[NATIVE AMERICAN] Large Painted Hide Dance Shield w/ Rising Eagle

A Large Painted Hide Dance Shield with Eagle Design. Plains type. NOTE: The original feathers have been replaced with swan feathers, as recorded in the accompanying catalog notes.

A substantial circular dance shield with a painted hide cover stretched over a solid rawhide center. A rising eagle dominates the reddish-brown field, its head turned in profile and its broadly extended wings reaching toward the upper perimeter. Dark linear strokes articulate the flight feathers, while reddish passages across the shoulders and breast connect the bird to the surrounding ground. A short green horizontal bar appears above its head.

The composition is organized around the bird’s elongated central body and sweeping wings. Its nearly frontal presentation gives the image an emphatic symmetry, relieved by the turned head and individually drawn feather divisions. Two pendant feather groups descend from attachments near the lower body, accompanied by red cloth. On the reverse, the cover folds around the perimeter and is secured by closely spaced lacing; hide straps and ties remain visible against the exposed rawhide.

Painted shields held both protective and ceremonial significance within Plains traditions, and bird imagery could express powers associated with a particular owner. 

The shield form also continued in dance contexts: the National Museum of the American Indian preserves a Cheyenne dance shield dated 1885–1905, made with painted hide and feathers. This provides a useful parallel for the stated function of this lot without determining its tribal origin or date.

The broad painted field and expansive wings give the example offered here a strong pictorial presence, with the suspended feathers extending the composition beyond its circular boundary.