To all Native Americans, the eagle was considered to be the most majestic of all birds, the king of the skies. This symbolism is not unique to Indians but is generally held to be the case all over the world. The bird attracted many beliefs and superstitions, and the eagle feather is even today revered as a sacred object, and latterly very hard to get hold of. Only properly registered tribal members are permitted to own one, and illegal possession of an eagle feather can subject the owner to huge fines. The Thunderbird, a mythological creature that was supposed to be responsible for thunderstorms, was closely aligned to the eagle.
The natural characteristics of the eagle inspired its meaningfulness to Native Americans. Its powers of flight, its ability to cover great distances, its incredibly sharp vision, and its hunting abilities all made the bird an object of awe and worship. To the Hopi the eagle was the personification of the Sky God, and when the Pueblo people were first visited by the Spanish explorer Coronado, he found they actually kept eagles in captivity. Although the bald-headed eagle was the bird used as the emblem of the United States, for the American Indian it was the golden eagle that really ruled the roost.
Piercing the ears in order to be able to wear ornaments was a mark of status as well as, for some, a rite of passage. Both boys’ and girls’ ears were pierced with due ceremony by medicine men. It wasn’t only the lobes that were pierced, but the rims of the ears, too. The more holes, the higher the wealth and status. Some earrings dangled for up to 12 inches, and would be made from bone, shells, quills, or feathers.
The Mandan peoples were among those who built earth lodges: large constructions made from a foundation of logs, usually with a dome-shaped roof, used for meetings and ceremonial purposes.
“Erie,” in the language of the Native American people of the same name, meant “Long Tail” and was a reference to the panther. The very early Erie peoples were known as “the Cat Nation.” Their ancestral home was on the southern shores of Lake Erie, which was named after the people and remains a reminder of their existence.
The Erie were an independent arm of the Iroquois, who did not join the all-powerful Iroquois Confederacy. The war between the Iroquois and the Huron, which was waged for some four decades before the Huron were eventually vanquished, saw the remaining Huron take refuge with the Erie; accordingly, the Iroquois turned their attention toward them and, in 1656, either captured or slaughtered the majority of the Erie people. Those who escaped joined forces with the few remaining Huron and fled to Wisconsin. There, they became known as the Wyandot.
Archeologists believe that it was the Hohokam people who were the first to discover and develop the art of etching, which would have been around A.D. 1000. They used shells as a surface for these etchings, covering the outside with an acid-resistant pitch, or sap, from trees, then carved the image that they wanted into the pitch, after which the shell was soaked in an acid solution made from the fermented fruit of the saguaro cactus tree. When the pitch was removed, the acid would have caused the design to appear on the shell.
