Historian

A Feather in a Cap Not Always Welcome
by Donal Brown
New America Media - 22 May 2006
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_...f6f94f90dec614

MESA, AZ - Native American high school graduates across the country seeking to honor their tradition by wearing feathers on their caps and gowns are meeting opposition from school authorities according to reports in the Native Youth Magazine and the Native Times.

The Native Youth Magazine wrote that Ipa Dutchover of the Salt River Pima Maricopa tribe felt her identity was denied by school officials. Dutchover said, "This [graduation] is a big accomplishment in the Indian and non-Indian world. We've been able to balance both worlds by leaving the reservation and coming to a public school. We're holding on to what we have but they didn't want to hear what we have to say."

Dutchover and other students of Westwood High School in Mesa, Arizona point to the administration's promoting diversity and allowing a warrior mascot to wear fake eagle feathers but still denying the graduates the right to wear feathers at the graduation ceremony.

Westwood teachers and administrators say that in the past graduating seniors have put disrespectful sayings or distasteful items on their gowns and caps so it was necessary to enact a policy that promotes class unity.

San Lewin in the Native Times writes that school officials have disallowed eagle feathers in Portland, Oregon last year and in Wellston, Oklahoma in 2003. Administrators in Lafayette, New York are considering a request this year by Native American students to incorporate traditional garb into their graduation ceremony.

Lewin quoted Ryan Wilson, of the Oglala Lakota tribe and head of the National Indian Education Association who defended the students' rights, urging them to defy their school administration.

"When Native students wear these feathers and plumes, they are actually honoring and blessing the cap/mortar board and gown, the graduation ceremony itself, their classmates, and the schools...they are graduating from," he said.

"This is completely opposite of what mainstream students do when they are mocking the event by writing on the mortar board, wearing inappropriate clothes and shoes. The symbolism itself of honoring both cultures, and elevating the status of academic attire by...attaching plumes and feathers to the cap and gown completes the commitment of Native people to advance cultural integrity in education."

Molly Sanchez of Westwood said she is planning to bring an eagle feather to graduation on May 25. "My English teacher will be a line leader, and she told me from the beginning to wear it. She said she wouldn't do anything if she saw me wearing an eagle feather on my cap," said Sanchez.

Ricardo Leonard, a member of the Salt River Pima Maricopa Tribal Council said he thinks the administration will be depriving students of their religious rights if they ban eagle feathers at graduation. He plans to attend the graduation to stand behind students who wish to wear the feathers.

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other. Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

Historian

Feathers in cap OK for Mesa’s graduates
By Blake Herzog
Mesa Tribune - 25 May 2006
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=66321

MESA, AZ -- American Indian students graduating tonight from Westwood High School in Mesa will be permitted to wear an eagle feather on their caps, after district officials reversed an earlier decision.

Ipa Dutchover, one of the students who asked to display the feathers, heard about the turnaround Wednesday afternoon.

“Yeah, we’re not trying to be too in-your-face about it. We haven’t told that many people about it yet,” he said. “We’re just going to put them on and, hopefully, when they see it there, they’ll say, ‘Yeah!’ “

Leaders of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community met Wednesday with Mesa Unified School District officials after Dutchover and others were told they couldn’t wear the feathers, a traditional gift given in honor of such achievements as graduations.

District spokeswoman Kathy Bareiss said district officials agreed to bend a rule barring graduates from adding personal items to their caps or gowns after talking with tribal President Joni Ramos.

“We felt it was appropriate for the students to wear the feathers for graduation ceremonies because they had a direct link to graduation,” Bareiss said.

In a statement for the tribe, Ramos thanked the district for understanding the significance of the eagle feathers to be worn by 18 students graduating from Westwood.

The Salt River community has been sending students to the Mesa district since the 1940s.

Bareiss said principals from the district’s other six high schools would be told of the district’s decision, but “the only requests we are aware of are from Westwood. “

Almost half the district’s 452 Indian high school students attend Westwood, she said.

Spokesmen for Scottsdale and Chandler unified school districts said they couldn’t recall any similar situations, but it has surfaced elsewhere.

Citing similar incidents in Oregon and Oklahoma, National Indian Education Association president Ryan Wilson issued a statement Monday that said Indian students should wear eagle feathers or plumes, even if it defies rules meant to stop students from wearing inappropriate garb or writing messages on their caps.

“Native American students who wish to honor the graduation event and their academic experience are punished by schools because of the acts of their non-Indian counterparts,” he said.

__________________

"Be good, be kind, help each other. Respect the ground, respect the drum, respect each other."
--Abe Conklin, Ponca/Osage (1926-1995)

Singing Eagle

Get around their rules by just carrying the feather in your hand - they can't regulate what you hold can they!