Original Painting of a San Ildefonso Pueblo Eagle Dancer by Pocano [R]

Pueblo dances are a lure for visitors to the Southwest. These dances often follow many days of ritual and fasting in the kiva, a part of the ceremony not seen by spectators. These pueblo dances may be enjoyed aesthetically without understanding the meanings behind them. Any observant spectator is not unaware that there is meaning to the costume or the movements of the dance or of the drummers and their chanting.

The Eagle Dance is performed in early spring and repeated from time to time during the summer. The eagle is believed to have direct intercourse with sky powers and is much venerated by the Pueblo Indians. The Pueblo Eagle Dance is a dramatization of the relationship between the eagle and man and supernatural powers. Generally, two young men, costumed as eagles, imitate, during the dance, almost every movement possible of the eagles. They replicate eagles soaring over the fields, perching on high places, and resting on the ground.

This is an excellent presentation by Julian Martinez of an Eagle Dancer as seen at San Ildefonso Pueblo.  He has cotton on his head to represent eagle down and the green hook represents the beak of the eagle.  Feathers attached to each arm represent the eagle’s wings.  Feathers trail behind the dancer representing eagle tail feathers.  The dancer’s body is covered in black pigment representing the color of the eagle.  The painting is signed in lower right. 

Condition: the painting was delivered framed and has not been examined out of the frame.  There is one water stain that runs across the dancer’s kilt but does not seem to have changed the kilt paint.

Recommended Reading:   The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters by Patrick Lester

Provenance: from the collection of a client from Houston, Texas