After a morning of hard work chopping wood for our woodstove, Grandpa walked inside the house, tired but still full of life. Always playful, with a twinkle in his eyes, he looked at me and said, “Which hand?” It was a guessing game with a reward if I chose correctly. I said “This hand,” pointing to his right hand. Grandpa asked me “Are you sure?” I nodded my head and he laughed as he opened an empty hand. I pointed to his left hand and he showed me that hand was also empty but he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out some earthworms. We gathered up the fishing poles and headed towards the pond. After Grandpa helped bait the hook with worms, he explained “Remember that sometimes the treasure that we expect and seek is not as it appears and the value is not known or understood until we need it.” As we sat and waited for the fish to bite, Grandpa teased me about the worms but became more serious when he talked about Lakota history and our legends.
The elders and spiritual people who know these things, speak reverently about the eagle, a proud bird who lives in two worlds. But few Lakota youth today are aware that one of the reasons we hold the eagle in such high regard is because the eagle is an ancestor of ours as well as a messenger of the Thunder Beings. My grandfather spoke of a time long ago when the Thunder Beings sent a great flood which cleansed the land but wreaked destruction upon our people. Our people were not living the way they were supposed to live. The eagle who travels between heaven and earth, looked down from the sky during the flood and observed a young Lakota girl clinging to the branches of a tree.
The eagle, respecting the courage and tenacity of this young girl, came down and swept her to safety to live in a high place in the Black Hills. There the eagle hunted for and took care of the young girl. When she grew to adulthood, the eagle’s care, respect and devotion were recognized by the Thunder Beings and his clawed feet became legs and his wings became arms. Amazingly, the eagle who had given up his sky kingdom for love and the Lakota woman eventually had seven children from whom it is said we have descended. The blood of our people whose lives were lost in the flood became our sacred pipestone which is found at only one place on this earth. From this point on, the eagle’s brothers never forgot the connection between them and man. To this day, if a man is lost and he prays with faith, he may look up to the sky to find an eagle to show him where there is food and water.
My grandmother told me a story about how the eagle was so proud of his power and strength that he put himself above the rest of creation. The eagle enjoyed soaring in the heavens but soon found himself all alone and lonely. He descended closer to earth and called himself the “Chief of all birds.” The eagle challenged other members of the bird nation to a contest of power and skill. Birds representing the bird nations such as the hawk, goose, buzzard, falcon, owl and even the tiny sparrow, accepted this challenge. Upon seeing the sparrow, the arrogant eagle sneered at the tiny bird and mocked him. The magpie started the race with her call after all had lined up. The sparrow had disappeared as the other birds climbed higher and higher in elevation. The eagle, wanting to put the other birds to shame, pushed himself until he was higher than all the rest of the birds. As the eagle neared the apex, he declared himself the winner but was surprised to see the sparrow who had caught a ride on the eagle’s back, thrust himself above the eagle to win the race. That day, the bird nations had a laugh at the eagle’s pride for they learned that it was not strength which makes a “Chief” but the way that one uses his intelligence and creativity. From this, the Lakota were taught never to be blinded by a person’s arrogance or one’s seeming lack of abilities. Appearances can be deceiving.
In today’s secular world, monuments, medals, trophies, awards, ribbons and certificates are awarded for accomplishments. Yet this is not the Lakota traditional way to honor people. The eagle throughout our history has watched over us in the skies and gifted us with decorations of honor from his wings, tail feathers and plumes. One of the symbols for our highest honor is but a feather from our great Chief of the sky. A sacred feather fallen or captured from such a venerable source is forever memorialized in the hearts and minds of our people.
Long ago, in days past before acculturation and forced assimilation, our Akicitas (warriors) and leaders led by example and incorporated traditional virtues of courage, wisdom, honesty, fortitude, humility, generosity and loyalty into their daily lives. An eagle feather was much sought after and coveted for it represented a heroic deed, perhaps a life saved, or something extraordinary. Spiritual men could earn feathers for healing and helping people. Our leaders and warriors who were our living legends, proudly wore their honors or feathers into battle. Even warriors from different tribes recognized our heroes and tried to take the feathers from them during the battle, “counting coup.”
Leaders such as Chief Joseph, Tecumseh, Chief Rain-in-the-Face, Chief Sitting Bull, Chief Bull Bear, Touches the Clouds a warrior, Brave Buffalo a Heyoka, Chief Roman Nose, Chief Satanta and others were men who defended their people and also their culture and spiritual way of life. Feathers were a part of a traditional honor system. Many a young warrior was eager to do brave deeds to earn an eagle feather for this meant he could capture the attention of a woman he admired. Each feather earned had a story behind it as to the circumstances under which the feather was earned. Some Akicitas died earning their feathers which were given to their families. The family would proudly carry the feather to honor their warrior’s brave deeds and memory. Children in families each had to earn their own Lakota names which had meaning. They had to gain their own honors to someday be worthy enough to wear their father’s headdress, bonnet of eagle feathers.
Women were respected and were also a part of the warrior and spiritual societies, eligible for earning feathers too. When members of the Strong Heart Society died, according to Lakota custom, their wives or relatives kept their staffs and feathers to honor their courageous deeds and memory. They could also wear the same markings, banners and regalia as their warrior husbands or relatives.
Today due to centuries of acculturation and assimilation, cultural erosion has negatively affected the value of eagle feathers for they have become commonplace. The eagle is disappearing just as our Indian blood is disappearing. The eagle’s body parts, wing feathers, tail feathers and plumes have become nothing more than a commercial commodity. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the conviction of Samuel Wilgus, Jr. an arrogant white man who was criminally prosecuted by federal authorities for a 1998 illegal possession over one hundred (100) eagle feathers. How many eagles were murdered to get these feathers? The law is far too lenient, in my opinion and this criminal, who is also a fake Indian, should have received one year in prison for each eagle feather that he illegally possessed. In the old days, the Akicita would have put him to death.
The federal permit process itself encourages “inflation” and a devalues the meaning of eagle feathers because it ignores the spiritual protocols and Indian customs and traditions which placed a high value upon the eagle. A person who is totally ignorant about these matters or one who has minimal Indian blood can easily apply for a permit to possess eagle body parts and feathers and obtain them. Let’s face it, when you have Indian blood of 1/100, you are ninety-nine percent something “other” than Indian. Don’t make us laugh. In this pow-wow age, how long will it be before people openly buy and sell the adornments of our ancestor, the eagle? Is it an honor to parade one’s greatest warrior’s head on a stick at a pow-wow? Why is it acceptable to do this to our ancestor, the eagle? This seems to me to be more like a “dishonor guard” than an “honor guard.” Something alive and sacred would represent our heroes better.
Our people have lost a truly valuable spiritual/merit system which once helped to create our heroes and legends. Too many people who have not earned eagle feathers and are not worthy are wearing eagle feathers. In the old days, a person had to be brave enough to earn the feathers and brave enough to defend these feathers from being taken, even to the point of death. Is anyone willing to do this today? Eagle feathers have become status symbols and desirable objects of materialistic people. Non-Indians proudly show off their illegally obtained eagle feathers, saying they are “adopted” Indians, robbing us of our history and our distinguished symbols of honor.
A person can instantly become a “Chief” today and at our sacred Sundance, carry the largest eagle feather fan that money can buy. The poor Indian and those who follow our customs and traditions sit back unadorned but worthy and are forced to watch this shameful exploitation.
I remember my grandfather’s words, “I have become a stranger to this earth and the world has changed. But I have been unchanging. Will they put me too in a museum when there’s no longer any Indian blood left or will you, my granddaughter, defend my remains and remember what I have taught you about respect of our relationship to each other.” Was my grandfather speaking about himself or our ancestor the eagle?
Wambli Sina Win is an Associate Professor and Director of the Bacone College Criminal Justice Studies Dept. in Muskogee, OK.
Her grandfather was John Fire, Chief Lame Deer, Tahca Uste, a well known Lakota Holy Man from the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in SD.
One of her sons is a Heyoka (Thunder Dreamer).
She has served as a Tribal Judge for the Oglala Sioux Tribal Court, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, a Tribal Judge, a Tribal Attorney and as a Legal Instructor for the U.S. Indian Police Academy at Artesia, NM.
You may contact Wambli Sina Win at