02/17/2026
When Black Feather Big Chief Corey Rayford steps out on Mardi Gras, you see the suit. What you don’t see is the vision he’s fought to keep.
Living with keratoconus, Rayford has endured more than a dozen surgeries and sewn his suits bead by bead through failing eyesight. Now, he’s speaking up so others know help is here. Thanks to corneal cross-linking at University Medical Center, patients who once had no options can stop this disease before vision is lost.
This is about more than Mardi Gras. It’s about access, dignity, and making sure no one fades into the background.
Read his full story:
When Black Feather’s Big Chief Corey Rayford dons his Black Masking Indian Tribe suit during Mardi Gras each year, it’s impossible not to see him coming your way. On the other hand, thanks to an early childhood diagnosis of keratoconus, a condition that leads to severe vision distortion, Rayford...