Gallery: Skull and Bones Gang kicks off Mardi Gras dark and early

The North Side Skull and Bones Gang wakes up revelers on Mardi Gras morning in New Orleans, La., March 5, 2019. The group is celebrating its 200th anniversary as the oldest Mardi Gras Black Indian Gang or Tribe in America, with an African Creole tradition dating back to 1819. The gang members were descendants of slaves and Native Americans. Skull and Bones are meant to remind people of their mortality and to live a moral life to avoid becoming Skull and Bones themselves. Photo by Matthew Hinton

Gallery: Skull and Bones Gang kicks off Mardi Gras dark and early

by Matthew Hinton | March 6, 2019

The North Side Skull and Bones Gang woke up revelers in Treme on Mardi Gras morning.

The group celebrated its 200th anniversary as the oldest Mardi Gras Black Indian Gang or Tribe in America, with an African Creole tradition dating back to 1819.

The gang members were descendants of slaves and Native Americans.

Skull and Bones are meant to remind people of their mortality and to live a moral life to avoid becoming Skull and Bones themselves.

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Matthew Hinton

Matthew Hinton is a New Orleans area freelance photographer whose work has been recognized by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Best of Photojournalism Awards in 2014 and 2016, and by numerous awards from the Press Club of New Orleans, including the Hal Ledet President's Print Photography Award, the highest honor the Press Club can bestow upon a photographer.
Matthew Hinton has previously been a staff photographer at both of the daily newspapers in New Orleans. His work has appeared nationally and internationally through freelance work with the Associated Press and AFP, Agence France-Presse.

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