The photograph shows the head and shoulders of Swift Eagle on the right, bare-chested with his arm around an unidentified female companion. He wears a war bonnet of eagle feathers, beaded jewellery, and is pointing upwards. She wears a beaded headband with a single feather at the rear. The inscription reads “To Alex / my all time good friend / from Swift Eagle”. This is accompanied by the crossed arrow symbol of friendship, a bird and a right facing arrow with wavy lines above and below, likely a pictographic representation of his name.
Swift Eagle grew up speaking the Keresan language in the Santo Domingo Pueblo in New Mexico, however before the age of eight was sent to the Santa Fe Indian School. Following the model outlined by Richard Henry Pratt at Carlisle, this residential institution sought to strip the Apache and Pueblo children of their Native religion, language and practices, and instead assimilate them to white culture.
A 2007 article in the Times Herald-Record interviewing his children Matoaka and Powhatan Eagle, fills in the next part of his story: “Though Swift Eagle’s education at the Indian School sought to erase his cultural memory, he spent the rest of his life promoting his heritage in every media accessible to him. He modeled in traditional regalia for artists and advertising photographers. He taught native crafts as part of a WPA program in the 1930s. He recorded a story album in the 1950s called “The Pueblo Indians” and modeled for its cover photo. He appeared in movies and television shows, and his family became the Indian residents of Frontier Town, a tourist attraction in North Hudson.”
This photograph is likely from his time in Hollywood. In 1936 he picked up small roles in the films Custer’s Last Stand and Ramona, and in 1940 he appeared on Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour radio show.
Medenbach, Deborah. ‘Sharing and restoring the heritage of American Indians’ in Times Herald-Record 21/3/2007 (Accessed 4/8/2023).
