What do the colors of feathers on Native American headdresses mean?

Answer 1

There is no simple answer to a question like that, since the feather headdress of the (for example) Kayapo or Bororo people of Brazil have no connection at all with the historic Sioux warbonnet, and neither has any connection with modern dance headdresses worn at powwows and Indian fairs.

Modern dance dress is simply made to impress, so bright silks and gaudy coloured ribbons are combined with chemical-dyed feathers to produce a deliberately startling appearance. None of this has any meaning at all. Today many tribes use the Sioux-style warbonnet, when it was never worn by their ancestors.

Historically, eagle feathers were generally left in their natural colour (off-white with very dark brown splotches and tips), sometimes with dyed or natural horsehair glued to the tips. A few Plains tribes might paint small parts of a feather, such as red stripes or spots to indicate wounds received, or black bars for war honours; in some cases entire feathers would be painted a solid colour - but this was rare and might have different meanings among different groups (or simply a specific meaning for the man wearing that feather).

So in historic terms, feathers did not usually have "colours" - but in some cases a small amount of paint had a specific tribal meaning; the gaudy and bright feathers on modern headdresses worn by native dancers have absolutely no meaning at all.

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