MEANING OF FEATHERS

 Have you found a feather in an unexpected place?

I look at each one that has dropped from the sky with wonder at its pristine shape, design, and lightness. I think about its purpose inflight. I put my collected feathers around a bird's nest that had fallen out of a tree.

I admire the beauty of these feathers, but Native Americans treated feathers as gifts from gods. Each tribe had different ways of displaying feathers. The Sioux used eagle feathers as recognition of important moments in a person's life. They handled each one with care and wore them so others could see. Today, First Nations work to keep the significance of the feathers intact and push mainstream culture not to use eagle feathers in Halloween costumes or at sporting events.

I thought of the beliefs of Native Americans as I painted a portrait of Sitting Bull (based on a photograph by Edward Curtis), and hoped I wasn't showing disrespect to a strong leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux. Like many schoolchildren, I had read about the various tribes who lived on the American landscape before Europeans arrived. The stories either glorified these people or made them out as savages. I scoured the library for other books. I learned about their lives, their identity with the land and animals around them, their forms of governance, their spirituality, and the various ways they confronted the new emigrants from Europe.

I read about our nation's attempts to eliminate whole tribes, to force many on to reservations, and about all the treaties that were signed in good faith by the various tribes only to be broken by the U.S. government. I was appalled then, and I still am now. I think our country owes the First Nations recompense for the treatment that continues in some form today.

Reading about Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Sioux and Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota Sioux, I once again understood how strong their opposition was to the taking of their land. In Sitting Bull's words, "What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one."

He also said, "Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children."

Wise words to remember as we pick up a feather from an unexpected place, and as we gather around the Thanksgiving table.

by Martha Slavin

Today's post is in recognition of Native American's occupation of Alcatraz in 1969.
https://www.nativevillage.org/Inspiration-/Occupation%20of%20Alcatraz%20and%20the%20Alcatraz%20Proclamation%20alcatraz_proclamation.htm

Read more about the meaning of feathers in different Native American cultures:
http://blog.nativepartnership.org/the-significance-of-feathers-in-native-cultures/
http://indians.org/articles/indian-headdress.html

Edward Curtis and his photographs can be found here:
https://edwardcurtis.com
https://www.pinterest.com/zookpat/american-native-photos-by-edward-s-curtis/

Read a biography of Red Cloud:
The Heart of Everything That Is by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin

Learn more about what organizations are doing for First Nations.
https://www.firstnations.org
https://tribalcollegejournal.org/one-feather-lakota-life/