Elders get last word on use of eagle feathers

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The sight of an eagle soaring high above the earth, flying with the cloud people, is a powerful experience. In Aboriginal tradition, the eagle represents the strongest of spiritual powers, and when the bird dies, these powers remain in the feathers, claws and body parts.

Eagle feathers are in great demand for the traditional spiritual ceremonies of the Cree, Dene, Saulteaux, Dakota, Nakota and Lakota cultures in Saskatchewan, and in even greater demand for the competitive powwow circuit in North America.

In a unique partnership, Saskatchewan Environment and Resource Management (SERM) and the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre in Saskatoon, have joined hands to facilitate and manage a traditionally appropriate distribution of feathers and body parts for ceremonial use by First Nations peoples in the province.

The program, officially named Birds of Prey for Indian Ceremonial Use and known informally as the feather bank among traditional dancers, has been designed to acknowledge the unique relationship between Aboriginal people and wildlife and the right to that wildlife once conservation needs have been met.

"Birds of prey turned into or confiscated by Saskatchewan Fish and Wildlife officers are kept in a warehouse in Regina, and SERM lets us know when feathers are available," said Darlene Speidel, spokesperson for the Birds of Prey program.

Under the direction of the traditional council of Elders at the cultural centre, eligible birds are given into the care of the cultural resource co-ordinator who cleans, dissects, and prepares the feathers and body parts for distribution, keeping them in cold storage until needed.

When a significant number of feathers are available, the traditional council of Elders, made up of members from each of the different Aboriginal language groups in Saskatchewan, come together to sort through the application forms - called birds of prey feather/body part requests - to see how many requests can be filled, explained Speidel.

"Almost all of the applications we receive request feathers from immature golden eagles which are all white with black tips. There are not many requests for other raptors like owls, hawks and falcons and almost none for magpies, ravens or crows," she said.

When the panel of Elders are sifting through and considering individual applications, a great deal of expert knowledge and care goes into the descision-making process due to the sacredness and rarity of raptor feathers.

"First and foremost they are looking for Aboriginal practitioners such as sun dance leaders, medicine men and women or servers who would need a fan for ceremonial purposes. Veterans are given next consideration as are requests for feathers to dress an eagle staff. We also keep a few eagle feathers on hand for graduations and, in a few instances, feathers are given, at the request of a family, for a roach," said Speidel. A roach is a headdress made with white tail dear and porcupine fur with two feathers attached.

The cultural centre also receives requests for chief headdresses for pomp and circumstance occasions, cultural ceremonies and special gifts in the political arena.

The requests towards the creation of large traditional war bonnets or chiefs' hats have created some sticky problems, said Speidel.

Elders are not too keen about the use of eagle feathers in the creation of culturally generic "stock headdresses" for politicians, chiefs and grand chiefs and they are deeply concerned about the proper care and handling of these significant and valuable artifacts.

Trying to cross international borders with chief headdresses has caused more than one politician a few headaches and led to the creation of both domestic and international permits, issued by the Saskatchewan Fish and Wildlife branch of SERM.

When Ovide Mercredi was flying in from the United States to sign the treaty land entitlement agreement in 1993, he got hung up in customs and immigration because of the eagle feathers in his headdress.

nother interesting problem presented itself when the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre was asked to provide a chief hat for former prime minister Brian Mulroney, said Speidel.

The Elders decided not to present Mulroney with "the real thing" and ordered a headdress from Oklahoma made of handpainted turkey feathers. The effect was so convincing that officials at the Canada-U.S. border confiscated the hat for a time, believing it to be made of real eagle feathers, said Speidel.

Another controversial international incident took place at the National Museum of Barcelona in October 1998 between the Spanish Government and the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre, proving that the best laid plans can go wrong when it comes to the possession and display of eagle feathers.

Extensive work, planning and considerable expense went into the preparation of a traveling Saskatchewan Aboriginal cultural exhibit, which had been commissioned by the Spanish government to help promote better relations and understanding with Indigenous peoples.

The big crunch came during routine paperwork and rubber stamping in Spanish customs, explained Speidel, a member of the Canadian delegation to Spain.

Because the crates of artifacts and works of art from the cultural centre contained eagle feathers, the presiding officials at Spanish customs adamantly refused to release the complete exhibit for the entire duration of the delegation's visit to Barcelona.

And in a strange twist, the only Spanish official with the power to overturn the decision was said to be on holiday and unable to be reached.

"At no time in the preparations or communication with the Director of the National Museum in Barcelona did it ever come up that there would be a problem with Eagle feathers," said Speidel.

"We had even supplied them with a detailed listing of what was being crated and shipped for the SICC presentation and exhibit in advance."

"We have gotten official apologies, but that didn't help the situation because wewere never able to fully do what we had been commissioned to do, at great expense to the Spanish government itself."

Even stranger was the fact that a contingent of traditional dancers in Madrid at the same time doing dance presentations and workshops had no problems with their feathers, Speidel said. It was very ironic ending for an international cultural exchange in which the Spaniards were trying to develop good relations with Canadian Indigenous people."

The last and biggest category on the request list is from powwow dancers who want eagle feathers and body parts for traditional regalia, with preference going to veterans.

"Dancers are not a priority. Our Elders have said, over and over again, that what you see in today's modern powwows is violating traditional protocol, something they say has got way out of hand. They are very critical of large bustles and things like putting eagle heads on the backs of bustles or on dance sticks," said Speidel.

"If a traditional dancer is requesting an eagle head to put in the centre of their bustle, the panel of Elders would just garbage their application.

"We have even had requests ranging from 200 to 600 large feathers for an adult dance outfit. Not only do we not have that many feathers to distribute, our Elders would never allow such a thing."

Applications for eagle feathers, body parts and other birds of prey for use by Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan are available at district offices or through band offices and are sent to the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre and reviewed by the traditional council of Elders.

The feathers and body parts are normally distributed once each year during a ceremonial feast in June sponsored by the cultural centre with an equal distribution to the five tribal groups.