The significance of Eagle Feathers

“When eagle feathers are found on land, they are a gift to the land. I myself was taught to only pick up feathers found on water,” said Grand Chief Stan Harper when I met him this month. I asked him about his magnificent eagle feather headdress, pictured here. Eagle feathers are considered very sacred by the Canadian Indigenous community . They are protected by law, and are should be gifted in honour, never taken, asked for, or bought.

The Grand Chief’s headdress is a symbol of respect for his or her role. I wondered “what is the significance of the headdress and who is allowed to wear one?” In fact, the Winnipeg Jets hockey team took action in 2016 to bar fans from wearing headdresses after a Chicago Blackhawks fan who was not an Indigenous person, showed up wearing one. The headdresses should be worn only those who are gifted them, and receive them in ceremony and with appropriate protocol.

The headdresses are worn with due regard to the responsibility they confer and the history they portray, indicating direct ties to who you are, where you come from, and your community role and context in the Indigenous nationhood.

Grand Chief Stan Harper is pictured wearing a blue business suit and a large Ceremonial Headdress made of Eagle Feathers with significant beading and animal hide fringes. He is pictured standing in front of a wood desk, featuring Indigenous wood carving, upon which is also the Canada House guest book which he has just signed.

The Manitoba court system is one of the first jurisdictions to allow Indigenous people to swear their oaths to the court on an eagle feather rather than on a bible. In September 2019 a ceremony took place in Winnipeg to bless the 40 feathers gifted to the Manitoba courts.

Harper, the Grand Chief of the Anishininew Okimawin, represents four Island Lake Anishininew communities in Northern Manitoba. He was elected to this position in August 2021. Historically, the four communities of Garden, St. Theresa Point, Red Sucker Lake and Wasagamack Manitoba were known as the Island Lake Band. Harper was in London to mark the Coronation as part of a delegation of Indigenous chiefs from Manitoba.