Wakalapi

Friends of mine rebuilt their son's bustle and added more feathers. Before, it was not flexible and the feathers were arranged in a semi-round, flat pattern. Now, they are in a semi-conical pattern, just not completely flat as before. Each feather is on a wooden dowel, tied with deerskin leather and glued. Each dowel is then tied to the center piece, a thick piece of rawhide with a 3/4-circle of holes punched through. This allows the bustle to have a natural "hinge" quality. When their boy dances, a flat spreader (beaded in his case) is tied to hold the feathers out against a limit that is set by a line of sinew that is tied to each dowel just below the base of each feather's quill. When the bustle is rigged for travel (just remove the spreader), all of the dowels collapse toward the center and the feathers come together to form a column. This saves space, and the bustle never really has to come apart (just remember to check over everything before each powwow, of course). The sinew tied to each dowel sets the position of each feather in the array, starting with the two pointers and wrapping down through the side and bottom feathers, and ending with the other pointer. Paint, quillwork, beadwork, or what-have-you can easily decorate the dowels, spreader, and even the sinew limiter line. Standard 3/8" dowels are fairly light, but strong.

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