BIRD-HEADED FIGURES REVISITED:

Bird-Headed Figure. Photograph:

John and Daphne Rudolph. 

This illustration is a new example of an Ancestral Puebloan bird-headed figure that I was given recently. The photograph was taken by John and Daphne Rudolph and provides another excellent example of this interesting theme. They had it labeled as from Train Rock on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in southwest Colorado. I have not seen it in person, so I do not take any personal credit for the picture.

Bird-headed figure, Kiva Point, Ute

Mountain Tribal Park, Montezuma

County, CO. Photograph: Peter

Faris, June 1981.

On March 5, 2011, I posted a column that was titled BIRD-HEADED FIGURES. In this I presented a petroglyph panel from Kiva Point on the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation in southeastern Colorado that includes a portrayal of an Ancestral Puebloan figure with a duck-like bird perched on its head, and I pointed out the fact that Lovelock Cave in Nevada held 3,000-year-old duck decoys. I cited Sandra Olsen's description of their creation and use:

"Remarkable preservation at Lovelock Cave, Nevada, has led to the recovery of 3,000-year-old duck decoys - - - that were made by stretching a bird skin over a tule reed form. Many ethnographic reports describe hunters putting duck skins - on their heads as they swam right up to live ducks. They captured the ducks by grabbing their feet and pulling them underwater, so as not to disturb other nearby fowl." (Olsen 1998:104)

It is difficult to see these images and not think of them as portrayals of one of these ancient duck hunters wearing his duck decoy on his head.

Cipikne katcina, From Fewkes,

             Hopi Katcinas, 1985.                 

Salimopia katcinas, From

Fewkes, Hopi Katcinas, 1985.

Other possibilities exist, of course, some suggest that they are early examples of katcina costuming. There are also examples of duck katcinas including Pawik and Cipikne of the Hopi and the various colored Salimopias of the Zuni (Fewkes 1985). Indeed, this also seems to be quite plausible.

Bird-headed figures, Alex

Patterson, p. 49.

I have also included again an illustration from Patterson (1992) which shows a number of examples of the theme of bird-headed figures. Some examples show an anthropomorph with a bird perched or standing on top of its head, and others have the head replaced by a bird. Neither of the examples I have posted are included in Patterson's compilation, but that is not surprising considering the popularity of this theme. He could not have covered all of the known examples.

Given all this, I would love to see someone do a book on these bird-headed figures. A fascinating subject to ponder. Thank you John and Daphne.

REFERENCES:

Fewkes, Jesse Walter,

1985   Hopi Katcinas, Dover Publications Inc., New York.

Olsen, Sandra L.

1998   Animals in American Indian Life: An Overview, pages 95-118, in Stars Above, Earth Below: American Indians and Nature, Marsha C. Bol, editor,  Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Niwot, CO.

Patterson, Alex

1992   A Field Guide to Rock Art Symbols of the Greater Southwest, Johnson Books, Boulder.

THE MARTIN BOWDIN GALLERY IN THE PURGATORY - PART 2:

Eldon Brown family at Martin Bowden's

home, Photograph by Eldon Brown,
from John and Daphne Rudolph.

Continuing the story of Martin Bowden, the hermit painter of the Purgatoire River. Bowden had a homesteader style house on the canyon rim made of laid blocks of rock where he lived with his little dog.

Pronghorn antelope with Eldon

Brown's daughters. Photograph by Eldon

Brown, from John and Daphne Rudolph.

"Charlie Beshoar, owner of the Model store where Bowden came to trade, swears the hermit could speak five languages, "maybe six if you count the way he talked to animals. 'What did the man look like?' I asked Charlie. "His eyes were black. Black and snappy. He had a mustache and beard, and they was always trimmed neat as a banker's fur. And he washed his overalls every week. We got a hell of a lot of old bachelors down here, but we never had many nice, clean old bachelors. For company he had a little bull terrier that went everywhere he did." (Leasure 1983: 24)

Bald eagle in flight. Photograph

by Eldon Brown, from John and

Daphne Rudolph.

Rattlesnake. Photograph by

Eldon Brown, from John and

Daphne Rudolph.

"Not only did early artists use rock walls of the region for their canvases, but so did recent residents. An excellent example is found along the upper reaches of the Purgatoire in a side canyon that is a modern day art gallery. An artist, Martin Bowden, lived there and painted the canyon walls with numerous images of animals and historic Americans. An eagle is painted high on a cliff face, and a larger-than-life rattlesnake is painted coiled on a rock beside the trail." (McGlone et al 1994:85)

Prongorn, mountain goat, deer, and

calf, with Eldon Brown's daughters.

Photograph by Eldon Brown, from John

and Daphne Rudolph.

"Modern art gallery in a side canyon of the Purgatoire River. 

Martin Bowden retired to a lonesome life in the canyon in 1911, and lived there until his self-inflicted death in 1958. Known as the "Hermit of the Purgatoire", or "Picasso of the Purgatoire," he painted about 40 life-sized figures of animals and people on the sandstone walls with brightly colored house paint." (McGlone et al 1994:92)

Rider. Photograph by Eldon Brown,

from John and Daphne Rudolph.

These lovely pictures are of considerable appeal, and, given their age, are now classifiable as antiques. These photographs will now be preserved in the Colorado Rock Art Archive at the Pueblo Regional Library in Pueblo, Colorado. Thank you Daphne and John.

REFERENCES:

Leasure, Bob

1983    Painted Beasts, pages 12-13 and 23 - 25, the Denver Post Magazine, June 26, 1983.

McGlone, Bill, Ted Barker, and Phil Leonard

1994    Petroglyphs of Southeast Colorado and the Oklahoma Panhandle, Mithras Inc., Kamas, UT.

THE MARTIN BOWDIN GALLERY IN THE PURGATORY - PART 1:

Bowdin Trail marker, 1911,

Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

Back in the 1980s I heard talk about a remarkable gallery of painted animals in the upper Purgatory region of southeastern Colorado. At that time Bill McGlone even showed me a couple of photographs that he had been given. Then, in June of 1983, an article in The Denver Post by Bob Leasure, showed a few of the pictures and gave more information about these remarkable paintings.  I had almost forgotten about these in the intervening years until I recently received a shipment of pictures and books from Daphne Rudolph, for donation to the Colorado Rock Art Archive at the Pueblo Regional Library in Pueblo, Colorado. In sorting through the material I was thrilled to find a number of those pictures of animals painted by Martin Bowden in the Purgatory. The photographs seem to have been taken by one Eldon Brown, but I know no more about him. As Daphne and John Rudolph used to live in La Junta, Colorado, and were deeply involved in recording area rock art I assume that he gave the photos to them.

Bear and Fox, Bowden Trail.

Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

Silver Fox, Bowden Trail.

Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

Bear, Bowden Trail.

Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

"Bowden was born near Lyons, France, of Italian parents. His mother wanted to be a singer - her voice had an operatic quality - but she ended up in Trinidad, Colorado, as the wife of a coal miner. Martin was only a child when he crossed the ocean and changed worlds." (Leasure 1983:24)

Burro, Bowden Trail.

Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

"Before he even started to shave - he followed his father into the mines. In the mines he always carried a pocketful of colored chalk and amused himself at lunch time sketching on metal. When the dingy coal cars came rolling into sunlight, they displayed an eye-catching variety of pictures: a dragon snorting fire, a brilliant rooster crowing, a war-bonneted Indian, a morose depiction of Christ on the cross." (Leasure 1983:24)

Tiger with Eldon Brown's girls, Bowden

Trail. Purgatory Canyon, Colorado.

"The family name had been Baudino, but there was a stigma about Italian names at that time, and he changed his name to Bowden." (Leasure 1983:24)

CONTINUED NEXT WEEK IN PART 2.