Fire In The Hole

The spirit work of Fi Yi Yi & the Mandingo Warriors.

- Geraldine Wyckoff

When Victor Harris came out in his beautiful new red suit on Carnival Day 2018, it marked his 53rd year masking Indian, the most in the history of the Mardi Gras Indians. He made his way to the porch of the Backstreet Cultural Museum, where he spoke of freedom, peace and unity. Soon thereafter, Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Chief of the Mandingo Warriors stepped into the street and met Chief Donald Harrison Jr. of the Congo Square Nation. Their face-to-face, feather-to-bead, emotion-filled encounter demonstrated the sense of love and respect among the members of the Black Indian Nation. This warm, familiar image of the highly regarded Harris is a far cry from the man who is initially, through his own words, introduced in Fire in the Hole, a collaborative visual ethnography made in cooperation with the Neighborhood Story Project and published by the University of New Orleans Press.

In the chapter titled “The Pain of Change,” the reader meets Harris as an angry man who in 1984 had just been ousted, along with his longtime friend and assistant, Collins “Coach” Lewis, from the Yellow Pocahontas Mardi Gras Indian gang. He had been “running” flagboy with the tribe then led by Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana, since 1965. Later, Harris explains the cause of this devastating split. “Man, I was out of it,” Harris admits. “Revenge is all I wanted.”

The story of Harris’ transition and subsequent spiritual and literally physical awakening is laid out as if a conversation. Coach, a talented sewer who got his nickname working with the football team at Hunter’s Field and who passed away in 2011, and Harris, who was also a regular at the Field, share their remembrances. Their words and quotes from others, including the Backstreet’s Sylvester.