ODANAH - As bald eagle populations continue to recover throughout the country, wait times for eagle feathers for use in ceremonies by Indigenous people has been significantly reduced.
“Eagle feathers are of great significance to many tribal communities across the United States and Canada,” said Dylan Jennings, spokesman for the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission based in Odanah. “Many local Ojibwe communities recognize the eagle as a traditional clan symbol with an abundance of related teaching.”
Eagle feathers are illegal for non-Indigenous people to possess. And when an eagle dies, either through natural or man-made causes, such as being struck by a vehicle while scavenging on the roadway, the distribution of its feathers to Indigenous people is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Eagle Repository.
The Repository receives eagles from all over the U.S. from federal, tribal and state conservation agencies, zoological parks or federal rehabilitators.
In previous years, requests for an eagle by Indigenous people could take as long as two years to fill, but as of July, the wait time is about five months.
The GLIFW recently announced the shorter wait times emphasizing that migizi (Ojibwe for bald eagle) share a unique relationship with Indigenous people across Turtle Island, or North America.
“Eagle feathers are important for both cultural and spiritual purposes,” Jennings said. “Many times, eagle feathers are given to individuals that demonstrate leadership to recognize an individual’s accomplishments.”
Ceremonies differ across the tribes.
“Different nations use different ‘parts,’ or better, gifts from Eagle for different purposes,” said Karen Ann Hoffman, an Oneida artist.
The population of the bald eagle, the national bird, had declined dramatically from the 1940s to the early 1970s and had been labeled as an endangered species.
Widespread of the pesticide DDT by farmers had interfered with the eagle’s reproductive ability.
The use of DDT was banned in 1972, but bald eagle populations still struggled to recover because the chemical remains in the environment for a long time.
But for the last 20 years, eagle populations have been growing by a rate of about 8% per year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Although there was a 31% increase in applications for bald eagle parts the last 10 years, or from 458 to 601 annually, according to the repository, there also has been an increase in incoming bald eagles by about 55%, or from 1,651 to 2,562 eagles annually.
The American Eagle Foundation reports that nesting pairs of bald eagles have increased in the U.S. by 4,000 to 5,000 from 2007 to 2014.
“This dramatic increase in incoming eagles has resulted in the ability to reduce wait times for both bald and immature bald eagles while also increasing the quality of orders being filled,” the repository said in a news release.
While the bald eagle is no longer protected as an endangered species, it is still protected by the Eagle Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Intentional killing or unauthorized possession of an eagle, alive or dead, carries civil penalties of a $5,000 fine or one year in prison and a felony conviction carries up to a $250,000 fine or two years in prison.
Enrolled tribal members must be at least 18 years old and submit an application for eagle parts.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has long recognized the religious and cultural significance of eagles to Native Americans and works to accommodate these special needs,” the agency said on its website.
Anyone who finds a dead eagle is urged to contact the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife field or refuge office, or a Midwest eagle biologist.
Frank Vaisvilas is a Report For America corps member based at the Green Bay Press-Gazette covering Native American issues in Wisconsin. He can be reached at 920-228-0437 or fvaisvilas@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @vaisvilas_frank. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a tax-deductible gift to this reporting effort at GreenBayPressGazette.com/RFA.
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