Raptor Talk Draws on Native American Themes

Chief Niwot claimed that people who saw the beauty of the Left Hand Valley would stay here. It’s known as his curse or prophecy, depending on how you look at it. Then true to his character as someone who could see both sides of an issue, “Their staying will be the undoing of the beauty,” he reportedly said.

Changes in the landscape due to human encroachment factored into the talk, “The Eagle in Chief Niwot’s Time and Ours,” given by volunteer naturalist Sue Cass on Feb. 2 as part of the Niwot Historical Society’s (NHS) Now & Then lecture series. One hundred people came out to hear the raptor ecologist with Boulder County Parks and Open Space at the Left Hand Grange Hall.

Cass explained that changes in the landscape brought on by westward expansion, along with cultural shifts and the population’s use of pesticides, have made huge impacts on the raptor population in the area. From the 19th to early 20th centuries, ranchers and farmers had hoped to wipe out the golden and bald eagle populations, as they competed for the same game and were considered a menace to livestock. States, such as Alaska, even issued bounties on eagles, with the law providing for a bounty of 50 cents per eagle, to be paid by the Territorial Treasurer upon presentation of both feet of the bird.

But by the latter half of the 20th century, the government embarked on what Cass called “one of our greatest ecological success stories,” referencing the precursor to the Endangered Species Act of 1967, the year when there were just 418 bald eagle nesting pairs left in the US. The birds were delisted in 2007.

In 1972 the pesticide DDT, which had a thinning effect on the eggs of birds, was banned in the US.

Now there are more than 15,000 bald eagle nesting pairs, and according to Cass, 12 pairs in Boulder County alone—a number that’s remained the same for decades, indicating that the county “is carrying at capacity,” she said. Local birds have a hunting range of 60 square miles.

Even so, it’s important to realize that 75 percent of all eagles don’t survive beyond their first year, “a fact that’s true across all avian species,” she said.

Part of the reason for the robust state of the current eagle population comes down to trees. “There are more trees now than in Chief Niwot’s time,” Cass said, which has increased the numbers of “nesting platforms and platforms from which to hunt.” There are more reservoirs now, and bald eagles are fish eaters, which makes today’s landscape more favorable for their survival. “If they saw a bald eagle during Chief Niwot’s time, it would have been a wintering bald eagle, if at all,” she said.

The national symbol is apparently not averse to stealing game from other predators, a phenomenon known as kleptoparasitism. Founding father Ben Franklin considered this a character flaw, and preferred the wild turkey as the nation’s symbol of pride.

Because of the eagle’s ability to soar to heights unreachable by other birds, the animal has long been considered sacred by Native American cultures. “They soar so high they are thought to be able to carry prayers to the creator and lift up the spirit of the dead,” Cass said.

She explained that eagle feathers are worn by chiefs and medicine men as symbols of their high status within the tribe. Feathers are also used in ceremonies celebrating marriage and puberty, the advent of war and other public declarations and occasions. “Heroic deeds were honored with a present of an eagle feather,” she said.

Due to today’s federal laws and protections, there’s a waiting list of up to five years for tribal requests for eagle feathers, sought through the National Eagle Repository, the program initiated under President Clinton’s tenure in 1994.

Along with raptor history, Cass touched on the history of the US government’s treatment of Native Americans beginning when the Bureau of Indian Affairs outlawed Indian religions, deeming them “pagan,” during the period between 1870 and 1934. She talked about Col. Richard Henry Pratt, founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, one of the 100-plus boarding schools established to indoctrinate young Native Americans in the ways of white culture, while sequestering them from the influence of their tribes. Pratt’s dictum, given in a speech in 1892, was to “kill the Indian and save the man.” An audience member asked if the colonel was a forbear of the famous Longmont family (the answer was “no”).

The next NHS lecture will be held April 27 on the topic of vintage fashions. The annual meeting, held before the talk, summarized the NHS year’s highlights, including four Now & Then lectures, a workshop on artifact preservation, several hundred visitors to the Fire House Museum, the beginning stages of the museum’s restoration project, the introduction of the NHS-sponsored coloring pages, the Blacksmith Doors’ recognition in the state’s 2016 Top 10 Most Significant Artifacts, among other kudos and honors.

Future volunteers looking to work in the museum as greeters and gardeners, as tour guides of the historic district, or on the restoration project should contact [email protected].