MIXED BLESSING
Elvis is 13; he is blind in one eye. Liberty, who is six years older, was found sprawled on a beach in Alaska. She, too, is partially blind. Sandy was shot. Ivana is an amputee. Bingo, a.k.a. Big Girl, was hit by a car in Cody, Wyoming. Green Hornet was electrocuted in Arizona.
Ivie is the prime suspect in the deaths of two other residents, so she is in solitary confinement. Runner is strapped to a table, being treated with antibiotics for a purulent lesion on his foot. One of the staff is dabbing on a paste supplied by a medicine man.
The tribal eagle aviary in Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, houses 18 eagles in all, both Bald and Golden. Most of them occupy a long, narrow flightway with slatted walls and roof. Ivie and Runner are housed in separate individual mews along one side. The birds fill the space with noise—the high-pitched serial squeaks and whistles of the Bald Eagles, surprisingly feeble for such a majestic creature, and the ear-piercing screeches of the Goldens.
None of them will see the wild again; many can no longer fly. Until 20 years ago, they would have faced the euthanizer’s needle. But here they will live out their days in relative comfort—and captive eagles may live many decades, often longer than wild birds.
Nelson Luna, the aviary director, is a solemn, stocky man of 60 with an iron-gray mustache and hair worn in a single long braid. “For us, these aren’t just wild creatures,” he said. “When we take in a new eagle, we cleanse it of bad spirits and accept it into the tribe as a family member. We treat them with the respect they are due, and when they die, we take care of them as we would a deceased relative.”
It was mid-October, and the annual molting season was almost over. On the pea-gravel floor a few feathers lay here and there, and it is for those appendages that eagles are most valued. “They provide us with the resources we need to fulfill our religious obligations,” Luna said. “The eagle brings you mental well-being, prosperity for yourself, your family, your tribe. These are the things we
