Last Halloween, Dolls Kill sold this costume on their website
People became upset when they saw this and tried to tell Dolls Kill that this is cultural appropriation and that it is not ok to for them to be not only selling this costume but having a white non Native American modelling it.
Now I will admit not being from America myself I am not too well educated about Native American history, however from the research I have done I have learnt that it is not ok for a non Native American to wear the headdress or war bonnet as it is traditionally known and why.
In Native American culture these war bonnets are part of a sacred tradition and cannot just be worn by anyone.
In Native American culture you have to earn not only the right to wear a War Bonnet but also every single feather on the War Bonnet. The War Bonnet is only worn by certain powerful and influential members of the tribe during important ceremonies, the War Bonnet must not be worn by someone who has not earned the right to do so. Every single feather on the War Bonnet is gained when the wearer commits a brave and selfless act, the wearer cannot just put any random amount of feathers on the War Bonnet whenever they want to.
The other problem is that Native American’s still to this day suffer from the colonisation that took place so many years ago, their land was stolen, many were murdered in horrible and brutal ways. Native Americans were not granted FULL CITIZENSHIP IN THEIR OWN LAND UNTIL 1924!!!! and their religious rights were not protected until 1978. After all that colonisers took from them their culture should not be it is the least they deserve.
One person who emailed Dolls Kill to try and explain all of this to them and ask that they remove the costume from their website came forward with this response that they got from Dolls Kill
Basically they couldn’t care less. They wanted to sell the costume so they choose to be ignorant about the problem and ignore people telling them that this wasn’t ok, to say that they are not racist when people, many whom were Native American themselves were trying to tell them that this costume was disrespectful is dismissive, who are they to decide what is and isn’t offensive to Native American’s when they are not Native American themselves?
If Native Americans are saying its disrespectful then its disrespectful
problemswithdollskill 