Would you ever wear a feather in your cap, particularly in the U.S.?

[Bugbear]

I'm finding tons of discussion in some of my history books showing that wearing feathers was not the exclusive right of many of the leaders or chiefs of Native American tribes; including in, First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, by Colin G. Calloway (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999), and This Land Was Theirs: A Study of Native North Americans, Eighth Eddition, by Wendell H. Oswalt (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
* In other words, Native Americans, other than tribal chiefs or leaders, wore feathers, eagle feathers and war bonnets etc.

So I very much doubt that the exclusive right of the Highland chiefs et al to wear eagle feathers came from the leaders of American tribes. Perhaps from the myths of the "noble savage" about Native Americans? It makes a significant difference as far as I'm concerned...