This dark-eyed subject chose her own unusual ornament – perhaps a feather from one of her hats – which she has stuck Indian-fashion in her hair. It's quite the first thing you notice!
When you edit scans of antique photographs, you discover the ways in which photographers retouched prints; I immediately noticed that there was something going on in the right eye (her left), on close inspection I realized that after the print was made, the photographer used a magnifier and tiny brush to darken the white of the eye to the left of the pupil; as the image aged the overall tone changed but the paint or dye he used did not, so his retouch was a dark blue-gray blotch that no longer matched the surrounding color; digital tools made it easy to replicate what was in the other eye.
This is a late 19th century CDV.