Feather bonnet of Yellow Calf

The bonnet is constructed from the immature tail feathers of a golden eagle over a cloth skull cap. The tips are decorated with hair symbolizing scalp locks. Such flared headdresses were originally representative of war honours. Feathers were valuable in the nineteenth century, a full series of twelve being worth one pony. Eagles were captured in pit traps: a man would conceal himself in a brush-covered pit, with bait in the middle. The eagles were then be seized from below, with the hands and arms suitably protected.