BULL. 301 



DYOSYOWAN EAGLE 



409 



(1) in Am. Anthrop., xr, Mav, 1898; (2) 

 in Rep. Nat. Mas., 1900 and 1901; Kroe- 

 ber in Bull. Am. Mufc?. Nat. Hist., xviii, 

 pt. 1, 1902; Mason, Aboriginal American 

 Basketry, 1902; Mattbews in 3d Rep. 

 B. A. E., 188-4; Pepper, Native Navajo 

 Dves, in Papoose, Feb., 1902; Stepben in 

 Iiiternat. Folk-lore Cong., i, 1898; Wiss- 

 ler in Bull. Am. Mas. Nat. Hist., xviii, 

 pt. 3, 1904. (w. H.) 



Dyosyowan ('it is oil-covered.' — Hew- 

 itt). An important former Seneca vil- 

 lage on Buffalo cr., Erieco., N. Y. 

 Buffalo.— Kirkland (1788) in Am. State Pap., Ind. 

 Aff., 1,211, 1832. Dyo'-syo-wa".— Hewitt, infii, 1887 

 (Seneca name). Tehoseroron. — Treaty of Oct. 22, 

 1784, in V. S. Ind. Treat., 922, 1873." Teyoheghs- 

 colea. — Kirkland, op. cit. 



Dyrnaeskirk. A former Eskimo mis- 

 sionary station on Eriksfjord, s. Green- 

 land. — Crantz, Hist. Greenland, i, map, 

 1767. 



Eagle. Among tbe many birds held in 

 superstitious and appreciative regard by 

 the aborigines of North America, the 

 eagle, by reason of its majestic, solitary, 

 and mysterious nature, became an espe- 

 cial object of worship. This is expressed 

 in the employment of the eagle by the 

 Indian for religious and esthetic pur- 

 poses only. The wing-bones were fash- 

 ioned into whistles to l)e carried by war- 

 riors or used in ceremonies, and the 

 talons formed powerful amulets or fe- 

 tishes, having secondary value as orna- 

 ments; the feathers were, however, of 

 greatest importance. The capture of 

 eagles for their feathers was a hazardous 

 branch of hunting, requiring great skill. 

 Among some tribes eagle-killing was 

 delegated to certain men. Owing to the 

 difficulty of getting within bowshot of 

 the bird, it was often trapped or the 

 eyrie was visited to secure the young. 

 Eagles are still kept in captivity by the 

 Pueblo Indians as in the time of Coro- 

 nado (14th Rep. B. A. E., 516, 1896). 

 The striking war-bonnet of the Plains 

 tribes was made of eagle feathers and 

 was highly valued, for it is said that one 

 pony was the price of a perfect tail of 12 

 feathers of the "war eagle," i. e., the 

 white plumes with black tips. Other 

 varieties, with bars across the feathers, 

 are regarded as inferior (Mooney) . War- 

 riors of the Plains tribes usually wore the 

 feathers of the golden eagle only, and it is 

 probable that the customs of many tribes 

 prescriV)ed like discriminations as to 

 feathers of different species. Many tribes 

 wore one or more eagle feathers in the 

 hair, and these feathers were often cut, 

 colored, or otherwise decorated with some 

 cognizance of the wearer (see Heraldry). 

 It was the custom of the Pillager Chip- 

 pewa to allow a warrior who scalped an 

 enemy to wear on his head two eagle 

 feathers, and the act of capturing a 



woundeil prisoner on the battlefield 

 earned the distinction of wearing five. 

 Fans made of the primary feathers of the 

 eagle formed an accessory to the costume 

 of the Sioux and other tribes. Pkgle 

 feathers were also attached as ornaments 

 to the buckskin shirts worn by men, and 

 war costumes and paraphernalia, includ- 

 ing shields, were ornamented with them. 

 As one of the prominent totemic animals, 

 the eagle gave its name to many clans 

 and religious fraternities. It is probable 

 that nearly every tribe in the United 

 States recognizing clan or gentile organi- 

 zation had an eagle clan or gens at some 

 period in its history. 



The eagle held an important place in 

 symbolic art. It was depicted by all the 

 methods of art expression known to the 

 Indian, appearing on i)ottery, basketry, 

 textiles, bead work, quill work, shields, 

 crests, totem poles, house and grave jiosts, 

 pipes, rattles, and objects pertaining to 

 cult and ceremony. It was also repre- 

 sented in the primitive drama connected 

 with ceremonies. Many tribes possessed 

 eagle deities, as the Kwahu, the eagle 

 kachina of the Hopi of Arizona, and the 

 Eagle god of the Miwok of California. 



Among the Haida, passes made with 

 eagle fans were thought to be effectual in 

 conjuring, and this use reappears in many 

 tribes. The wing-bones were often em- 

 ployed as sucking tubes, with which 

 medicine-men pretended to remove dis- 

 ease. The Tlingit and other North Pa- 

 cific tribes used eagle down for ceremo- 

 nial sprinkling on tbe hair, masks, and 

 dance costume; it was also scattered in 

 the air, being blown through a tube or 

 sprinkled by hand. The Pawnee and 

 other Plains tribes as well as the Pueblos 

 also used the down in ceremonies, and it 

 was probably a general custom. Among 

 the Hopi the eagle is generally associated 

 with the Sky god, and its feathers are 

 used with disks to represent the Sun god 

 (Fewkes). 



The use of eagle feathers in religion is 

 nowhere better shown than among the 

 Pueblos, when downy plumesareattached 

 to masks, rattles, prayer-sticks (q. v. ), and 

 other cult ol)jects entering into ceremo- 

 nies. For this purpose a great quantity of 

 feathers is yearly required. The Hopi 

 clan« claimed the eagle nests in the locali- 

 ties where they formerly resided, and 

 caught in traps or took from the nests 

 eaglets, whose down was used in cere- 

 monies. The eaglets, when required for 

 feathers, have their heads washed; they 

 are killed by pressure on the thorax, and 

 buried with appropriate rites in special 

 cemeteries, in which offerings of small 

 wooden images and bows and arrows are 

 yearly deposited. The interior Salish 

 also are said by Teit to have property in 



