Tawa Deer Dance Headdress 

USA

Late 20th century

Wood, horns, cotton, feathers

For many indigenous cultures, dancing is a spiritual activity. The Tewa consider deer to be sacred animals, sacrificing themselves to feed people. Men from the Ohkay Owingeh tribe, one of the Tewa pueblos, wear these headdresses when they perform the Deer Dance, a celebration of thanksgiving in which the hunter honors the soul of the deer by imitating the animal he has spent the year hunting.