Skull and Bone Band

The origin of the SKULL and BONE BAND name:



A native American medicine man from the Seminole Tribe w/ mixed blood from Ex- African American slaves gave us our name. He said that the two cultures had both been treated as an inferior species. Many supposed Freed African American slaves ended up in New Orleans after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 (and because of relocation schemes before and after of the Civil War) along with members of the Seminole Tribe. They banded together in order to protect themselves from harm. The result was a new blending of African and Native American traditions. And each year for the Mardi Gras festival, they would put on their Native costumes and join together in a procession to celebrate the circle of life and death.
In each of the two cultures, they had a common understanding about life and death. Neither believed in atheism or monotheism. They supported an idea of animism, whereby all of nature is alive, all of nature has a soul, and they are a part of natures soul, no greater or worse, but an integral part of the whole. In the beginning they werent allowed to participate in the Mardi Gras celebration. So they invented their own. They chose the skull and bone to represent their communion with the spirits. The Skull and Bone krewe consisted mostly of mixed African American and Native American blood.
The medicine man explained to us that the skull represents mortality. It is our future face. One day we will come face to face with death. We should understand this principle and take it seriously. He said the bone represents fertility. It is life and it is full of energy. This is the playful and joyful realm of the living. It is a time to sing and dance. And then he said that the two taken together represent the circle of existence. He had no doubt that life is eternal. There is a small break he said in the circle. That is the nothing where we go and from where we came. But it is never truly nothing, he explained, because something is always coming and something is always going.