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Feather bonnet of Yellow Calf
Arapaho, about AD 1927
From the American West, North America
The bonnet is constructed from the immature tail feathers of a
golden eagle over a cloth skull cap. The tips are decorated with
hair symbolizing scalp locks. Such flared headdresses were
originally representative of war honours.
Feathers were valuable in the nineteenth century, a full series
of twelve being worth one pony. Eagles were captured in pit traps:
a man would conceal himself in a brush-covered pit, with bait in
the middle. The eagles were then be seized from below, with the
hands and arms suitably protected.
J.C.H. King, First peoples, first contacts: (London, The British Museum Press, 1999)