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About MikeHometown: Elizabethtown, N.C. |
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In 2005, Mike Davis brought his son, Blake, on his annual pilgrimmage to NWTF headquarters. Jennifer Tapley (right) accepts and counts the donated feathers. |
Q&A with Mike Davis
Mike is the NWTF's Feather Distribution Project's largest donor, giving more than a half million feathers since 2003.
These aren't the dyed chicken feather trinkets found beside dream catchers and miniature tomahawks at roadside stands. They're the real deal. Prayer sticks made by the Zunis, Cherokees and other tribes out West are sacred to the Native Indians who use them as offerings to deities for good harvests, fair weather and in memory of their ancestors. And they're only complete with a real wild turkey feather. It's been that way for hundreds of years.
And the tradition will continue, thanks to folks like Mike Davis.
This fella from North Carolina has never seen a prayer stick or a Zuni Indian. Heck, he's never ventured beyond the Mason-Dixon Line. But for the last seven years, he has spent dozens of hours plucking and packaging wild turkey feathers to send to the NWTF's Feather Distribution Project. He's donated 544,000 to date. Then the feathers are forwarded to the Zunis, schools and conservation workshops to fulfill their destiny as tools for religion and education.
The NWTF caught up with Mike to learn why a Southern man cares so much for peoples and religions not his own.
NWTF: Why did you start donating feathers to the NWTF?
Mike Davis: I'm the type of person who doesn't like to waste anything. I recycle because I feel if something can be used again, it should.
I saw an ad about the NWTF needing feathers in Turkey Call back in 2003. I figured that if the Native Americans could use the feathers from my turkeys, it was better than letting them rot.
NWTF: How did you go from donating feathers from your own turkeys to the more than half million you've given to date?
MD: When the following hunting season rolled around, I was ready to donate again. This time, I asked my hunting buddies to give me what was left after they got what they wanted off their birds. A taxidermist friend saves whatever he doesn't need from the mounts he does and gives those to me as well. He's been doing that since I started. It just grew from there.
Last season, I believe I donated 118,000, the most I've ever done in a year.
It was the best season ever for turkey hunting in Bladen County. All the nearby North Carolina counties broke records. That's one reason I was able to get so many feathers last year.
People from around here call me the Turkey Man.
NWTF: Do you have to do most of the plucking yourself or do you have help?
MD: I probably do 95 percent of it myself. Most of the time, people just give me the whole bird once they've taken off the beards and spurs, sometimes the fan.
Last season, I probably broke down between 65 to 70 whole birds.
NWTF: How much time do you devote to this project in a season?
MD: As far as plucking, I would not be cutting it short to say that I probably spend between 75 and 100 hours. Some days, I'll spend 6 or 8 hours, others 2 or 3. It really just depends on my work schedule.
I bought an extra freezer to store the birds that I can't get to right away.
NWTF: We hear you hand deliver the feathers as well.
MD: It's about a 3½-hour drive from here to the NWTF headquarters in Edgefield, S.C. I like to take the feathers myself, because it's cheaper than shipping them. And I just like visiting the NWTF anyway.
I usually carry them on the back seat of my Toyota truck, but there were so many feathers last year I had to rent a U-Haul trailer. When Jennifer Tapley [the NWTF's Feather Distribution Project coordinator] saw I had to rent a U-Haul to get the donation to her, her mouth just dropped. She was speechless for a couple minutes, when I opened the trailer and she saw how many there were.
NWTF: Do you ever save any of the feathers for yourself?
MD: I pretty much live to hunt. I killed my first bearded hen this year. I'm putting her on a double branch mount with a gobbler I killed last year. He was the first turkey I killed near home. That will be my 29th turkey mount. It's like a zoo in my house.
NWTF: You've no doubt left a legacy with your generous donations of feathers and time. Who do you share your hunts with at home?
MD: My son, Blake, loves to hunt. He's always watching outdoor programs on TV and asking me about different things. I'm not a professional but I always answer him the best I can.
NWTF: How important is it to you to pass on our hunting heritage to future generations?
MD: It's extremely important. I'm so glad my son is involved in hunting. I don't pressure him but have bought him guns and stuff he needs.
I've read statistics that say only a small percentage of kids hunt now due to computers or living in cities and not having access to wildlife. One of my friends told me that there are only five or six children who hunt in his kid's entire grade at school. If half of those six drop out of hunting before they're grown, and there aren't others who get involved, it's alarming to think nobody might be there to take my place as a hunter when I'm old and can't hunt anymore.
Hunters are the greatest conservationists. It's important that we get youth involved in, at least expose them to, the outdoors. The NWTF has the best youth program out there. And with the Women in the Outdoors and Wheelin' Sportsmen programs, the NWTF has a way for everybody to get involved.
NWTF: Why should others get involved in the Feather Distribution Project?
MD: The NWTF gets requests from teachers across the country for information about the wild turkey. They send them feathers to show the difference between a gobbler and a hen through the difference in feather colors. There's a lot of knowledge in looking at feathers. You don't think about it until you get with someone who knows a about them; they can really enlighten you.
Plus, a Native American tribe can continue what their ancestors have done for hundreds of years because of your donation. — Karen Lee and Melanie Swearingen
Want to take part in the NWTF's Feather Distribution Project? Contact Jennifer Tapley at (803) 637-7531 or jtapley@nwtf.net.