APTN National News
According to officials at the Winnipeg folk festival, its mandate is to create experiences through the celebration of music and people.
But this year, one festival go-er may have taken the celebration too far.
APTN’s Jaydon Flett explains.
What I don’t understand is that most Aboriginal bands (referred to as tribes in the following internet article quotes from the U.S.) did not wear that type of head dress
until much later in history and even then, they only did it FOR FASHION or
because that’s what they thought tourists expected them to wear (to
get money from the tourist for pictures etc.). Also, according to that line of
thinking of banning those from not wearing them if they are not entitled, then
female chiefs should never wear a warbonnet.
From the internet: “When most people think of headdress, the first image that comes
to mind is a full eagle-feather warbonnet like the Lakota Sioux headdress. But
in fact, most tribes never used feather headdresses like these. Feathered
warbonnets may be the best-known headdresses, but they were not the most
commonly used– and they were certainly not the only ones.
Warbonnets (or war bonnets) are the impressive feather headdresses commonly
seen in Western movies and TV shows. Although warbonnets are the best-known
type of headdress today, they were actually only worn by a dozen or so tribes
in the Great Plains region, such as the Sioux, Crow, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and
Plains Cree. All type of war bonnets were made from the tail feathers of the
eagle. Besides the feathers, warbonnets were often decorated with ermine skins
and fancy beadwork.
Warbonnets were ceremonial regalia worn only by chiefs and warriors. Only men
wore warbonnets. (Women sometimes went to war in some Plains tribes, and
there were even some female chiefs, but they never wore these masculine
headdresses.)
In the 1800’s, men from other tribes sometimes began to wear Plains-style
warbonnets. Partially this was because of the American tourist industry, which
expected Native Americans to look a certain way. In most cases, the feather
warbonnet did not have the same significance among the new tribes that adopted
it. For them, wearing a feathered headdress was a matter of fashion or a
general symbol of authority.”