Raptors, dancing highlight first day of Heritage Pow Wow

Cameras clicked and onlookers watched intently as George Richter talked Saturday about the raptors his Illinois-based organization, Save Our American Raptors, rehabilitates, while four birds perched silently nearby.

"Birds of prey, you can tame them but you can't train them," he said to several men standing by the village green at Naper Settlement in Naperville.

The live raptor display is part of a two-day Harvest Pow Wow presented by Midwest SOARRING that continues from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, Sept. 28, at the settlement, 523 S. Webster St.

A bald eagle named Deshka, tethered to the ground, hopped to her water bowl for a drink, while a red-tailed hawk, a kestrel falcon and a peregrine falcon, similarly anchored, quietly observed the observers.

Apprentice falconer and SOAR member Heather Henry of Plainfield, whose ancestors were members of the Blackfoot tribe, said SOAR cares for injured raptors and presents educational programs about them.

Deshka, injured when she fell out of tree when she was young, cannot fly, Henry said.

Still, the Alaskan eagle maintains a regal, fearsome bearing - all 16 pounds of her.

"The further north you go, the bigger the bird," said Henry, adding that bald eagles indigenous to Illinois typically weigh in at 10 to 12 pounds.

As dancers dressed in colorful regalia prepared for the day's first grand entrance and the dancing and drumming that would take center stage on the settlement grounds, crafters and vendors offered dream-catchers, Native American food, recorded music and art works for sale.

Atop the hill where the Martin Mitchell Mansion rests, a cluster of tents were pitched for the weekend. Among them were two tepees, fashioned from sturdy muslin and tree branches.

Eliida Lakota, who was at the pow wow with a contingent of about 20 from a Peoria church group, invited several people inside one of the tepees, a structure she made with the help of a heavy-duty sewing machine.

"It's very comfortable, you can walk around," she said, entering the sleeping quarters, which double as a kitchen.

Lakota said this tepee, while surprisingly roomy, is only one-third the size of those typically used by families for overnight camping excursions.

"This is what they called a hunting lodge," she said.

Next to her sat Martha Schardz of Springfield. A moment earlier, Schardz sat outside near a fire pit as she braided one of her three daughter's long, raven locks. Schardz, who has been to many pow wows and has learned a great deal about Native American culture, pointed out that she left the tip of the hair strand unbraided.

"There's a reason for everything they do and they do it spiritually, a lot of symbology," she said.

For example, she said, the flap that serves as the tepee door faces toward the sunrise and away from driving rain, which usually arrives from the west.

"The door always face east," she said.

The pow wow also features children's crafts, musical performances and cultural demonstrations, such as fire-making.