The clothing and decorations the indigenous people wore were all from nature— furs, grasses, shells, feathers, and even bear claws. Some California Native American customs and apparel have been preserved . A few years ago I watched Miwok and Pomo men, women, and children dance to drum music wearing beaded necklaces, feathers, and headdresses made of feather quills similar to those shown in a painting by Louis Choris, a French painter. The headbands were made with flicker feather quills sewn on strips of leather. Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a black feather bib and orange and black tail feathers. In the West, their tail feathers have reddish-orange shafts ending in black tips. The photograph shows two feathers I found in my garden. The bottom feather is from a flicker’s tail.
On the Brink of the World
