Native American gets OK to use eagle feathers in religious practices

By The Associated Press

08.06.02

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DENVER — The government must return eagle feathers to a descendant of American Indians so he can use them in religious practices, a federal appeals court has ruled.

In a case that weighed freedom of religion against the government's ability to protect bald and golden eagles, the full 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld a lower court's ruling that the seizure of the feathers violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Prosecutors had appealed the ruling in the case of Joseluis Saenz, one of three people who had asked a federal appeals court to allow them to use eagle feathers in their religious practices, even though they are not members of federally recognized American Indian tribes.

Saenz is a New Mexico resident and descendant of the Chiricahua Apaches, a tribe that is no longer recognized by the government. The other two cases involve Utah residents Raymond Hardman and Samuel Ray Wilgus, who are not American Indians but who still want to use the feathers for religious purposes.

A lower court rejected the non-Native Americans' arguments and the federal appeals court remanded the other two cases to the lower court, asking it to reconsider whether the government is applying the act too stringently by allowing only federally recognized tribes to use the eagle feathers.

In all three cases, the government argued that only members of federally recognized tribes should be allowed to use the feathers.

Government attorneys have said the demand for eagle feathers exceeds the government's supply in a repository in the Denver area.

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Full appeals court hears eagle-feather debate
10th Circuit weighs whether people who aren't members of federally recognized Indian tribes have right to use feathers in religious practices.  01.16.02

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