Mourning the death of Black Indian Queen Kim Boutte

17th August 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer

When a crowd heard Kim Boutte forcefully chant “Who they talk about? Fi Yi Yi!,” those on the streets on Mardi Gras Day or Super Sunday knew that Big Queen Kim was announcing the arrival of the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi and the Mandingo Warriors Black Indian gang. “I bring ‘em down,” declared the spirited Queen in a 2017 interview. “That’s us, we warriors, we Africans, we are Mandingo Warriors.”

Big Queen Kim Boutte, a New Orleans native, tragically died of a gunshot wound on Tuesday, August 11, 2020. She was 55 years old.

“As small a person as she was, Kim had a voice that you could hear even if the drummers were playing and everybody was chanting,” says Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi, who is Boutte’s uncle.

Coming up in New Orleans 7th Ward, Boutte had followed the Yellow Pocahontas tribe of which Harris was a flag boy under Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana. So in 1984, when Harris established his own gang, he asked his niece to be his queen. She remembered eagerly replying, “Why not?” She first started with the tribe as a Little Queen before earning the title of Big Queen.

Being on the street was also natural for Boutte because as a child she second-lined with the youth-oriented Tambourine & Fan Social Aid & Pleasure Club that was and remains under the leadership of her cousin, Jerome Smith. Smith, a noted community and political activist, was also a supporter and follower of the Yellow Pocahontas.

“I was born and raised by Tambourine & Fan,” offered Boutte, who continued to help out with some of the organization’s activities. “Jerome would say, ‘If you don’t dance, go on home,’” she laughingly recalled adding that her Uncle Victor was also involved with the club.”

“She loved the culture,” says Big Chief Victor. “It looked like she was born to be a ‘cultural-ist’ be it Mardi Gras Indians or second line clubs – uptown, downtown, she was there.”

Harris points out that Boutte was widely known throughout her life. “She was a track star at Francis T. Nicholls, she played basketball and every Sunday she continued to play softball at Pontchartrain Park.” Boutte, a petite, nimble woman with a spunky nature and lively moves, credited her athleticism, in part, for giving her the confidence and agility in her position as Big Queen.

It was under Chief Harris’ supervision that Boutte learned to sew and soon created her own designs. She not only worked on her Indian suits but those of the young girls, “Little Queens,” in the tribe who were related to her and Chief Victor. “The whole gang is nothin’ but family and the people who follow me is nothin’ but family,” Big Queen Kim explained.

“She was a person that shared – a motivator and an inspiration,” says Harris movingly. “She was a little bitty person but she had a great big heart. She never ran out of gas – she just kept going and going – and she loved to make people clown. She was very protective and did not bow down because she was a warrior – rugged, tough and a sweet person.” There was only one Kim. She was my Queen but most of all she was my niece, my sister’s daughter.

“I like being the Queen and I like being out there on the streets because I like to have fun,”declared Big Queen Kim. “Oh, I sing, I sing, ‘Let’s go get ‘em’!”

On the evening of Wednesday, August 12, a gathering of Mardi Gras Indians, social aid and pleasure club members and their followers, family and friends came together to honor Big Queen Kim at Hunter’s Field. The memorial that was full of drumming and tambourines ringing was followed by a second line. “It was beautiful – people marched in Kim’s spirit,” observed an obviously touched Big Chief Victor Harris, the Spirit of Fi Yi Yi.

Funeral arrangements for Kim Boutte had yet to be announced as of presstime.

This article originally published in the August 17, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.