Dead Frozen Eagles in a National Repository

Reid Farmer over at the Querencia blog has a nice post about the National Eagle Repository (check out the picture!) that was recently feature in The Denver Post. As Reid notes,

Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940, it's illegal to kill Bald or Golden eagles or to possess any feathers or other body parts. Native Americans are allowed to possess them for use in religious ceremonies but must obtain them from the Repository. Dead eagles and feathers from all over the country from a variety of sources are shipped here. The Repository processes 2,000 birds a year.

Not said is that the rapid proliferation of rifle ownership, coupled with weak game laws, and runaway tourism, conspired to push Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles very nearly over the edge shortly after the turn of the 20th Century.

The story is simple: It takes a lot of dead eagles to make an Indian war bonnet. As the West opened up, more and more people invaded land that had once been very sparsely populated, and everyone wanted a trophy of what was very clearly a vanishing Native American way of life.

Politicians, wealthy tourists and museums all clamored for war bonnets made with "real eagle feathers." So too did the various "Wild West" shows that sprouted up and toured both the American East and all parts of Europe.

Adding to the carnage was the common use of "pole traps" by land owners bent on protecting barnyard chickens and ducks.

The result was predictable: a rapid decline in the Bald and Golden Eagle population of the U.S. long before the advent of DDT.

I detail this story -- complete with graphs of National Audubon Society data showing Bald Eagle decline and recovery -- in a 2008 post to this blog entitled "Bald is Beautiful." Check it out.

As to the white man in the picture, above right, he's none other than Calvin Coolidge posing in a Sioux war bonnet in 1927. This kind of photo-op never goes out of style, as this contemporary picture makes clear.

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