BIRDS: Golden Eagles Diptych
Right and Left: Two-page diptych of four Golden Eagles (two each page) with distinctive talons and tailfeathers. They resemble the “striped eagle” in Making Medicine's 1875 "Fowls of Indian Territory" drawing (National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian, Washington D.C., Neg. No. 55,036, dated 1875). John H. Moore describes the immature phase of golden eagles as “war eagles” in “The Ornithology of Cheyenne Religionists” (Plains Anthropologist 1986: 177-92). In recent years I have seen golden eagles in western Kansas, due to population rebound after ban of DDT pesticide. The birds stand erect with large legs, and three talons. Heads are stylized to be only beaks (one line). They have long feather tails, barred on the ends, with parallel lines protruding to indicate tail feathers.
Media: The Eagles are lead pencil outlines detailed and filled with pencil.