Feds grant Native American tribe permit to kill bald eagles for religious purposes

[rug]

March 15th, 2012
10:33 PM ET
By Eric Fiegel, CNN

Washington (CNN) - It's the symbol of America, and for the first time, the U.S. government has granted a Native American tribe a permit to kill two bald eagles for religious purposes.

The permit application was filed in 2008 by the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming and, after years of review, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued it on March 9.

"They did make a case for why the take of a bird from the wild was necessary," Matt Hogan, Denver regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service, told CNN.

Last year, the tribe filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the federal government for denying the application, saying it "unreasonably burdens the religious rights of tribal members," court documents stated.

The case is pending.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/15/feds-grant-permit-to-kill-bald-eagles/

[Politicalboi]

1. No animals should be allowed

To be used for sacrifice. Especially for some silly religious thing. Same with the whaling. If it's so important for tradition, then use the weapons your grand daddy used.

[Vincardog]

2. Of course not. No animal or person has ever been harmed by the practitioners of Judeo-Christian

beliefs. No. Not a single war has been started, not a single witch (burned/ stoned / racked / drown).
Never have we allowed a xtian zealot to murder Doctor.

No we can sit on our high moral horse and judge the savages on their beliefs.

[Mariana]

8. To be fair, xtian zealots aren't "allowed" to murder doctors.

They get prosecuted and convicted for that, and sometimes they even get executed (e.g. Paul Hill).

However, xtian zealots are allowed to encourage and incite other xtian zealots to murder doctors. That is permitted.

[TalkingDog]

3. My understanding was that there was a potential for catch and release. And they only want 2 birds.

Managed culling. While I don't like it, I would put it above what the hunters do to the deer they kill around my place every fall. They take the best parts and leave perfectly good meat to rot and draw scavengers, some of which carry rabies. And not just one deer, we've found up to 1/2 a dozen carcasses dumped in the same location.

It's not like it doesn't happen on a daily basis anyway. You can go to certain neighborhoods in Florida cities and find a man or a woman who will kill a cockerel to satisfy certain religious requirements. Generally the bird is eaten after the blood is cast about on the ground and certain other ritual requirements are met.

[tama]

4. "bird from the wild"

The "wild" is the view of the European invaders, together with "savage". Natives considered prairies and forests and mountains not "wild" but home, land that they belong to.

I've been in a ceremony where a friend was unexpectedly given an eagle feather by Flying Eagle, both men with scars from earlier initiations by life and ritual, and he made a song about that event:

In my language the original word for "hunting" was and is "to ask". Therefore I can see strange beauty and respect and forgiveness in this act of a tribe asking the US government - who stole their land and still does not see it as home but wild to be spoiled - instead of just "poaching" with a right higher than US laws.

***

How do you capture a beautifull bird without killing its spirit?

There may be many good answers to that riddle and all of them equally true. From what I have had the honour and pleasure to witness, the spirit of the beautifull birds that gave Flying Eagle his name and my friend a feather lives on and flies high and strong.

Noble creatures give their lives and deaths freely and willingly for the benefit and healing of those who suffer greatly.

[rug]

5. "To ask".

Perfect.

[tama]

6. All is. :)

And there is similar double meaning also to the English word 'pray'.

Flying Eagle taught us in the ceremony that it is important to pray aloud, to put your wishes into words, as we are talking beings. And another friend taught and warned me that a prayer to some external force or being is an unnecessary bypass and often tricky and slippery road - to put it kindly - as nothing else is needed except heart's desire.

[FarCenter]

9. "Prey" and "pray" are two entirely different words

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=prey

mid-13c., "animal hunted for food," from O.Fr. preie "booty, animal taken in the chase" (mid-12c.), from L. praeda "booty, plunder, game hunted," earlier praeheda, related to prehendere "to grasp, seize" (see prehensile). The verb meaning "to plunder, pillage, ravage" is attested from late 13c., from O.Fr. preer, earlier preder (c.1040), from L.L. praedare. Its sense of "to kill and devour" is attested from mid-14c.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pray

late 13c., "ask earnestly, beg," also "pray to a god or saint," from O.Fr. preier (c.900), from L. precari "ask earnestly, beg," from *prex (plural preces, gen. precis) "prayer, request, entreaty," from PIE root *prek- "to ask, request, entreat" (cf. Skt. prasna-, Avestan frashna- "question;" O.C.S. prositi, Lith. prasyti "to ask, beg;" O.H.G. frahen, Ger. fragen, O.E. fricgan "to ask" a question). Parenthetical expression I pray you, “please, if you will,” attested from 1510s, contracted to pray 16c.

[Goblinmonger]

7. We have fucked over the Native Americans plenty.

It is surprising how many people still see them as heathen savages to this day. Good for the government for letting them do this.