Youth wearing eagle feathers!

[dancing_plumes]

What is a good age for parents to put eagle feathers on their children?
I see a lot of kids wearing eagle feathers at powwows. Kids coming right out of tiny tots, now wearing eagle.

[Joe's Dad]

Are you talking about bustles, roach feathers, drops, plumes, etc.?



<----That's Joe

[dancing_plumes]

eagle is eagle!

Whether it be a bustle,plumes,or roach feathers, each have equal meaning. don't they? I have seen it all on kids, from the age 5 and up. How can one earn the right to wear those feathers at that age?

[Joe's Dad]

Dancing plumes. You have a valid question. I can only give you my personal answer. The picture in my avy is my son. He danced at his first powwow at 13 mos old. At the age of 3 yrs, he was given a plume by an EBCI traditional dancer. At the age of 4 yrs, he was given a small eagle feather by a well known Aztec dancer from Mexico City. At the age of 9yrs, the eagle wing fan that you see him holding was given to him by a Sicangu Lakota from Rosebud. The redtail hawk visor was given to him by a singer with Stoney Creek. Please understand that I have never given him an eagle feather. The bustle and roach feathers are redtail. I made his outfits. The feathers and plumes given to him have been incorporated into his dancing. He will soon be 18 yrs old and still does not wear an eagle bustle or roach feathers. I cannot give an answer why he was given these feathers. I can only presume. But then again, he's my son. One other thing. When he was small, I told him that people gave him things because he danced pretty. One time he got mad because they didn't call his right number. (Not the number he was wearing). Another time, when I asked how much money they had given him, he answered "three dollars". His envelope had a 50, a 20 and a 5! Hope to hear more replies to this thread.

[oneidagirl22]

eagle feather age???

thats a pretty good question. as a youth, i personally dont wear or carry eagle feathers w/me. i hav been dancing as long as i can remember. ive been gifted w/feathers at past powwows from ppl saying i was a good dancer. however, if someone wanted to gift me w/feathers they would discuss it before w/both of my parents. this was & is a very high honor for me. to me the child/youth needs to feel ready themselves to wear the feathers. i used to wear a small eagle feather in my hair w/an attatched medicine wheel, however i didnt feel comfortable wearing it, so i stopped & havnt wore it since. when i feel ready, i will wear it or any other eagle feathers ive been given. if the child feels ready then talk to them about it, that it comes from their heart to carry that w/them. its hard to say, things are different for each person w/events to happen to them in their life. hope this point of view helps.

[chazziff]

personally it "scares" me to see babies wearing eagle feathers during tiny tots. everyone's probably seen them - lil girls with four hairs on their lil baby heads with their mom's or auntie's plumes held on with their big adult barrette or lil boys using their father's bustles or roaches with feathers attached. then the babies are jumpin around or worse having a temper tantrum and throwing themselves on the ground because they don't feel like dancin that very minute.

my girls are 8 and 10 - the younger one is not very responsible right now - she forgets she is wearing her plumes and gets in the van or something. so i only let her wear them during her contest - that is WHEN she contests. the older one is "an ol lady" already and she has been very reponsible with hers since the start. and both sets of plumes were given to them also. my husband and i have already aquired some tail fans for them but for now they use red tail hawk fans - but that doesn't stop them from ASKING to use the eagle fans..we don't let them - we just tell them they are too young yet..

[Kiwehnzii]

There's these three kids from Chicago who all have full eagle feather bustles. Double rowed bustles at that. Eagle feather visors. Really nice outfits, well put together. I haven't seen them dance in any other feather bustles. They've been dancing for........ oh I would say 8 years. Somewhere around there.

They couldn't be chiefs. I think they're all veterans of Desert storm or the Iraq conflict or something like that. They couldn't be veterans of any other earlier conflicts. Their ages are 17 and under.

[incognito]

contest feathers

Chazziff, you said " I only let her wear them in her contest"
It sounds that u used the feathers to help put your child in the winners line! Is this correct?

[flicker_fan2005]

Chicago boys

kiwehnzii
I know what dancers you are talking about, they dance quite a bit in my area. I seen those young ones wearing every part of the eagle, but the rump.
We both know these boys are not veterans, but I don't know if they have a family member who served their country. So we can only speculate that a family member handed down the right to wear their feathers.

[chazziff]

Chazziff, you said " I only let her wear them in her contest"
It sounds that u used the feathers to help put your child in the winners line! Is this correct?

it's not that - she's not one of those "serious" dancers - she just goes out when she feels like it - sometimes she doesn't even dance all weekend. besides she's only placed once and that was at a small school pow wow. i guess it's the same with my older daughter she only dances when she feels like it. i've NEVER forced them to dance when they didn't want to.

when she is dancing i dont let her use her feathers all day because she's not careful yet. she usually just wears them grand entry and during junior girls trad - she "runs" around too much during intertribals too to let her wear them then. guess i'm being too careful....

[woggs]

kiwehnzii
I know what dancers you are talking about, they dance quite a bit in my area. I seen those young ones wearing every part of the eagle, but the rump.
We both know these boys are not veterans, but I don't know if they have a family member who served their country. So we can only speculate that a family member handed down the right to wear their feathers.

I know where they got some of those feathers!! Not from family member..Ill tell ya how if ya want..but if ya dont i wont..but IM me I don't want to talk about their personal lives in here...so it wasn't for any of the raesons you guys said...did you notice that elk outfit one of them used to wear?? well that was my dads

[woggs]

Oh yeah my kids dont wear REAL feathers either..my son wears turkey feather rockers and my lil gurl wears chicken feather fluffs!! I think feathers should be earned...

[WocusWoman]

My son is 3 years older than my daughter, yet she's the only one that wears a nice large eagle fluff. I think he's too irresponsible with his dance outfit; she takes much better care and pride with hers. Besides, an elder gifted her feather to her, because he said he liked the way she carries herself and the way she sings at the drum. Otherwise; to just put eagle feathers on kids, just to outdue the "Johnsons" OK in this case, "Yazzies" in the TEEPEE next door is just plain silly!

[flicker_fan2005]

Woggs?

[flicker_fan2005]

Yes Woggs, I would like to know!

Is there another way to earning your feathers in Illinois?