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Feather Headdress

ca. 1865
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Colonel Richard Irving Dodge recorded in his 1882 memoir that the great Lakota chief Red Cloud owned this headdress. As a composite, the headdress represents bravery, political rank, and leadership, and each eagle tail feather recalls a distinct honor earned in war. Headdresses with long trailers are among the most spectacular objects of Plains ceremonial regalia. They transformed warriors on horseback into birds in flight.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Feather Headdress
  • Date: ca. 1865
  • Geography: United States, North or South Dakota
  • Culture: Oglala Lakota (Teton Sioux)
  • Medium: Eagle feathers, native tanned leather, rawhide, wool cloth and yarn, cotton cloth, glass beads, ermine, silk ribbon and horsehair
  • Dimensions: Length: 72 in. (182.9 cm)
  • Classification: Feathers-Costumes
  • Credit Line: Musée du quai Branly, Paris, Gift of the Smithsonian Institution (71.1885.78.498)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing