The Eagle Dance Design

On the north wall, Zia Pueblo artist Velino Herrera created two stylized compositions that feature symbolic designs: The Eagle Dance Design and The Shield Design. Herrera drew upon Pueblo design elements to create both compositions. As described by the artist, for “the creative design of the eagle dance” he used “Indian clouds, symbols, etc.” The abstracted design features a crouching eagle dancer at center with stylized rain clouds in the upper right and left corners. Rain falls on either side of the dancer, whose garments feature two hissing snakes facing off.

Velino Shije Herrera, also known as Ma Pe Wi, was commissioned in 1939 to create a series of murals at the new Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C. He was one of four Native American artists who painted 2,200 feet of murals for the eighth-floor penthouse, which served as the employee lounge. While Herrera painted the north corridor, Potawatomi artist Woody Crumbo covered the south corridor. In the main room, the walls were divided between Chiricahua Apache artist Allan Houser and Navajo painter Gerald Nailor. The Secretary of the Interior at the time, Harold Ickes, insisted on commissioning artworks by Native American artists. Because of this mandate, the Section of Fine Arts invited Crumbo, Herrera, Houser, and Nailor to participate in the penthouse project and commissioned two Kiowa artists, James Auchiah and Stephen Mopope, to paint murals for the cafeteria.