When their first daughter was born, in 1969, they moved into a house on Foy Street in Gentilly and he decided to take a hiatus from masking. Adams was an X-ray technician at Charity Hospital and Blazio met her while doing deliveries for Tulane Hospital. In the late 1960s, Blazio married Leona Adams, who grew up in an Indian family, whose brother Joe Pete Adams was a well-known flag boy with the White Eagles tribe and later a chief of the Seminole Hunters tribe. “They wanted me to understand the world,” Johnson said. So once at the house on Pauger, the stereo seemed to only play either Ray Charles or Aretha Franklin records, said Johnson, who was taught by Blazio and other elders what Charles was singing in his lyrics and why. He was possessed with it,” Johnson said.īut in the 1960s, when Johnson was getting his start as an Indian, no Black-masking Indian records had yet been made.
“He had that music and tradition in his blood. “He was an Indian all his life,” said Johnson, who would visit Blazio to sing, as Blazio became more frail, in recent years. Though Blazio was barely 5 feet tall, he was stocky, and his presence - and passion for the Indian call-and-response-style music - always commanded attention. To learn how to sing and dance in the tradition, a young Fred Johnson would ride to Sunday Indian practices with Blazio, who would be dressed in neatly pressed outfits usually ornamented with a stickpin and diamonds, seated behind the wheel of his white Chevrolet Impala.
It will alter the atmosphere.’ And I still remember throwing open the doors and hearing the murmur of the crowd. “His goal was, ‘When I walk out, it’s going to change the world. because she understood his vision, she said. Then the two of them would work late nights together sewing until 3 a.m. Russell went to the library to research buttons they could use as materials or to find accurate images of fish or chariots or anything else he wanted to feature on his suits. He defended it with a physical ferocity that became the stuff of myths. Under Blazio, that barrier was impervious. Without a flag boy in place, a rival who is skilled at the physical game of Indian could attempt to damage his chief’s suit or, worse yet, steal the chief’s crown. Until they meet, the flag boy blocks the area in front of his chief. Each tribe’s spy boys trade signals from the front of the tribe back to their big chiefs, to see if the two will agree to meet face-to-face. and it will be your fault.īut really while i’m guessing its about riding the horse, really its about riding anything that is unhealthy when abused.But in the 1950s and 1960s, as Montana moved into his early heyday - establishing the three-dimensional style of sewing Indian suits and pushing his culture to put aside violence and compete with their sewing needles to see who was prettiest - the man who walked ahead of him on the streets was his flag boy, Ray “Hatchet” Blazio.īeyond the feathered-and-beaded artistry, the Indian tradition is distinguished by an elaborate choreography, a human chess game of sorts, triggered whenever two tribes meet each other in the streets. <<< You keep it up and you’ll fade away, and there will be nothing. You pull it apart and you’re just left there” <<< In that set, she is getting sick of the ride, and she’s willing to help but only if the song’s target follows her way. “Giddy up and gold mine, horse dust down time “You’ve got no means for wanderlust” <<< when high you’re perspective is a little off. “all the cars turn to rust” <<< all the shiny material things fade quickly “Pastel trailer park, stars so bright to hide the dark” <<