Chief Don Eagle

**Carl Donald Bell** (August 25, 1925 – March 17, 1966), better known by his ring name **Chief Don Eagle**, was a Mohawk boxer and professional wrestler during the 1950s and 1960s. Originally from Kahnawake, Quebec, he became Boston's AWA World Heavyweight Champion in 1950.

## Professional wrestling career

Eagle began a boxing career in 1945, after a brief time working in the steel and construction industry. He was trained solely by his father, Chief Joseph War Eagle, a former Junior Heavyweight Champion. In his first year, Eagle competed in 22 contests and won 17. He beat the established Red Dawson using a pinfall in just under 16 minutes. During the peak of his career in the early 1950s, Eagle became the first person to throw World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Primo Carnera off his feet. He fought Antonino Rocca in a 60-minute draw on May 19, 1951, at the Chicago Stadium.

Eagle's biggest match was arguably on May 23, 1950 when he wrestled and defeated Frank Sexton at the age of 23 in a best-of-three falls. Sexton was just over a year into a near-four-year reign of the Boston version of the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Three days later, Eagle appeared on television without the championship belt to face Gorgeous George in another best-of-three falls match in the Chicago area. Eagle put in an extremely impressive performance, dominating George and quickly making him submit to the vaunted death lock, making a swift end to fall one.

For the second, Don continued to dominate and launched himself outside the ring with a flying shoulder block. He was then counted out by an arguably fast-counting Earl Mullihan, the appointed referee, to level proceedings at one fall each.

In the final fall, George managed to catch Eagle with a backyard cradle. Mullihan, who could clearly see that Eagle had a single shoulder off the mat, proceeded to administer another fast count and declared the match over. The crowd was furious and began to riot, throwing objects into the ring. Eagle punched Mullihan with considerable force while Mullihan hastened to leave the ring and the arena. As Mullihan ran up the aisle, Eagle hit him forcefully again between the shoulderblades. Gorgeous George was clearly unprepared for the animosity of the crowd and waited for police assistance to escort him from the ring.

Eagle was suspended by the Illinois State Athletic Commission for putting his hands on a referee, but managed to regain the title on August 31, 1950. The title was declared vacant in November 1950 due to Eagle's inactivity because of injury and was replaced by the AWA Eastern Heavyweight Title.

Despite the controversy and subsequent suspension, Eagle's match against Gorgeous George gave him guaranteed main-event status for several years at promotions across the country.

During a 1953 match with the faux-Nazi Hans Schmidt, Eagle was thrown over the top rope and into the ringside chairs, damaging several spinal discs and breaking two ribs. Eagle took a year off to recover from his injuries, during which time he began training a teenage Billy Two Rivers. Eagle gave Two Rivers a further year's training after he himself had returned to wrestling, occasionally tagging with the young wrestler. Billy Two Rivers made his full debut in 1953.

Due to continuing back problems, Eagle became semi-retired and wrestled infrequently in various regions over the next three years. Eagle decided to retire permanently in 1963 at the age of 38.

## Deaths

### Don Eagle

Don Eagle began to fade from the public eye and lost touch with a great many of his friends and colleagues. *Wrestling Revue* reported Don Eagle's death on March 17, 1966, stating that it appeared the Native American had died from a self-inflicted gun wound. Contemporary newspaper reports indicated that he had been despondent over some construction project setbacks: namely, a Logan County (Ohio) Indian village, an expansion program in the Zane Shawnee Caverns, and a $12 million Indian Center near Montreal. Billy Two Rivers was the last professional wrestler to visit him shortly before his death, noting that he was still suffering from his previous back injuries and that he struggled with retirement. Those close to Eagle do not believe that his death was a suicide, Billy Two Rivers being one of those people. Skeptics of his death noted that it could have been a murder, connected to the death of his wife, Jean Eagle.

### Jean Eagle

Two years later after his death, Jean's burnt body was found by Don's father in a green 1966 Pontiac convertible along a road to Deer's Mohawk Beach on July 23, 1968; she was 28. Some theorized that Jean played a role in Don's death due to suffering extensive domestic violence at his hand. Many in the community blamed her for his death and rumor held that she was on the phone with Don when he shot himself. After her death, Eagle family members supposedly spread rumors that Jean was involved in sex work. Jean was a waitress at the Kahnawake Golf Course at the time of her death. No one was arrested in connection with Jean's murder.