[CPProt.net] War bonnet stolen

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War bonnet stolen 


Jeff Lehr 
Globe Staff Writer
5/28/05 
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MIAMI, Okla. - It is a traditional American Indian belief that eagle
feathers must be earned by honorable acts.

But someone stole an antique plains Indian war bonnet containing 40 golden
eagle feathers by smashing some glass and removing it from the display
window in the early-morning hours of May 17 at the Frame Shop & Gallery in
downtown Miami, Okla.

The 6-foot-long headdress belonging to artist Charles Banks Wilson was on
loan to the store's owner, Jim Cobb, because Cobb offers some of Wilson's
artwork for sale at his store. Wilson, 86, who lived in Miami much of his
life but currently lives in Fayetteville, Ark., had the bonnet for 67 years
after it was given to him by a Pottawatomie woman in 1938 when he was 19.

"She gave it to me because she appreciated my drawings of the remaining
pure-blood Indians around Ottawa County," Wilson said in a telephone
interview this week.

He believes it is more than 100 years old, although its origins are
uncertain. Wilson said it is clearly a southern plains Indian headdress,
most likely Sioux or Cheyenne. It features a beaded headband with fox fur
and buffalo horns and the 40 eagle feathers.

Wilson used the war bonnet for two of his more famous portraits entitled
"The Young Chief" and "Man of Honor." Quapaw Chief Victor Griffin was
photographed in the war bonnet in 1950. Movie stars and famous politicians
stopped by Wilson's studio in Miami in the past to see the bonnet.

Wilson recalled fondly how Dave Rubinoff, director of the orchestra for
Eddie Cantor's radio show and a friend of Will Rogers, once dropped in and
wore the headdress while viewing Wilson's art work in his studio and playing
a Stradivarius violin.

He regards the theft of the war bonnet as something akin to desecration.

"I feel it's like stealing a religious icon," Wilson told the Globe. "The
bonnet - the way it is made and everything - is an object of respect, like
something from a church."

Eagle feathers were held as objects of worship by the Indians of the plains,
he said. Many braves wore a single eagle feather. It was worn at a downward
angle if they remained untested and then straight up once tested. A brave
who'd scalped an enemy wore two feathers and one who'd captured an enemy
wore five, he said.

A war bonnet was made and worn only with the consent of fellow warriors
granting the distinction to unusual displays of valor, Wilson said.

"The eagle's speed, strength, majesty and solitary nature and the hazards
involved in capturing an eagle made (the feathers) worthy of the honor," he
said.

His daughter, Carrie Wilson, 50, said Miami police have not been able to
come up with good leads on the theft of the bonnet. She said her father and
her are hoping whoever stole it will realize the travesty of what they've
done and will return it.

She said the bonnet can be left at the Miami Public Library. No questions
will be asked and no charges pursued, she said.

Carrie Wilson, a cultural resource consultant for the Quapaw and Osage
tribes, and a coordinator of Native American affairs for the Louisiana
National Guard, said it is illegal for anyone to sell the headdress since it
contains eagle feathers.

"Even a museum has to have a permit to have a bonnet with eagle feathers in
its permanent collection," she said.

Her father planned to donate the headdress to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa,
Okla., where about 200 of his drawings of pure-blood Indians are displayed.
Wilson also has a number of historical murals in the rotunda of the Oklahoma
Capitol along with a number of portraits of famous Oklahomans.