In order to achieve his goal of portraying tribal members in their traditional way of life and regalia, Edward Curtis often asked individuals to pose in outfits borrowed from fellow tribal members or items he provided, rather than in their modern clothing. In this portrait, Wakonda, a member of the Otoe tribe, is wearing the same eagle feather headdress as Pipe-stem in another photogravure by Curtis (see image above). Other times Curtis posed members of one tribe in clothing worn exclusively by another. The Otoe started wearing this type of ceremonial headdress in the mid-nineteenth century.