Seneca Headdress This is a Seneca Headdress. The Seneca lived in the northeastern
United States. They call themselves "The People of the Big Hill" because
they believe their ancestors emerged from a big hill. The headdress
is called "gustoweh," which means "real hat." This gustoweh is made
of leather with a silver band, wampum beads and feathers. Rich Hill
says that the feather standing up represents the leader standing over
chaos. The feathers lying down are the chaos. Chiefs do not wear the
gustoweh, but other men do. Stephanie Betancourte says that the feather
standing up is an eagle feather, and the other feathers are turkey
feathers. The Seneca are part of the Iroquois Confederacy, and each
Confederacy member arranges its headdress feathers differently. Some
members put one feather up, some put more than one feather up, or put
feathers to the side. You can tell the headdress is Seneca because
one feather is up. |