longandconvoluted:

ayiman:

karnythia:

ethiopienne:

nickdrake:

Pam Grier.

I stan for Ms. Grier, but the headdress situation is not cool. You can be fierce without cultural appropriation, boo.

Pam Grier is Cheyenne & Black. Also, there is some room in the Cheyenne customs for women to wear head dresses like this one. Pam took this pic sometime in the 60’s so I don’t know that we can apply a modern set of standards to it.

She’s not a chief, so why is she wearing an okimawostotin?  It’s been well established that ancestry doesn’t confer the right to wear one, leadership does.

The picture of the daughter of Bad Horse is a photograph by Edward Curtis, who was famous for dressing people up to ‘look more indian.’  The headdress she’s wearing was from Curtis’ prop box.

Appropriation is appropriation.  

Is there room to consider the intent of the photo shoot? 

Considering that the headdress is being worn outside of its intended use, and the fact that Edward Curtis is an appropriative twerp who is known for pulling this kinda stuff- intent doesn’t have a place in this at all

And in all honesty, when a person of a minority is calling out on the misuse of something that is important to them and to their identity as a whole- that’s always gonna be worth more that the intent of the person misusing said important thing.