Jim Lyles forwarded this to me, and I thought it was a good follow-up to
the earlier posting. Bear in mind there are or have been in various parts
of our planet religious ceremonies involving the sacrifice of humans. I
wonder what would happen to a group who decided they needed a little of
that "ol'-time religion" and wanted to sacrifice a maiden or two. And
somehow I don't think a bible and an eagle are quite the same (see
attorney's argument below).

>------- Forwarded Message-------------------------------------
>
> 'The Eagle Morgue': Agency Struggles to Meet Demand for Sacred Treasure
>
> By JAMES BROOKE, _New York Times_ 11/25/96
>
> COMMERCE CITY, Colo. -- As a closed circuit camera scanned for
>intruders, Dennis Wiist swung open a heavy vault door to reveal his
>sacred treasure -- rows of plastic bags, each suspended by a meat hook,
>each containing one frozen eagle.
>
> The day before, in the Southwest, eight Indians had been arrested for
>taking golden and bald eagles the old way, with baited traps and rifle
>fire.
>
> But here on the outskirts of Denver last Friday, wildlife officials
>showed off the federally approved method for Indians to receive an eagle
>free of charge -- by filling out a four-page Native American Religious
>Purposes Permit Application and Shipping Request and forwarding it to the
>brand-new site of the National Eagle Repository.
>
> "Each person is entitled to one whole bird," said Bernadette Hilbourn,
>supervisor of "the eagle morgue," as wildlife biologists call the
>refrigerated warehouse that opened last year at the Rocky Mountain
>Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, a deactivated chemical weapons
>manufacturing center. "We send them out in overnight mail, packed in five
>pounds of dry ice."
>
> Under federal laws surrounding the national bird, an officially
>threatened species, ownership of bald eagle parts is largely restricted
>to Indians and educational institutions. Indians cannot sell parts to
>non-Indians. And the killing of eagles is illegal. The restrictions apply
>to golden eagles as well.
>
> According to prosecutors, the five Jemez Indians and three Navajos who
>were arrested on Thursday in New Mexico and Arizona were not killing
>eagles for religious purposes. They were feeding a clandestine tourist
>market for Indian-style fans and adornments, a market where a
>double-train Indian war bonnet can fetch $20,000.
>
> But this black market, coupled with a resurgence in Indian religious
>practices and a dearth of dead eagles in good shape, is forcing the Eagle
>Repository to manage scarcity.
>
> "Each year, we get about 900 birds -- and about 3,000 requests for
>birds," Ms. Hilbourn said Friday as she pulled out a yard-long drawer in
>a gray metal filing cabinet. At the back of the drawer was the most
>recent request, from the previous week. At the front of the drawer was a
>request that was being filled Friday, from 1994.
>
> "The requests move from the back to the front," the supervisor said,
>eyeing the drawer. "The waiting period is 24 to 30 months for a whole
>bird."
>
> Ms. Hilbourn said that 90 percent of the requests are for whole birds,
>although heads, talons and feathers are occasionally in demand. Orders
>for up to 15 feathers, the maximum allowed, are filled almost overnight
>from a "loose feather inventory" maintained in a separate walk-in cooler.
>
> The wait for a whole bird is too long, say members of the 200 tribes
>that routinely use them in their religious rites.
>
> Wildlife officials reply that they are hostage to the vagaries of a
>nationwide gathering network. From around the nation, wildlife offices
>ship here the carcasses of eagles killed accidentally -- birds that have
>been electrocuted by high voltage power lines, that have broken their
>necks by flying into poles, or that have been hit by cars as they fed on
>road kill.
>
> Eagle carcasses retrieved in the fall and winter are generally in better
>shape than carcasses found in the summer. Many eagles are so badly burned
>by power lines that only a few feathers are usable.
>
> "Sometimes all the feathers are burnt," Ms. Hilbourn said. "Of course,
>there are some people who will complain even if they get a perfect bird."
>
> Complaints by Indians about the long wait and the uneven quality of
>birds coming from the Repository have met with two changes.
>
> President Clinton has signed an order that reserves virtually all dead
>eagles for Indian religious uses, cutting off the supply to museums and
>schools. And Repository officials say they now express ship feathers and
>carcasses in case of medical emergencies.
>
> "If someone is dying of cancer, I will send ASAP, of course after
>checking with the BIA that the request is kosher," Ms. Hilbourn said,
>referring to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency that handles the
>preliminary phase of all eagle requests. "If someone is really sick, we
>will send tail feathers right away for that ceremony."
>
> Indians who try to bypass the Repository by shooting eagles flying
>overhead often find themselves facing federal prosecutors.
>
> Last year, Nathan Jim Jr., a Yakima Indian from Oregon, was informed
>that the federal government would not drop charges against him for
>killing eagles for religious ceremonies. A few days later, he shot
>himself to death.
>
> Next month, Robert Gonzales is to appear in court in Albuquerque, N.M.,
>for a pretrial hearing surrounding charges that he shot an eagle flying
>over the San Idelfonso Pueblo on Feb. 7, 1995. Gonzales has said that he
>applied for an eagle carcass from the federal government in the late
>1970s and never received a reply. Gonzales has described the majestic
>bird as "the heart of our religion."
>
> "The application process is intrusive, it asks for privileged, private
>matter as to why you need these feathers," Peter Schoenburg, Gonzales'
>lawyer, said Sunday. "There are initiation rites or death rites, where
>feathers are needed on short notice. Imagine having to order a Bible from
>a federal bureaucracy -- and then waiting three years."
>
> "The eagle is the messenger from the spirit world to the earth,"
>continued Schoenburg, who is basing part of his defense on
>religious-freedom grounds. "Without the proper feathers, there can be no
>communication. You can't
> just fake it with some turkey feathers."
>
> Disputes over eagles have also broken out between tribes.
>
> Last May, Navajo police briefly detained 11 Hopi Indians who were found
>trying to capture eaglets on Navajo lands.
>
> The Hopis say that for hundreds of years they have collected eaglets as
>a sacred religious duty. According to this ritual, eaglets are raised for
>several months in cages and then ceremonially killed in late summer.
>According to Hopi belief, eaglet spirits act as messengers, reporting
>back to Hopi deities about the needs and conditions of the Hopi people.
>
> However, the Hopi collect eaglets on traditional Hopi lands that are now
>part of the Navajo Reservation. Sometimes Navajo families hide eaglets
>when they learn that the Hopis are coming.
>
> This spring, the Hopis came, backed by a valid collection permit issued
>by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Walter Bighorse, a Navajo police
>lieutenant, said he expelled the Hopis because they did not have a Navajo
>permit.
>
> The nation's eagle feather shortage may gradually ease with the recovery
>of the nation's bald-eagle population. From a low of about 800 in the
>early 1960s, the population has rebounded to 12,000 today.
>
> The change can be seen at the refuge here, a sprawling stretch of plains
>that is midway from its past as a mustard gas production plant to its
>future as the nation's largest urban bird sanctuary.
>
> Modern Denver's fascination with eagles has helped build the political
>consensus necessary to convert this old arsenal from Army to recreational
>use.
>
> On the east side of the refuge stands "Eagle Watch," a bird blind
>inaugurated in 1990. Equipped with scopes and a television camera, the
>blind allowed thousands of Denverites to observe every winter the busiest
>eagle roost in this part of Colorado.
>
> "The eagles are a real draw," Jane M. Griess, a Wildlife Service
>biologist, said, referring to Denver's fascination with the 100 or so
>live eagles that pass through here ever winter. "The eagles are probably
>responsible for the decision to make the arsenal a wildlife refuge."
>
>Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 206-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 206-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
web site: http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html