The Feather Distribution Project at Twenty-one

Note, this was 21 years as of 2005, so for today's age... you do the math.

When the Feather Distribution Project was created in 1982 in response to a request for macaw feathers from the late Fred Cordero of Cochiti Pueblo, there was no expectation that it would ever develop beyond a small, short-term activity. I certainly never anticipated that the project would still be going—and growing—twenty-one years and more than 6,000,000 feathers later (except for macaw tail feathers, this number is based on standardized weights, not on actual counting of individual feathers).

At 21, the project has attained its majority, and continues to grow as the demand for feathers grows. If the increasing number of new requests is any indication, Pueblo ceremonial life is generally well and healthy and seems to be in an expansionist mode with more rites and more participants. We currently have a backlog of about 100 new requests for feathers, in addition to several hundred continuing requests. We are able to keep up with the demand for wild turkey feathers, but the demand for macaw and parrot feathers, especially center tail feathers from Scarlet (Ara macao), Military (Ara militaris), and Greenwing (Ara chloroptera) macaws, far exceeds the supply.

Overall, the project distributes only wild turkey, macaw, and parrot feathers to about 1,000 Pueblo individuals (mostly men) in 29 of the 31 villages. Every donor is asked to complete a request form and return it to us. Several enterprising, electronically savvy Pueblo men have returned it to us online with added photographs of birds and the desired feathers marked on the .jpg images; so much for so-called Pueblo conservatism. 

Much of this growth seems to be in the private, religious society rituals, which only the initiated attend, in contrast to public ceremonies such as katsina dances, corn dances, and hunting and animal dances. Another indication of increased ceremonial activity is that the price of macaw and parrot feathers is once again on the rise after years of decline. Macaw and parrot feathers are now for sale online through eBay® and other online auctions.

As discussed in the September 1998 AN, the illegal commercial markets for feathers and birds have direct and immediate adverse affects on wild macaw and parrot populations and their habitats. The endangered and threatened status of these bird populations and the destruction to their habitats are consequences of human predation aimed at filling the worldwide demands for birds and their feathers. In this context, however, the legal market—feathers from captive bred and raised birds—also drives up the price of feathers, and so abets the illegal market.

The Feather Distribution Project does not buy or sell feathers; they are received as donations and given away free-of-charge. Wild turkey feathers come primarily from US hunters, most of whom are members of the National Wild Turkey Federation. The Federation, itself, supports the project with donations of feathers.

Macaw and parrot feathers are donated by zoos (e.g., The Audubon Institute and Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, and the Brookfield Zoo), bird clubs (e.g., Central Alabama Avicultural Society, Gateway Parrot Club in St. Louis, Kentuckiana Feathered Friends in Louisville, Peninsula Caged Bird Society in Yorktown, VA, and Chet Fuhrman’s group in Columbia, PA), aviaries (G & G Aviary in Springfield, IL), and dozens of individual bird owners from coast-to-coast and north-to-south throughout the US, including members of online macaw and parrot groups such as MACAWS-L. The creation of a Web page for the project www.wingwise.com/feather.htm, another donation from a bird owner, helps us to recruit new donors and also brings new requests for feathers.

Without our donors, the project could not have succeeded to the degree that it has. Yet, despite our best efforts, though we have been able to reduce some of the commercial market for feathers within the US, we have not been able to eliminate it; this goal continues to elude us. Donations from several new zoos and aviaries will help, but the problem of commercialization and its attendant destruction of birds and habitats will remain for the foreseeable future. The demand for macaw and parrot feathers is far greater than the supply of donated feathers.

The project has had more success in another area—the plucking of birds. We know from the archaeological record and from the ethnographic literature that peoples in the American Southwest had captive macaws and parrots more than 1,000 years ago, and some present-day Pueblo people still keep them. Captive birds are plucked.  In an effort to stop this practice, which harms the birds, the project offers those who have macaws and parrots twice the number of feathers that their birds molt in a year if they cease plucking them and use only the molted feathers. We do not know how many macaws and parrots are owned among the Pueblos, but through this two-for-one offer, the plucking of several dozen birds seems to have ceased, as judged by our visits to individual Pueblo homes several times a year during distributions of feathers.

We have been much less successful in our efforts to have the Pueblos, as a whole, assume control and operation of the project. I wrote in 1998 that we had a 5-year timetable for this transfer. Five years later, we have made no progress. We began the process on two occasions, only to have each effort collapse when the Pueblo individual with whom we were working to effect transfer of The Feather Distribution Project to Pueblo control resigned his government position. Yet, we have prepared a new proposal for this transfer. The project has attained its majority, but for it to continue it requires Pueblo ownership and operation. If this is to happen, it must happen within the next two to three years because our resources for operation of the project are not inexhaustible.

Several years ago, Aaron Gonzales of San Ildefonso Pueblo sent a photograph of his then 5-year old daughter, Jasmine, with Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) feathers in her headdress. He gave us permission (we did not ask for it) to use this in our efforts to obtain new feather donors, which has been helpful, particularly when giving slide presentations to zoos, bird clubs, and at other public venues.

 Jonathan E Reyman is Research Associate in Anthropology at the Research & Collections Center of the Illinois State Museum,  founded the project in 1982 and directs its operation with the help of volunteers (more than 100, to date) who assist in sorting feathers.