Religious Freedom and the Bald Eagle

What happens when native American spirituality collides with an American national symbol?

In 2012, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave the northern Arapaho in Wyoming a permit to kill two bald eagles. According to this story in the Associated Press,  the permit was “issued after the Northern Arapaho Tribe filed a federal lawsuit last year contending the refusal to issue such permits violates tribal members’ religious freedom.”

Many native American tribes use eagle parts, especially feathers, as part of religious ceremonies.  An Arapaho elder told NPR in 2012 that “his tribe uses eagle-tail fans and eagle-bone whistles in several tribal ceremonies and settings, including sun dances, powwows and sweat lodges.”

But many conservationists oppose the permit because bald eagles are an endangered species.

Who’s right? The Native Americans or the conservationists?

This might be an interesting debate for religion students when we cover indigenous religions. Here’s a list of some of the stories about the issue that students might read.

And above, you can watch a TED presentation by photographer Aaron Huey about the Pine Ridge Indian reservation.

Thanks to Mike Gwaltney for his blog post about this issue which you can see here.

• From Retuers:  Killing of bald eagles divides Native American tribes
• From NPR: Wyoming Tribe Wins Right To Hunt Two Bald Eagles
• From the Daily News: Northern Arapaho Indian Tribe gets right to kill bald eagles
• From the US Fish & Wildlife Service: Bald Eagle Take Permit Issued for Religious Purposes
• From Findlaw: Killing Bald Eagles: Feds Give First-Ever Permit
• From Change.org: Stop the Killing of Bald Eagles