The “Feather Headdress, of the Three, Americas, Tribal Peoples.

The “Feather Headdress.”; in popular culture, thoughts of this Tribal, North, Central and South American form of headgear inspires an array of magnificent images.

During the late 19th century, historical accounts and oral traditions recount Native men on the Great Plains galloping into battle, wearing the flaring eagle feather style often called a “War Bonnet,” adorned with elaborate Italian Glass Beadwork, streams of red wool, and a number of eagle feathers.

In truth, this headdress style was prominently displayed By Chief Sitting Bull and Others in Buffalo Bill’s “Wild West Show.”

By the early 1900s, as the most recognisable symbol of Indian-ness, it became popular as stereotypical (and often wildly inappropriate) costuming for non-native actors, children, sports fans, boy scouts, European hobbyists, musicians, and fashion models. Hollywood bears some of the blame.

 On a flickering movie screen, when black and white renditions of these same headdresses appeared (often as poor imitations atop the heads of non-Native actors riding into the sunset), they captured young imaginations, as did the pop culture version of the Indian Wars.

 During the same era, the elite white men who joined the “Improved Order of Red Men” fraternal order began wearing entire costumes to mimic “American” Indians. The DeMoulin Brothers & Company catalogue sold ready-made suits of rough cotton fringed cloth, bedecked with glass beads and silk ribbons, crowned with a feather headdress. Similar costumes and headdresses were worn by some participants in the Philadelphia Mummers’ Parade, and in the New Orleans “Mardi Gras Indian” brigades. Sports teams further muddied the waters by adopting images of American Indians as mascots, embodying this borrowed power in images of disembodied heads wearing feathers.

It is true, across the United States and Canada; Native tribal leaders had long worn a wide variety of different and distinctive styles of feather headdress.

In the northeast, for example, traditional headdresses displayed the upright feathers of turkey, the curling feathers of partridge and hawk, and other combinations.

During the early 20th century, many of these people adopted the “Western Plains” style eagle feather headdress. Sometimes, Native people mixed tribal styles; clothing that appeared to be distinctive to one tribal nation was worn by a member of a different tribe. In historical photographs, some items that were obviously commercially made (such as catalogue or theatrical costumes) were worn by Native people in a ceremonial context. Confusing matters further, Native American Indian performers and tribal leaders alike commingled clothing styles from traditional regalia, stage costumes, DeMoulin catalogue purchases, and idiosyncratic adornments in Wild West Shows, Medicine Shows, Indian encampments, historical re-enactments, and other events.

Contemporary Native American and First Nations people continue to use feather headdresses in a wide range of traditional and adapted styles.