Some New Orleanians have a Michalopoulos print or JazzFest poster hanging in their living rooms. Dorian Cummings has a bald eagle. The mounting of the majestic bird, with its six-foot wingspan and menacing outstretched talons, dominates the main room of his Old Jefferson cottage and serves as a daily reminder to his native American ancestry.
Native Americans are the only Americans allowed to acquire bald eagles. Cummings, whose grandfather Lowell “Chief” Cummings was a full-blooded Pawnee, had to apply to the federal government and join a lengthy waiting to list to acquire his specimen.