Post by Okwes on Apr 18, 2007 14:22:53 GMT -5
Case pits bald eagle against sacred rites
American Indian tests strict federal protection
By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published January 29, 2007
ETHETE, Wyo. -- Winslow Friday needed a bald eagle. A sacred Northern Arapaho Indian religious ceremony was approaching, and Friday needed an eagle's wing, plume and feathers to perform his part of an ancient ritual Sun Dance so that his prayers would be carried up to God.
So Friday went out with his rifle one day in March 2005 and shot one of the rare birds as it soared above the sprawling Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming. In killing the eagle, Friday believed, he was answering a higher calling and fulfilling a solemn religious duty.
But he also was breaking the law--a strict federal statute intended to safeguard the nation's symbolic bird that bars anyone from even touching a bald eagle feather without explicit government permission. Friday's own uncle, a wildlife officer on the reservation, reported the shooting to federal officials, and Friday soon was arrested and charged with violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Now, as Friday's case makes its way through the courts--possibly on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court--it has become a closely watched test of the federal government's ability to balance two sharply conflicting obligations: the congressional mandate to protect a fragile national symbol, and the constitutional requirement to protect a fragile Native American way of life.
"You can practice religion the way you want anywhere else in the United States, and that was what I was trying to do, but I got in trouble for it," said Friday, 22, an oil-field worker. "I know I broke the law and all, but I had no choice. If we don't have an eagle for the Sun Dance, we have to get one somehow."
But officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say such attitudes could decimate the bald eagle population.
"I know what the demand is for the birds," said Gary Mowad, a special agent in charge of law enforcement for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "If we were to allow the taking of the birds from the wild for religious purposes, I believe strongly the populations could not withstand that kind of pressure."
Collecting dead eagles
Native Americans across the nation revere the eagle as a sacred bird, and many of the estimated 46,000 practitioners of Native American religions require the use of eagle feathers, tails, wings or heads for various ceremonies.
But the demand for eagle parts far outpaces the supply: There are only 7,700 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the continental U.S., and even though their numbers have rebounded enough to prompt their pending removal from the Endangered Species List, conservationists say they still require extreme protections to prevent overhunting and poaching.
To try to meet the religious needs of Native Americans for eagles, the U.S. Department of the Interior set up a special repository in Colorado more than a decade ago to collect the carcasses of eagles that die of natural causes or perish from accidents, electrocution, poisoning or illegal hunting. Certified members of Native American tribes can apply to receive whole eagles or parts, which they are permitted to keep or pass along to family members or other Native Americans.
But many Native Americans have long regarded the repository as an imperfect solution. The waiting list for whole eagles is long: It can take more than three years for a request to be fulfilled. And the carcasses, sometimes damaged or decomposing, are not considered clean for some rituals that require an eagle to be freshly killed according to certain rules.
That was the dilemma Friday said he faced as the July 2005 date for his Sun Dance ceremony approached. There was no time to obtain from the repository the eagle parts he needed, and in any event a carcass of unknown origin would not fit the spiritual needs of the ceremony.
What's more, Friday and his tribal elders bristled at the notion that they should have to get government permission to conduct their sacred ceremonies.
"You can compare our use of eagles to the Christian church taking the wine and wafers," said Jerry Redman, an elder and religious leader. "It's not right that we should have to fill out an application to practice our religion."
Last October, a federal judge in Wyoming essentially agreed, dismissing the charge against Friday and excoriating the government for the "callous indifference" it showed to Native American religious practices.
"It is clear to this court," U.S. District Judge William Downes wrote in his ruling, "that the government has no intention of accommodating the religious beliefs of Native Americans except on its own terms and in its own good time."
But federal prosecutors filed notice that they intend to appeal the dismissal. Appellate courts in other jurisdictions have reached contradictory conclusions when faced with similar cases involving Native American use of eagles in religious ceremonies, suggesting that the issue ultimately may have to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Much of Friday's case turned on the question of whether he could have applied for a special permit to kill a bald eagle. The Interior Department says such a permit system exists, designed to accommodate Native American religious needs that can't be satisfied by the eagle carcasses distributed by the repository.
Unaware of permit program
But testimony at a hearing on Friday's case showed that the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the Interior Department, has never publicized the existence of that permit system and that most Native Americans, including Friday and the Northern Arapaho elders, were unaware of it. Moreover, the government has received just 11 applications for such permits and approved only five of them.
To Downes, that meant even if Friday had known about such a permit and applied for one, the request would have been futile.
Yet the question of killing bald eagles is a sensitive one for Native Americans, many of whom take the side of the government and agree that restrictions on their use are necessary to preserve the majestic birds, whose numbers in North America are believed by biologists to have exceeded 250,000 before Europeans arrived.
"I think you'll find the majority of native individuals are very averse to killing the birds," said David Redhorse, a Navajo who is a Native American liaison officer with the Fish and Wildlife Service. "They would rather have people follow these rules than go out there and shoot them."
----------
hwitt@tribune.com
American Indian tests strict federal protection
By Howard Witt
Tribune senior correspondent
Published January 29, 2007
ETHETE, Wyo. -- Winslow Friday needed a bald eagle. A sacred Northern Arapaho Indian religious ceremony was approaching, and Friday needed an eagle's wing, plume and feathers to perform his part of an ancient ritual Sun Dance so that his prayers would be carried up to God.
So Friday went out with his rifle one day in March 2005 and shot one of the rare birds as it soared above the sprawling Wind River Indian Reservation in western Wyoming. In killing the eagle, Friday believed, he was answering a higher calling and fulfilling a solemn religious duty.
But he also was breaking the law--a strict federal statute intended to safeguard the nation's symbolic bird that bars anyone from even touching a bald eagle feather without explicit government permission. Friday's own uncle, a wildlife officer on the reservation, reported the shooting to federal officials, and Friday soon was arrested and charged with violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Now, as Friday's case makes its way through the courts--possibly on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court--it has become a closely watched test of the federal government's ability to balance two sharply conflicting obligations: the congressional mandate to protect a fragile national symbol, and the constitutional requirement to protect a fragile Native American way of life.
"You can practice religion the way you want anywhere else in the United States, and that was what I was trying to do, but I got in trouble for it," said Friday, 22, an oil-field worker. "I know I broke the law and all, but I had no choice. If we don't have an eagle for the Sun Dance, we have to get one somehow."
But officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say such attitudes could decimate the bald eagle population.
"I know what the demand is for the birds," said Gary Mowad, a special agent in charge of law enforcement for the Fish and Wildlife Service. "If we were to allow the taking of the birds from the wild for religious purposes, I believe strongly the populations could not withstand that kind of pressure."
Collecting dead eagles
Native Americans across the nation revere the eagle as a sacred bird, and many of the estimated 46,000 practitioners of Native American religions require the use of eagle feathers, tails, wings or heads for various ceremonies.
But the demand for eagle parts far outpaces the supply: There are only 7,700 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the continental U.S., and even though their numbers have rebounded enough to prompt their pending removal from the Endangered Species List, conservationists say they still require extreme protections to prevent overhunting and poaching.
To try to meet the religious needs of Native Americans for eagles, the U.S. Department of the Interior set up a special repository in Colorado more than a decade ago to collect the carcasses of eagles that die of natural causes or perish from accidents, electrocution, poisoning or illegal hunting. Certified members of Native American tribes can apply to receive whole eagles or parts, which they are permitted to keep or pass along to family members or other Native Americans.
But many Native Americans have long regarded the repository as an imperfect solution. The waiting list for whole eagles is long: It can take more than three years for a request to be fulfilled. And the carcasses, sometimes damaged or decomposing, are not considered clean for some rituals that require an eagle to be freshly killed according to certain rules.
That was the dilemma Friday said he faced as the July 2005 date for his Sun Dance ceremony approached. There was no time to obtain from the repository the eagle parts he needed, and in any event a carcass of unknown origin would not fit the spiritual needs of the ceremony.
What's more, Friday and his tribal elders bristled at the notion that they should have to get government permission to conduct their sacred ceremonies.
"You can compare our use of eagles to the Christian church taking the wine and wafers," said Jerry Redman, an elder and religious leader. "It's not right that we should have to fill out an application to practice our religion."
Last October, a federal judge in Wyoming essentially agreed, dismissing the charge against Friday and excoriating the government for the "callous indifference" it showed to Native American religious practices.
"It is clear to this court," U.S. District Judge William Downes wrote in his ruling, "that the government has no intention of accommodating the religious beliefs of Native Americans except on its own terms and in its own good time."
But federal prosecutors filed notice that they intend to appeal the dismissal. Appellate courts in other jurisdictions have reached contradictory conclusions when faced with similar cases involving Native American use of eagles in religious ceremonies, suggesting that the issue ultimately may have to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Much of Friday's case turned on the question of whether he could have applied for a special permit to kill a bald eagle. The Interior Department says such a permit system exists, designed to accommodate Native American religious needs that can't be satisfied by the eagle carcasses distributed by the repository.
Unaware of permit program
But testimony at a hearing on Friday's case showed that the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is part of the Interior Department, has never publicized the existence of that permit system and that most Native Americans, including Friday and the Northern Arapaho elders, were unaware of it. Moreover, the government has received just 11 applications for such permits and approved only five of them.
To Downes, that meant even if Friday had known about such a permit and applied for one, the request would have been futile.
Yet the question of killing bald eagles is a sensitive one for Native Americans, many of whom take the side of the government and agree that restrictions on their use are necessary to preserve the majestic birds, whose numbers in North America are believed by biologists to have exceeded 250,000 before Europeans arrived.
"I think you'll find the majority of native individuals are very averse to killing the birds," said David Redhorse, a Navajo who is a Native American liaison officer with the Fish and Wildlife Service. "They would rather have people follow these rules than go out there and shoot them."
----------
hwitt@tribune.com