War bonnets -- eagle-feather headdresses -- are an emblem of aboriginal life, part of a bison-hunting culture that passed into oblivion more than l20 years ago. Still seen at powwows and other special events, they are almost exclusively made by, and worn by, men -- primarily of the tribes of the prairies and plains.
But now war bonnets are an endangered element of North American aboriginal culture. Too soon, we may see them only in movies and museums.
Their future as tangible ceremonial regalia is of grave concern to native spiritual leaders. "They are all handmade, and making them is a dying art," says Siksika (Blackfeet) elder Tom Crane Bear of Gleichen, Alta. "Just about all the old-timers who knew how to make them have passed away. All that traditional knowledge is disappearing with them. There are hardly any headdress-makers left alive."
The Sioux (Dakota, Nakota and particularly Lakota) are thought to have originated the war bonnets that were later adopted by other Western peoples including Crows, Cheyennes, Blackfeet and Kiowas. The headdresses have almost disappeared from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Alberta is their last stronghold in Canada, among the Blackfeet Confederacy (Blood, Sarcee, Peigan, Siksika).
"We see fewer and fewer each year," Mr. Crane Bear told me. "I had two uncles who used to make them. Both are now gone. So are almost all the others." For those of this dying breed who remain, demand is brisk -- so much so that at age 73, Mr. Crane Bear has started to make bonnets himself.
He says that women usually do the beading on the brow band and rosettes. He does the rest. It takes him six or seven days, if he has all the material.
Each bonnet requires about 30 eagle feathers. Each feather must be earned, as the late Royal Bull Bear, former leader of the Oglala Lakota Gray Eagle Society of Elders at Pine Ridge, S.D., once explained. That's because each feather represents a specific honorable deed, and each must go through a special ceremony before it becomes part of a bonnet. Most are marbled eagle feathers; black-feather bonnets are a bit rarer. White-feather bonnets are the rarest, and the most highly esteemed.
Eagle feathers have always been sacred to native peoples of North America. Once they were comparatively abundant and easy to acquire. These days they're harder to come by; most feathers currently used in bonnet-making are from eagles that have died accidental deaths. Their carcasses end up in the custody of state and provincial wildlife officials who hand them over to special native committees to decide how to allot them.
"Being given a feather is a great honour," says Darlene Spiedel of the Saskatchewan Indian Culture Centre in Saskatoon. "It is sometimes hard to decide who should get one." The feathers are so highly regarded that if one is inadvertently dishonoured, especially if it happens to fall to the ground, an elaborate ceremony is necessary to set things right with the Spirit World.
The angle at which the feathers are set in the bonnets is also significant. According to Joe Swift Bird, an Oglala Lakota Sioux elder, war bonnets are a symbol of the sun and its spreading rays. The Blackfeet have used angled Sioux-type bonnets for a long time, but their ancient bonnets were of a more "straight up" design. "Straight-ups are virtually never seen in public," says Mr. Crane Bear. "Only the most respected ceremonial leaders have them. They were the original Blackfeet headdresses, with all the feathers erect."
A few historic war bonnets had double-trailers that often hung down each side to the ground. These could only be worn by great men. As well, white horsehair tips on bonnet eagle feathers indicated special honour. Rabbit or ermine skins have a similar meaning.
It's worth noting that "honour" isn't the same thing as social status. Native bands did not have chiefs in historic times, so the notion that only chiefs could wear bonnets is false. Traditionally, anyone could make a war bonnet; to wear one, however, required spiritual approval and ceremonial initiation. According to the late Sioux leader Bull Bear, you might be awarded an eagle-father headdress for doing something important for the benefit of the community, or be given one in recognition of an important feat of courage.
In the 1870s the Sioux nation was under attack, and its lands appropriated by settlers. In 1876, after killing General George Custer and 265 U.S. troopers at the Battle of Little Big Horn, the great Sioux leader Sitting Bull requested that the Canadian government give him and his people sanctuary.
Ottawa agreed, and Sitting Bull presented his war bonnet as a gift to Canada in exchange for admission. It is now in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. "It was his to give away, and in view of the enormity of what he was asking for, it was appropriate," comments Oglala Lakota elder Elaine Quiver. "You cannot ask for something and not give something in exchange."
But today many elements of native culture in North America face an uncertain future. Like war bonnets, the making of authentic caribou-hide parkas is also a disappearing art. One of the last who makes them is Elize Paspotak of Barrow, Alaska, who explains: "You have to chew the hides to make them soft. All that chewing hurts your mouth. Your teeth fall out prematurely. Nobody wants to make them any more."
Small wonder, then, that native elders worry about the future of their cultures. The demise of the war bonnet, a spectacular element of ancient first nations cultural values, illustrates the dramatic erosion of tradition that is taking place. Before long, the appearance of these familiar traditional headdresses at powwows and other ceremonies could be a thing of the past.
"As the old headdress-makers pass on," says Mr. Crane Bear, "Somebody has to take over from them. At present, there is not much interest, and most younger people do not have the spiritual knowledge to continue the tradition." Robert Alison, a former senior biologist for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, is an associate member of the Gray Eagle Society of Elders of the Oglala Lakota Nation at Pine Ridge, S.D.