WTF Lester?!? Where's your beard?

This might be a touchy point, but giving this video a 'native' 'american' tag is a bit of a stretch, and 'first' 'nation' is right out. The New Orleans Indians are a wonderful adaptation of African culture to a new setting. They adopt the name and general aesthetic as gratitude for all that the Aboriginal Americans did for runaway slaves during the antebellum period. The elaborateness of their costumes came in direct response to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show passing through the area in the 1880s.

Still, a powerful scene.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'treme, hbo, new, orleans, katrina, hurricaine, first, nation, native, american' to 'treme, hbo, new, orleans, katrina, hurricane, first, nation, native, american' - edited by kulpims

Well-put! Thanks a lot for the clarification, timtoner. Your comment reminded me of a book I read recently: "Playing Indian," which tells a kind of history of this country as seen through the ways in which people have 'played out' the 'role' or adopted the 'image' of first nation people.

Anyway, your point is well-taken. I do think that one of the really complicated components of this scene is the fact that we encounter two instances of 'tourism' in it: one is a sort of 'cultural' tourism, while the other could have no better name than 'disaster' tourism (the latter of course being problematic in perhaps much more obvious ways).

>> ^timtoner:

This might be a touchy point, but giving this video a 'native' 'american' tag is a bit of a stretch, and 'first' 'nation' is right out. The New Orleans Indians are a wonderful adaptation of African culture to a new setting. They adopt the name and general aesthetic as gratitude for all that the Aboriginal Americans did for runaway slaves during the antebellum period. The elaborateness of their costumes came in direct response to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show passing through the area in the 1880s.
Still, a powerful scene.

Great scene from a fantastic show. Season 1 just wrapped up with episode 10 last week.

For those who haven't seen the show, "Treme" is a New Orleans neighbourhood... it's pronounced "treh-may".

This scene shows a New Orleans Indian group paying tribute (funeral isn't the right term) to one of their Chiefs who died in the hurricane and flood- his house is in the background. Can't blame them for not wanting a tour bus full of gawkers snapping photos of a private and mournful moment.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'treme, hbo, new, orleans, katrina, hurricane, first, nation, native, american' to 'treme, hbo, new orleans, indians, katrina, hurricane' - edited by therealblankman