9 Easy Steps for How to Wear a Native American War Bonnet

Something, that has bugged me since I started getting invites to "Cowboy and Indian" parties in College, has been the reguragationg of racist imgary of Native Americans from the 20th century that has masked as  racial appropriation. 
After the daughter of Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, Christina made headlines  with her inflammatory portrait in War Bonnet  I decided to take action.

So I wrote this.

9 Easy Steps for How to Wear a Native American War Bonnet

Step 1: Don't!  Just don't. Don't get me wrong I get your motivations. Your hip your cool, Nostalgia really works for you, so this just seems natural. You see old pictures from the 1950's of your grandpa with a neoprene plastic head dress and you think “That’s cool" , I get you, it's okay to like terribly offensive things I like Al Jolson. But what's not okay, is taking selfies wearing terribly offensive things, or going to parties wearing terribly offensive things.

Step 2: Go read a book or something. Start with books on Native American Culture and traditions, books by Native American authors, any book about Native American Experience, is great. Then go read a history book, especially ones about US expansion and United States Policy towards Native Americans in the 19th and 20th Century. I'll give you a second? YEAH? Terrible Huh?

Oh hey, normally people aren't still here after that last one...uhhh.. Step 3.... Grow up? If you still feel the need to wear a War Bonnet. Quickly realize that being an adult requires tolerance, responsibility and compromise. Sometimes you can't go to Bonnaroo because you have to save money for a new car and sometimes you can't dress like a pin up girl from a 1953 Pulp novel because it’s racist as hell.

Step 4: Did I mention it was racist as hell. I mean it's paramount to Black Face. IT IS LITERALLY. PARAMOUNT. TO BLACK FACE! If you aren't willing to go full Jemima, then why do you think it’s okay to wear a ceremonial headdress of a reserved and proud people? Also don't think I'm telling you to go dress in black face either, you have really nice skin and that would be terrible on your pores...also its racist...as hell.

Step 5: You’re still here? But…genocide?…black face?….OH OKAY, I got you. So you think because you are part "Cherokee" that this somehow entitles you to wearing a war bonnet, That's, great but Cherokee's were not Plains Indians and their clothing was a style of all its own. Cherokee males often wore turbans, yeah turbans like the other kind of Indians. And on a side note, can we stop saying "Dot" or "Feather" to differentiate between the two, "naan" and "fry bread" is way more accurate and wayyyy less offensive… and don’t wear bindi’s either…this isn’t 1996 and you aren’t Gwen Stefani.  ANYWAY... There is no standard Native American Identity. Assuming all Native Americans' wear war bonnets would be like assuming all white people wear kilts. More importantly, War Bonnets were not worn by just anyone; they were reserved for Warriors who had shown feats of courage and bravery. And that leads us to our next step

Step 6: SELF EXAMINATION: Are you a member of a Plains Native American Tribe that has shown great feats of courage and bravery? NO? Are you portraying member of a Plains Native American Tribe that has shown great feats of courage and bravery in a piece of film or television that is respectful of Native Cultures? Okay here's a stretch, are you somehow a child playing Cowboys and Indians in 1952 and innocently caught up in the ignorance of the times? Nope? Then you can't wear a War Bonnet.

Step 7: “But Daniel, these aren't really steps”!  Yeah I know. “But Daniel, I think they are beautiful”. That's cool! I'm glad you think they are beautiful, but just because you think something’s beautiful doesn't mean you get to wear it to your friend Keith's Halloween Keg party. There are plenty of museums that have authentic War bonnets on display. Admire them like most people admire art FROM A DISTANCE

Step 8: “But Johnny Deep”....don’t get me started on Johnny...Deep.

Step 9: Don’t feel bad. Hey, you didn't know! Also, if you want to celebrate Native Culture, there are a lot of appropriate ways to appropriate (pun intended). Start getting involved in local Native Cultural events and buy items from Native vendors. And if you are afraid to offend, a good rule of thumb is, if it wasn't appropriate, they wouldn't sell it to you.

Notes on the author:

The Racist depictions of Native Americans didn't just stop in the 1950s. I was 3 when I first found out I was Native American and that my father was Comanche. My immediate reaction was crying. I cried because up to this point I thought of Native Americans as “bad guys. I thought my father was a “bad guy”. My understanding of “Indians” was from Westerns and cartoons that aired on daytime television from Hollywood’s golden age. Movies where Native Americans were depicted as the bad guys and often time wore historically inappropriate clothing such as buck skin and yes, War Bonnets. Those images quickly became symbols of White America's attempt at hiding the atrocities that had taken place in what was essentially the Great American Genocide. They hoped to create a fake and plastic version of history that was just as fake and plastic as the feathers on a made in China Halloween "Indian Headdress". Through this lens, they painted a different story, where White Settlers became victims and Native Americans become the aggressors. So anytime I see a non-native American wearing a war bonnet, whether it be on Instagram, on the sleeve of someone’s' "vintage" tattoo, all I think of is how terrible I felt because institutionalized racism had depicted a very proud people, a culture I was a part of as the "bad guys". There is nothing wrong with celebrating Nostalgia, but racism isn't nostalgic, it’s just racism.