ritual object; medicine

Grey eagle feather decorated with red textile tied around the quill. Part of a medicine bundle.

The following comments result from a research visit made by Alison Brown, Anita Herle, Alan Pard and Charlene Wolfe, to examine some of the Horniman’s Blackfoot material (5 March 2015) : Eagle Feather with some red trade cloth wrapped at the bottom of the quill. In the past, feathers used to be wrapped with piece of the heart of the buffalo round the cloth. This may have come from a medicine shield or headdress. It has no hair tie associated with it. AP notes that the younger the eagles are, the more white you see on them (as opposed to black).

object
MUSEUM NUMBER
25.55.2
PLACE
COLLECTION
MEASUREMENTS
overall: 14.3307 x 5.7874 x .8268 in.; 364 x 147 x 21 mm
MATERIAL/TECHNIQUE
feather; textile
CATEGORY
Anthropology: Ethnography
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