The newest member of the Draper Museum of Natural History’s live raptor education program, an adult, female golden eagle, now has a fitting name: Kateri. The Draper’s program, called the Greater Yellowstone Raptor Experience, is based at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (soon to be the Buffalo Bill Center of the West) in Cody, Wyoming.
The name was chosen from nearly three hundred entries submitted by the public during the first two weeks of February 2013, with the contest closing on Valentine’s Day. The enthusiastic entrants hailed from 41 states, Yellowstone National Park, and from several foreign countries including Canada, Germany, and Sweden. One entry came all the way from a member of the Armed Forces stationed in the Netherlands.
The winning entry was submitted by 8-year-old Chloe Hanson of Cody and was selected by a six-person committee of Center staff and volunteers. The committee chose from the list of suggested names without any prior knowledge of who submitted them.
The name remembers Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 – 1680), who is honored as the patron saint of people who love nature, work in ecology, and work to preserve the natural and human environments. She is also the first Native North American saint. In a biography written before she was named a saint in fall 2012, Stanislaus Brzana, Bishop of Ogdensburg, New York, said “Kateri was a child of nature. Her sainthood will raise the minds and hearts of those who lovenature and work in ecology.”
Chloe will receive an autographed copy of the book Golden Eagle: Sovereign of the Skies, authored by Draper Museum Senior Curator Dr. Charles Preston. “We congratulate her and thank all of those around the world who submitted names,” says Preston. “This was a very difficult decision because of the many wonderful names submitted, and we are overwhelmed by this response!” Melissa Hill, Assistant Curator of the Raptor Experience, adds, “Thanks to all of you who submitted names for consideration, and we hope you will soon visit the Center to meet Kateri and all of the winged ambassadors of our live raptor education program!”
Kateri came to the Greater Yellowstone Raptor Experience from the Northeast Wyoming (NEW) Bird Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Gillette, Wyoming, where she was taken after colliding with a vehicle along Interstate 90. Although veterinarians performed surgery on her broken right humerus, there was irreversible damage to the muscles that left her permanently unable to fly well enough to survive in the wild. She was housed at the NEW Center for approximately five months before her transfer to the Draper Museum in January 2013.
The Greater Yellowstone Raptor Experience is supported by the W.H. Donner Foundation and the Donner Canadian Foundation, as well as the University of Wyoming’s Berry Center for Biodiversity Conservation.
Since 1917, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West has been committed to the greatness and growth of the American West, keeping western experiences alive. The Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, weaves the varied threads of the western experience—history and myth, art and Native culture, firearms, and the nature and science of Yellowstone—into the rich panorama that is the American West.
For additional information, visit centerofthewest.org or the Center’s page on Facebook.
