Horizontal and Vertical Rotation

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.
         --Kara, Santa Clara Day School