Is the debate over Mardi Gras Indian costumes a symptom of a larger problem?

I'm not sure exactly what I think about the notion that Mardi Gras Indians are upset with people who take photos of their costumes. Karen Beninato at NewOrleans.com and even the New York Times are talking about the Indians today. My first reaction was that, if you're going to parade in public and actually stop to pose for photographs on the street, you don't have much of a claim here. But then there's this thought from Big Chief Howard Miller (in the NYT article):

“Indian culture was never, ever meant to make any money,” said Howard Miller, Big Chief of the Creole Wild West, the city’s oldest tribe, and president of the Mardi Gras Indian Council. But neither should the culture be exploited by others.

“We have a beef,” he said, “with anybody who takes us for granted.”

As Jeffrey pointed out in a conversation we had on Da Twittah, there are many aspects of New Orleans culture that are being Disney-fied. Super Sunday is one of those. Time was, if you wanted to see Mardi Gras Indians, you had to go into the projects and look for the tribes. Now that the tribes are more open, more out in the public eye, they're also more vulnerable to that Disney treatment. We have to guard our culture lest it become less a reality and more a section of EPCOT.

That's easier said than done, however, in a city where tourism has long been the number-one industry. The film industry is expanding, returning to it's huge pre-storm growth curve. Those "Hollywood liberals," as Vitty-cent likes to call them, bring with them a LOT of decent-paying jobs for electricians, carpenters, other skilled trades, as well as contracts for caterers and other services. We will have a serious struggle to maintain a balance between preserving the "real" New Orleans and using that "real" culture as a movie set.

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