​FEATHERS FOR NATIVE AMERICANS

Founded by Steven James in 1991, Feathers for Native Americans began after Steven went on vacation to Northeastern Arizona, and witnessed ceremonies of the Pueblo Nation first-hand. He was fascinated by both the striking visual beauty of the customs, as well as the passion of the dancers for keeping these millennia-old traditions alive, often at great financial cost to themselves.

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When Steven got home to Virginia, he happened to see the owner of a local pet store throwing away molted macaw feathers. He asked if he could have them instead, and the principal of Feathers For Native Americans was born!

Other, similar projects have sprung up over time, but currently there is nothing comparable at the scale on which FFNA operates. Steven has collected, sorted and distributed thousands of Macaw and Amazon Parrot feathers over the course of his time operating FFNA. 

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This effort, by a single person, elegantly created support for many Native Americans to continue practicing the traditions in their living culture, with no financial burden or ethical issue for the acquisition of the feathers essential to their ceremonial regalia. 

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FFNA's Impact On Wild Birds: 

Every Macaw has 12 feathers in their tail when they are fully plumed. When these are collected over the course of a year, a bird keeper can expect to gather anywhere from 3 to 12 feathers from one bird.

When sourced from "retail" distributers, it can be assumed that all 12 feathers were taken off a wild bird, that was either killed or trafficked for their feathers, which can then be sold at a high price.

That means that for every thousand tail feathers he distributed, Steven single-handedly saved one hundred parrots in the wild by taking that need to buy feathers out of the market.

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This doesn't take into account the countless feathers from other birds; all equally impactful.

 

The Next Generation of FFNA:

My name is Lydia Dundon, and I am the new Executive Director for Feathers For Native Americans. I live in Maryland with my husband Mitchell, our baby daughter Josie, three rescue dogs, eight tarantulas, a very large fish tank, and of course: a MACAW!

Back in 2018, when Mitchell and I adopted Jazzy (a Blue and Gold Macaw) we soon found FFNA the way many bird keepers do: we figured someone must be able to use her feathers for something more important than gathering dust in a vase on a shelf.

This summer, when it was time to donate Jazzy's feathers again, I saw that Steven was stepping down, and instantly knew that this project was something in my life that I had found before I even realized I was looking for it. I sent him a short email expressing my interest in taking over, and after a few anxious weeks, Steven called me to let me know that he had selected me to take on continuing the project. I am deeply honored to be taking on the legacy of this invaluable program.

 

My dream for Feathers For Native Americans is to enable all Native Americans who need feathers for their Living Cultural Practices, to have access to 100% free, ethically-sourced feathers. I would also love to expand to providing other services to support ceremonial practices. 

 

This dream can only be achieved with help from people like you! 

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