Led by choreographer and visual artist Smaïl Kanouté, the Chief Scout / Black Indians project explores the cultural heritage of New Orleans’ Afro-American Indian communities. Part performance, part film, part living ritual, this collaboration between MansA and Compagnie Vivons pays tribute to the history of the Black Indians while reflecting on contemporary forms of gathering and transmission.
During a residency at Villa Albertine in 2023, Smaïl Kanouté was inducted as “Chief Scout” by Big Chief Darryl Montana and Big Queen Dianne Honoré of the Yellow Pocahontas Hunters tribe, an emblematic Black Indians community in New Orleans. This 150-year-old African-American tradition recalls the way Native Americans welcomed freed slaves during the transatlantic slave trade.
This immersion enabled the artist to create a dialogue between the traditions of the Black Indians and contemporary Afro-diasporic cultures, particularly those of Paris, Bamako, and Dakar.
360° performance
Conceived as a ritualized, immersive jam session, the Black Indians performance unfolds in an ambulatory format, with the audience forming a circle around the performers. Smaïl Kanouté is accompanied by members of the Yellow Pocahontas community (Big Chief Darryl Montana and Big Queen Dianne Honoré) and renowned musicians including Sonny Troupé, Dramane Dembélé, Senny Camara, and Jorge Bezerra.
This creation was presented at MC93 (Scène Nationale, Bobigny) on June 17, 2025, in coproduction with MansA, and subsequently in Brussels, Meudon, Clichy-sous-Bois, and at the New Orleans Carnival.
A Mirrored Film
In parallel with the performance, a one-hour short documentary film was produced, retracing the creative process, the encounters between artists and communities, and the history of the Black Indians. This film extends the project’s reach by preserving the traces of this embodied memory in imagery.
Cover and banner photo credit: Smaïl Kanouté, Black Indians. Photo @stellaryas from @tothegostudio for MansA. All rights reserved.
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