Eagles slaughtered for cherished parts

[debbieredbear]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002412336_eagles31m.html

Sunday, July 31, 2005 - Page updated at 12:24 AM

Eagles slaughtered for cherished parts

By Maureen O'Hagan

Seattle Times staff reporter



Evidence used in the case against Terry Antoine included bald-eagle
features, a traditional Indian rattle made from the feet and head of an
eagle, and a collection of eagle beaks.



KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

Leonard George, seen in front of an image of his father, Chief Dan George,
said the killing of dozens of eagles is wanton slaughter that has nothing to
do with religion.



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NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. — Amy Marie George just couldn't catch her breath.

She had walked this short trail near her house hundreds of times, but on
this afternoon in February she had to send her grandchildren ahead to get an
old asthma inhaler she hadn't used in more than a year.

"I heard my granddaughter say, 'There's an eagle here,' " recalled George,
an elder with the Tsleil-Waututh (SLAY wa-tuth) Nation. "I got such a bad
feeling."

Then her grandson Jonas called out. "There's one here!

"And another one here!"

In all, there were 14 dead eagles strewn about the dirt. And it was no
accident.

"They have no feet!" George recalls 10-year-old Jonas saying. Their wings
were lopped off, too.

Under the trees that have stood over this land for generations, where George
lived simply but felt rich walking among the sacred living things all
around, she and the children began to cry.

Jonas, who believed that wherever he went an eagle was watching him, sobbed
until his uncle brushed him with sage and sang an eagle song. George prayed.
"You didn't deserve this," she said.

George and her grandchildren had stumbled upon evidence of an international
black market, one that fuels the illegal slaughter of an estimated 500
eagles each year in southwest British Columbia alone, and an unknown number
in Washington state.




Their discovery brought to at least 50 the total number of dead eagles found
between February and March in and around the Tsleil-Wautuths' tiny Indian
reserve.

The black market begins around the salmon runs, where gorging eagles are
easy prey for poachers; it arrives in the U.S. tucked in the suitcases of
smugglers; and it fans out across America, where investigators sometimes
refer to eagles as "flying $1,000 bills."

Because of the large number of eagles in British Columbia, Washington state
has been a key entry point for smugglers.

According to wildlife officials in Canada and the U.S., the parts find their
way to uses ranging from high-end artwork to wiccan ceremonies. But
officials say the biggest demand is at Native American powwows, where
feathered regalia can help competitive dancers win thousands of dollars in
prizes.

To George, it was simple.

"This," she said, "is murder."

But catching the culprits has proven to be no easy task.


Shrouded investigations


Paul Weyland likes to keep a low profile.

As a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent who investigates organized poaching rings,
he works in an unmarked office building in a bland business strip on the
outskirts of Bellingham.

Official correspondence carries a P.O. Box address, rather than the street
address, ever since Weyland got a vaguely threatening letter from a
disgruntled hunter. He carries a holstered gun even though much of his work
is at a desk.

[debbieredbear]

For the past few months, Weyland has been investigating possible stateside
links to the B.C. eagle case.

U.S. law prohibits killing eagles, or possessing any eagle part — even just
a feather — without a permit. Selling them is also prohibited, as is
transporting them across the border. Canadian law is similar, but some
important differences may make Weyland the key to bringing the B.C. eagle
killers to justice.

Canadian officials are unsure whether a law which protects the right of
First Nations people to harvest wildlife that they've traditionally
harvested can be applied to eagles. As a result, they're not even certain
how they would charge a suspect in the eagle-slaying case.

While Fish and Wildlife agents sometimes don't get the respect of, say, FBI
agents, they believe their job is sometimes tougher. For example, they don't
have the luxury of security-camera videotapes, like the FBI does in
bank-robbery cases. And they can't exactly interview a victim's family to
retrace his steps.

"You can't go back and say, 'When was the last time you saw Mr. Eagle?' "
Weyland said, having some fun.

There usually are no witnesses to wildlife crimes, "except a deer or an elk,
and they're not much help," he added.

So how do they catch these criminals? Kevin Ellis, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
agent who's handled a number of eagle cases, says undercover investigations
are often the only option.

"There's a huge underground network, and people are connected from British
Columbia clear into Florida," he said.

The market is driven largely by the tremendous popularity of Native American
powwows. At these large social gatherings, dancing and drumming are the
focus, and performers compete in elaborate traditional dress.

Ellis takes pains to point out that not all powwow dancers get their
feathers illegally, and that the vast majority of Native Americans think
it's wrong to kill eagles and sell their parts.

Nonetheless, he said, in the past few decades, powwows have grown so popular
that some performers make a living competing on the circuit. At the biggest
powwow, as much as $100,000 is given out in prizes.

That kind of money has spurred a demand that a limited supply of lawful
eagle parts can't fill.


A sacred bird


What is it about eagles?

To Leonard George, a member of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and the son of the
late actor Chief Dan George, when you see an eagle, "no matter what
nationality you are, you almost feel blessed. You feel a little bit better
than you did before."

For many Indians, these grand birds are sacred because they fly high and
carry messages to the Creator. Some compare the symbolic importance of the
eagle in Indian religions to the cross in Christianity.

Their sacred status means their parts are often needed for religious
ceremonies. Indians traditionally killed the birds sparingly, accompanied by
prayer and thanks and elaborate rituals. And for years, this wasn't a
problem. Eagles were plentiful.

But as the continent was developed, the great bird's population dwindled.
Pesticides were the main culprit, and at one point, the birds nearly
disappeared from the lower 48 states.

In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Act to outlaw the killing,
possession or sale of eagles. Later, Congress added golden eagles to the
act.

The population has made a comeback, with about 6,000 nesting pairs counted
in the lower 48 in 2000, although they are still on the list of threatened
species.

Native Americans, however, were given some leeway under the Act: They may
possess eagle parts that have been handed down through the generations, and
they may get new eagles through a federal repository, where dead eagles from
zoos or those found in the wild are sent for distribution to tribes.

[debbieredbear]

There's just one problem: There are thousands of Native Americans who want
parts, but not enough repository eagles to go around. Sometimes it takes as
long as four years to get a bird.

Federal judges, ruling in cases where Native Americans used their religion
as a justification for eagle offenses, have found the repository system
"utterly offensive and ultimately ineffectual."

Waiting lists that essentially prevent Native Americans from getting
religious objects, they have repeatedly ruled, substantially interfere with
their religious rights. Although the vast majority of Native Americans are
appalled by what happened in British Columbia, they say the repository
system just doesn't work.

"The U.S. Constitution affords protection for religion, but when it comes to
Native Americans, they find every loophole not to be accommodating to us,"
said Wilson Wewa Jr., a Paiute Indian.


Justice proves elusive


It's telling that while eagle poaching is said to be common, few cases have
been prosecuted.

One eagle poacher was nabbed in Oregon after a tipster reported he had an
off-season deer in his truck. Responding officers found bags of still-warm
birds, as well. Nathan Jim Jr. pleaded guilty to eagle possession, but told
the judge he was only doing what his elders had asked of him — gathering
eagle feathers to use in burial ceremonies.

"I end up breaking this government's law for my religious rights as a human
being," Jim told a judge, referring to the federal permit system.

Some tribal members, however, suspected he was selling the eagle parts.

One of the biggest black-market eagle dealers prosecuted in the U.S. was
done in by a Sam's Club phone card.

According to court documents, it was the winter of 1999 and Rosa Linda
Burton was sick and tired of the smell coming from a storage area adjacent
to her residence in Duncan, B.C., just outside of Victoria.

She also was tired of waiting for her boyfriend, Terry Antoine, to come
back. He had left the area the previous fall.

When the Canadian authorities opened the storage area they found parts from
124 eagles, some of them rotting and putrid, according to court records.
They also found a receipt for a storage unit in Fife, Pierce County, where
U.S. officials discovered parts from about 30 more eagles.

As Burton later explained to a federal jury in Seattle, she accompanied
Antoine on a long road trip in 1998 with a duffel bag he packed with eagle
parts. They stopped in Tacoma, where Antoine took the bag into a bead store.

They made their way to Grand Coulee Dam and Montana, California and Arizona,
stopping at powwows where Antoine met with fellow Indians. By the time they
returned home, the duffel bag was empty.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent Tom Chisdock learned that Antoine, a member of
the Cowichan Band, obtained his eagles in Canada, giving acquaintances $25
to $50 per bird. Then he sold or traded them in the U.S., mainly along the
powwow trail, for approximately $250 to $400 a part.

But other than the eagles themselves, the hard evidence was scattershot:
hearsay from an angry ex-girlfriend with a criminal record, hand-written
notes that might be sales records, receipts from U.S. businesses.

It took three years for Chisdock to put together a case. But he still had to
find Antoine, who seemed to have simply vanished.

Then investigators had an idea. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Micki
Brunner, who would prosecute Antoine, they began tracing calls Antoine made
on his Sam's Club phone card.

"We had it narrowed down to about three phone booths," Brunner explained.

Antoine was arrested in May 2001 outside a bagel shop in Hollywood, Fla.
When his case was heard by a Seattle jury later that year, it was almost as
if the whole system was on trial.

Antoine claimed he was a "mask dancer," a position of importance in his
culture, and one that involves conducting rituals and blessings using eagle
parts. Without the parts, he claimed, he could not practice these religious
rites.

Moreover, he claimed, he wasn't selling eagles; he gave them to other Native
Americans. The small amounts of money he received were traditional gifts for
a weary traveler. He described it as repayment for gas and food, and
compared it to the traditional practice of bartering.

"This wasn't like a drug case where he's making lots of money and living the
high life," said his attorney, Michael Filipovic. "For him, it was a matter
of true belief." Indeed, when Antoine was arrested, he was living in his
car.

Prosecutors did not challenge Antoine's religious beliefs. But they argued
that money changed hands, which took it out of the realm of religion and
made it a commercial operation that the government had a right to bar.

The jury sided with prosecutors, and Antoine was sentenced to two years in
federal prison.

While most of the eagles originated in Canada, and charges were filed there,
he was never prosecuted in that country. Canadian officials said the
Washington conviction was enough.

Even so, the vagaries of Canadian law would have posed difficulties.


Legal right to eagles?

[debbieredbear]

Colin Copland, a British Columbia conservation officer, pulls one heavy
plastic bag after another out of a walk-in evidence freezer. Each bag is
tagged; one reads:"#10 bald eagle immature, found in pile of five." They are
among the 50 or so birds found last winter, some of them by Amy Marie
George.

Their down is matted and their feet cut off at the joint, like a
Thanksgiving turkey leg. They don't look grand at all.

Officers will store the eagles as evidence until the case concludes. But
some observers wonder if there will be a case at all.

B.C.'s Wildlife Act outlaws poaching or trafficking in eagles. Canadian law
also bans exporting them, and fines can reach $150,000.

However, another Canadian law may trump those measures. Under the Canadian
constitution, First Nations have a right to wildlife they've traditionally
harvested. In B.C., they have used this law mainly to protect their
traditional fishing grounds, arguing that some regulations would bar their
longstanding food-gathering or cultural practices.

But the law has never been sorted out when it comes to eagles. First Nations
have always used eagles as part of their culture and ceremonies, but does
that mean that they're allowed to sell the parts? And how many eagles may
they kill? Canadian officials remain unsure. A team of prosecutors is
researching the law and Indian history to see how a suspect might be
charged.

Meanwhile, Canadian wildlife authorities announced in April that they'd
identified a suspect: a member of a First Nation who lived in British
Columbia. They said he acted as a sort of ringleader, paying other people,
some of them Indians, to bring him dead eagles.

But instead of arresting the suspect, Canadian officials simply asked him to
come forward on his own.

"They were trying to appeal to the guy's conscience," Weyland explained of
this unusual tactic. Others are convinced that investigators lacked hard
evidence and didn't have many options.

It's unclear at this point whether the suspect has come forward. What is
clear is that the Tsleil-Waututh are getting tired of waiting.


Guilt by association


All winter and spring, members of the tiny North Vancouver band taking the
bus into town felt like other passengers were pointing and whispering.

"Once they think an Indian did it, every Indian they meet is guilty," said
Tsleil-Waututh Chief Leah George-Wilson, a niece of Amy Marie George.

Some see the eagle killers as exploiting legal loopholes to make a quick
buck. Other critics say government officials haven't made arrests because
they "don't want any waves" with First Nations.

Leonard George has heard it all. As he points out, the Canadian government
(like the U.S. government) has a history of abuses against Native people and
worked for years to eradicate their culture. Connecting this slaughter in
any way with Indian tradition, he said, is wrong.

"This is a criminal act and it doesn't have nothing to do with culture and
tradition," he said.

The Tsleil-Waututh, they explained, are just as outraged as anyone — if not
more so. To them, killing and dismembering dozens of eagles is wanton
slaughter. Dumping them here made it all the more wrong. It felt as if
someone had hurt their children or grandmother, said Leonard George, as if
someone were "stomping on your spirit."

The band of 397 Indians pulled together $2,000 to contribute to a reward
fund for the arrest of the eagle slayer. The reward now totals $12,000.

Amy Marie George, meanwhile, can't shake the image of the 14 dead birds she
found months ago. She's hoping to hold a ceremony, inviting people from all
over the area, to put the eagles to rest.

"I want to say to them, 'Keep coming back,' " she said.

"Because we're not the ones who hurt you."

Seattle Times news researcher Justin Mayo contributed to the report.

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562




Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

[Matthew Bowerman]

You would think the killing of any eagle would be considered a crime, regardless of faith. I guess I always thought the feathers were taken from eagles that had passed on naturally.  The idea of buying an eagle feather is beyond me.  I always thought they should be given, and only then for special reasons.  I would think that Pow Wow feathers should be hand painted for the larger items.  Like I said, I do not know much.  

Matt

[AlaskaGrl]

You would think the killing of any eagle would be considered a crime, regardless of faith.?

Matt

?
The bigger picture you are missing is that Eagles, as like Florida Panthers here in my state, were cherished and used by indigenous cultures looong before the land was invaded and taken from them. ?  These people should have the right to the parts or to hunt them (as panthers have been in my State) or to watch them wheel about in the sky overhead. ?

Indian Pow Wow Dancers buying feathers illegally? I don't know about.  How do or do they account for their feathers?   I would like to hear more about this from Indians on this list as I don't know much and don't want to judge.

Has anyone stopped to think how many Nature Centers are across the US?  Most of them have Eagles in their care.  How many of them have twinks that do programs for them or other wannabees?  I see an outlet for illegal feathers right there.  

Now the stupid twinks out there and dumb A pagans and "Wiccan" wannabees that get these feathers cause they know someone who.... or buys one from someone --they make me ill. ?  They hurt us all. ? Don't get me going, you don't want me to rant. ? But yes there are illicit trades in everything it seems. ? It has to stop.

?  
Linda.

[Barnaby_McEwan]

...stupid twinks out there and dumb A pagans and "Wiccan" wannabees...

Heh, well I'm going to rant...

My gf is a wild-bird rehabilitator (sorry to keep mentioning it but I'm really proud of what she does). She gets a fair number of idiots doing things like bringing live injured birds to her in sealed containers without air-holes, or containers with no lid which the bird escapes from in their car. By far the biggest category of idiot is the clueless hippie/neo-pagan/newager who thinks that because they like animals, no wild animal could posssibly be afraid of them, and that they will 'intuitively' know how to treat a bird casualty and what to feed it.

I've lost count of the number of idiots who've given a bird 'rescue remedy' - a nostrum popular with hippies which is mostly alcohol (NEVER give alcohol to a bird!) - and then cuddled it on their lap 'til it died, reporting that it liked being stroked! NO, it didn't like it, you fool! It was terrified and weak and you finished it off!

Last week someone called to say he'd been feeding a raven with 'a lightly broken wing' in his garden for *three weeks*. He described himself as ' a very animal-conscious person'. Good one, hippie, the wing is now badly set and the bird will never fly again!

And don't even get me started on the scumbags who come sniffing around pretending they want to help but who are really only interested in getting their hands on some feathers or bones!

*chews chunk out of table*

[vikinglady]

That´s absolutely horrible, Barnaby!!!

Which reminds me of something similar.

When I had a young hoop-dancer staying with me, some nuager phoned up and asked me if I could ask the Indian if he could see if her cat, which had got lost some months ago, was alive or dead. (Like don´t *all* Indians channel strayed cats?!) Well, that guy was partying like crazy and I told her I didn´t think he would even see the difference between a cat and a dog, and especially not a presumably dead cat!

She came to his performance next day and then, a week later, she phoned up. On the way home from the show she had almost ran over THE CAT, which the Indian had magically "danced out" from the forest in order to help her!  

The cat was absolutely wild and also injured and it didn´t recognize her so she had to get the Fire Brigade to help her catch it because he just refused to come with her. She had been trying for a week to heal him with different ceremonies (!!) but he didn´t get better and STILL didn´t recognize her! (Wouldn´t *anyone* else have realized that this was not her cat?!)

All her nuage friends had visited to look at "the miracle" and the story about what this Indian had done was all around town and just grew bigger and bigger. And although it is sad, the picture of this crazy woman , trying to explain to a Native guy with severe hang-over about this "cat-miracle" - well, just wish I had had a video camera!!

I think the cat died eventually - probably from a heartattack!! And that Native guy never came back.... :-/

Annika

[Barnaby_McEwan]

Sounds like both he and the cat were better off far away from loonies like that, Annika.

I'm sorry, Debbie, we've jumped all over your thread. Could you keep us updated on what happens? Wildlife crime, particularly persecution of birds of prey, just makes my blood boil. A local example:

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=143632&command=displayContent&sourceNode=142719&contentPK=12738796

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=142720&command=displayContent&sourceNode=142717&home=yes&contentPK=12742300&localNewsNodeId=142722

In the UK this persecution is mostly perpetrated by game-shooting or pigeon-racing interests, but I would not be surprised to find that a black-market demand for animal parts for 'shamanic' ceremonies here was stimulating the killing of protected species.

I once caught a local fraud waving a bunch of eagle feathers around in the street - I asked him what species the feathers were from and the question clearly took him by surprise - he hesitated and replied 'steppe eagle'. These birds are extremely rare in the wild in Europe.

There are three possibilities:

1. He didn't know which species the feathers came from and said the first thing that came into his head. Unlikely - most people have never heard of steppe eagles; also they are protected in the UK under CITES.

2. He knew he was in illegal possession of feathers from a protected species, and lied badly.

3. The feathers came from a captive-bred steppe eagle.

I tell myself the last is the most likely but I have a bad feeling still.