For thousands of years, Native Americans and other cultures have used Features as sacred objects in rituals. To them, feathers were a representation of a gift from the higher realms, and should be treated with a great deal of respect.
The uses of Feathers are also very reaching. On a purely spiritual level, it was believed that carrying a feather around, especially particular kinds of feathers, would imbue the wearer/carrier with the blessings of the higher realms.
On a more physical level, they were known to be incredibly useful for spreading the smoke of sage, or other incense around in a space to energetically cleanse a space, and create a particular energetic environment.
Just remember, if you find a feather on the ground, it’s a good idea to wash it with Sage smoke. Running the feather through the smoke would cause any mites that could be on the feather to die, which would preserve the feather for a very long time.