized that I would never fully figure out the ways of my great-grandmother, but I knew that the Native Americans, just like African-Americans, are tied together by a common cause, and that there are many similarities across the different tribes. Living in New Orleans has instilled in me and many others respect of and loyalty to--but little knowledge of--Native Americans. Between the Mardi Gras Indians and Indian-named streets in the 9th ward, New Orleanians feel closeness to the Natives, and they really do not understand why. I hold this as truth, because there is no predominately black community that one can enter and receive this vibe. We definitely did not become this way due to the training of our beloved history books. If we leave it up to history books, we see pained pictures of savages and cannibals and receive a false knowledge of everything that they stood for and their contributions to this country. Well there is a something that rests in the hearts of the African-Americans in this community that has yet to be unleashed. Like the life of my great-grandmother, there are stories that are hidden and untold, but a spirit that will never be denied. Before reaching New Mexico, our mission in life was to unfold the mystery behind this peculiar relationship with a group of people who have practically diminished from our city. Through research, some of the puzzle was solved, and light was shed on the connection between African- Americans and Native Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana. Like Africans here in America, the Natives have had a horrible past due to the exploration and exploitation of the Europeans. The land that they loved and lived on was taken away from them, and they too were enslaved. I have always known about these terrible encounters, but I was never familiar with those that occurred in my own state. While reading, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's Africans in Colonial Louisiana, I have learned that upon arrival to the Americas, the Africans felt immediate closeness with the Natives. They did not speak the same languages, and they were not familiar with each other, but there were similarities in their ethics, and they were both victims of the same situation: Slavery. So in knowing this, the book explains that the "Indians," particularly the Natchez and the Chickasaw, as well as the Africans, particularly the Bambara, would together run away and form independent colonies in the swamps of Louisiana. They would steal food as well as ammunition to help them survive. Once this was accomplished, the French would basically give up hope of recapturing them without the help of an insider, because the Natives knew the land too well. New measures were taken. The French tried to persuade the Natives to capture all runaways. But the maroons, true heroes and freedom fighters such as Juan Malo, resisted. And their resistance was not in a savage way, but in a way that involved a complete economy and specific plans for liberation. The economy included harvesting and selling cypress from the swamps for ship builders. The maroons were also skilled cabinet-makers. And the maroons were dedicated freedom fighters. The 1811 Slave Revolt, which involved enslaved and free Africans and Native Americans from above, below, and within New Orleans, was a well-planned struggle to establish an independent nation. The trip to New Mexico showed me Native Americans making similar plans for continued liberation. The Laguna people teach their children culture and history, not just book knowledge. They have abandoned uranium mining as an evil imposed by greedy corporations and instead have built their own economy out of quality education and restoration of historic homes. I felt solidarity with and inspiration from these fellow freedom fighters in New Mexico. And though I learned no particular story about my great grandmother, I felt a kinship to her struggle and vowed to honor her legacy in my study and work by pursuing careers and interests that do not violate her spirit or the land she loved. -- Lesley Quezergue My Dad Came Before Columbus Equality Less Than Equal Revolutions Throughout the Years Pontchartrain Park 1955: One Womans Story My Louisiana
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home / art gallery / creative pieces / links

Visiting My Great-Grandmother in New Mexico, A Place Her Feet Never Touched

Going to New Mexico with Students at the Center and Xavier University's Center for the Advancement of Teaching was a very exciting opportunity for me. I have always loved to travel. I can recall when I was a little girl always waking up on the weekends awaiting the long drive or the trip that my parents had prepared for us that time. I am still that way at eighteen years of age. Whenever the opportunity is presented, I always reach for it, even if I do not fully understand the nature of it.

Well, naturally that was my attitude about going to New Mexico. "Lesley, you have an opportunity to travel to New Mexico", my teacher explained. My instant reply was, "okay." After later and further explanation, I learned that this trip would be a culture exchange between a group of young African-Americans from New Orleans and a few Native tribes in New Mexico. I immediately knew that trip would be enjoyable.

I went home and stared at the picture of the elderly, gray-haired women with the black streak down the middle that hangs on my dresser. This woman was my great-grandmother, and word is that she was a Native American. That was the word. However, it was never followed by detailed stories of her beliefs nor of her ancestry. Immediately I looked toward this trip as a chance to link together the missing pieces of the knowledge of my ancestry. I realized that I would never fully figure out the ways of my great-grandmother, but I knew that the Native Americans, just like African-Americans, are tied together by a common cause, and that there are many similarities across the different tribes.

Living in New Orleans has instilled in me and many others respect of and loyalty to--but little knowledge of--Native Americans. Between the Mardi Gras Indians and Indian-named streets in the 9th ward, New Orleanians feel closeness to the Natives, and they really do not understand why. I hold this as truth, because there is no predominately black community that one can enter and receive this vibe. We definitely did not become this way due to the training of our beloved history books. If we leave it up to history books, we see pained pictures of savages and cannibals and receive a false knowledge of everything that they stood for and their contributions to this country.

Well there is a something that rests in the hearts of the African-Americans in this community that has yet to be unleashed. Like the life of my great-grandmother, there are stories that are hidden and untold, but a spirit that will never be denied.

Before reaching New Mexico, our mission in life was to unfold the mystery behind this peculiar relationship with a group of people who have practically diminished from our city. Through research, some of the puzzle was solved, and light was shed on the connection between African- Americans and Native Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Like Africans here in America, the Natives have had a horrible past due to the exploration and exploitation of the Europeans. The land that they loved and lived on was taken away from them, and they too were enslaved. I have always known about these terrible encounters, but I was never familiar with those that occurred in my own state. While reading, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's Africans in Colonial Louisiana, I have learned that upon arrival to the Americas, the Africans felt immediate closeness with the Natives. They did not speak the same languages, and they were not familiar with each other, but there were similarities in their ethics, and they were both victims of the same situation: Slavery.

So in knowing this, the book explains that the "Indians," particularly the Natchez and the Chickasaw, as well as the Africans, particularly the Bambara, would together run away and form independent colonies in the swamps of Louisiana. They would steal food as well as ammunition to help them survive. Once this was accomplished, the French would basically give up hope of recapturing them without the help of an insider, because the Natives knew the land too well.

New measures were taken. The French tried to persuade the Natives to capture all runaways. But the maroons, true heroes and freedom fighters such as Juan Malo, resisted. And their resistance was not in a savage way, but in a way that involved a complete economy and specific plans for liberation. The economy included harvesting and selling cypress from the swamps for ship builders. The maroons were also skilled cabinet-makers. And the maroons were dedicated freedom fighters. The 1811 Slave Revolt, which involved enslaved and free Africans and Native Americans from above, below, and within New Orleans, was a well-planned struggle to establish an independent nation.

The trip to New Mexico showed me Native Americans making similar plans for continued liberation. The Laguna people teach their children culture and history, not just book knowledge. They have abandoned uranium mining as an evil imposed by greedy corporations and instead have built their own economy out of quality education and restoration of historic homes. I felt solidarity with and inspiration from these fellow freedom fighters in New Mexico. And though I learned no particular story about my great grandmother, I felt a kinship to her struggle and vowed to honor her legacy in my study and work by pursuing careers and interests that do not violate her spirit or the land she loved.

-- Lesley Quezergue

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Authored by Towana Pierre, SAC 2001.