Murdering Eagles in Wyoming
Murder of Eagles, corrupt tribe gets permission to kill 2 Eagles
UPDATE || Killing Divides Tribes, additional narrative by opposed tribe, read more here....
These photos show human beings abusing the sacred feathers of the Eagle. Not one of these people are using feathers in a sacred manner. They are using them to show off, strut and behave with arrogance. They are disgracing the sacred. Read more below the photos......
The Wyoming Northern Arapaho Tribe has somehow gotten permission to kill 2 bald eagles for what they describe as “religious needs”.
American Indians have long had the right to hold Eagle feathers and other parts of the Eagle for religious and cultural purposes. Otherwise, the Federal Government considers it a felony for any citizen to possess any part of an eagle for any reason.
The US government in fact maintains an “Eagle feather repository” where dead eagles, for whatever reason, are sent for reclaimation. Tribal members can fill out documents and request feathers from this repository for religious needs. It is very slow, the process and the feathers that are delivered are often to damaged to be used in ceremony. It is not a good program.
Anyone who has ever visited an American Indian pow-wow will see thousands of Eagle feathers. Pow-wows are not sacred events. They are commercial events. Pow-wows have nothing to do with any traditional American Indian religion. They got started after WW 2 as a way for tribes to make money from tourists. While many American Indians have a real passion for these commercial events, they have nothing to do with any tribal religion.
At a commercial pow-wow you can often see little children wearing dozens of fine Eagle feathers on their dance costumes….along with adults. These feathers are being abused and used in non-religious or traditional ways, but I am probably the only person to ever say this out loud.
I hold a number of Eagle feathers. They are a very important part of my ceremonial duties. Each one was gifted to me by tribal elders as I moved through my life, over many years. I did not kill anyone or anything to get them. Some of them have been passed down through many generations.
The average person knows nothing about these eagle feathers. Right now, the news in Indian Country is that this permit to murder Eagles is some sort of victory. I do not think it is. I think it is bad news.
There are so many Eagle feathers in the hands of idiots, in the costumes of pow-wow dancers and used by other arrogant American Indians to strut around and show off, uses that have nothing to do with the sacred. The abuse of the sacred by pow-wow Indians has long been a disgrace to the sacred teachings of the Elders of all tribes.
I believe there are more than enough Eagle feathers to help every American Indian without allowing the sanctioned murder of eagles in the United States. I say shame, shame, shame on the Northern Arapaho Tribe for this insult to reason and honor and this abuse of the word Sacred.
