Natalie Carpenter tells us about her blue jay veil

Steve Baldy made my blue jay veil. I picked the colors, I helped with the leather and things like that but it was made for me by Steve Baldy. The veil was a piece that was used in the Flower Dance, the coming of age ceremony, when I was running. Its practical use was to shade my face from view and keep people from seeing me.

To me, the veil represents protection in life.  This piece was important to my ceremony and it’s important to me because this ceremony was important to me. At first wearing it I felt kind of goofy. I hadn’t seen the veil much before because the dance was only recently brought back. Wearing it, I remember the little feathers that would flutter in the wind when I was running and they would fly up sometimes. They were also pretty good for shading my face from the sun. My colors were green with blue and I thought it was really pretty. Thinking about it, I remember the actual act of running up and down the river. I remember the ceremonial bathing and the challenges of the dance.