The Considerate and Compassionate Reason Why Tyler Childers No Longer Plays “Feathered Indians”

On July 25, 2025, Tyler Childers released his much-anticipated seventh full-length album, Snipe Hunter. Prior to the album’s release, Tyler Childers promoted the album via his social media pages and sat down with GQ magazine for an extensive interview. Childers divulged a lot during the interview about the past, present, and future. And one of the biggest tidbits of information Childers dwelled upon in the interview revolved around the hit song from his sophomore album, “Feathered Indians”.

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Released in 2017 on the album Purgatory, “Feathered Indians” became one of the several songs that placed Childers on top of the Americana country music pedestal. It was a bona fide hit, a staple in his catalog, and a frequent at his live shows. Though, in March of 2020, Childers played the song for the final time live, and left fans guessing as to why.

Of course, people assumed why Tyler Childers stopped playing the song. Though, Childers never gave the public a definitive answer, until now.

Tyler Childers’ Decision Goes Beyond Being Burnt Out

Given that this was a crowd-favorite song, many people speculated that Tyler Childers stopped playing it simply because he was over it. That is not the case in the slightest. In his interview with GQ, Childers acknowledged that during the creation of his album, Long Violent History, in 2020, he came to some conclusions regarding the historically problematic connotation of the word “Indian” after he started to view the posts of a historian on Instagram.

What Childers realized is that if Native Americans have issues with themselves using the word, then he shouldn’t use it. In his own words, he told the publication, “If there’s conversation amongst those individuals about whether they should be using that word or not, then it ain’t for me to be using. It’s not mine.”

He continued, “That song has some of my favorite lines I’ve ever written, some of my favorite melodies,” and “Not playing that song is going to make people think.” What people will think, Childers didn’t elaborate on. Nonetheless, it’s admirable to see Childers set aside seemingly one of his favorite songs for something that is far larger than himself.

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