Sunday, March 18, 2012

Native Americans Wait Years For a Single Eagle Feather; Wind Farms ... Not So Long

While viewing the following video, remember: wind farms have a license to kill migratory birds, including bald eagles and whooping cranes.


Outrage over native Americans given license to kill two bald eagles
 
The Billings Gazette has several stories on eagles and native Americans. If interested, follow the link. It's the same old story, about how only native Americans can have the feathers of eagles, etc., and how it's a long wait to get them through the repository and  how it's illegal to kill them, etc. Somewhere I believe one of the articles said there were now 10,000 pair of bald eagles in the US now, compared with 417 pair in 1963.
And then this obligatory paragraph:
Eagles can't be killed legally and their parts can't be sold, transported, traded, imported or exported. Even possession of post-Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act eagle parts requires a permit. Eagle parts can be handed down through families or given to other Native Americans for religious purposes. They can't be given to a non-Indian.
I don't know where this stands now, nor exactly how the law reads or will read, but it is pretty much understood that wind farm promoters have a license to kill eagles. No one will be held accountable for deaths of bald eagles (or other migratory and protected birds, such as whooping cranes) due to wind turbines.

No one will ever know how many eagles and other migratory birds will be killed by wind turbines; the carcasses will be picked up by scavengers.

I don't know if the links will last very long; in the big scheme of things, it no longer matters. The Federal bureaucracy has sided with the faux-environmentalists and against the eagles. It no longer makes sense to ban native Americans from killing bald eagles; my hunch is they would protect the sacred bald eagle with more seriousness and more compassion than the wind farm promoters.

And so it goes.

Oh, that's it. I was trying to remember why I even decided to post this "old" story. Now I remember. I didn't read every last word in the several articles at the link above, but a quick look suggested that "wind turbine" was not mentioned once in any of the articles.

2 comments:

  1. Speaking from experience, that law is still in place. There are a few reservations with colleges on them, and as a part of the graduation ceremony, at least one of them, gives an Eagle's feather to the Graduating Seniors. However, this priviledge is exclusive ton only the Native American Indian, but not to non-Indian simply because possession of that single feather, due to federal law, no matter how received or achieved, could get that person jail time and fines.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the update.

      I have flip-flopped on this issue. At one time I strongly supported the Federal program vis a vis bald eagle feathers and the American Indian.

      I no longer support the Federal program (at least the little bit I know about it). The government could easily relax the program to some extent and provide means for more feathers for native Americans, particularly in light of fact that wind farm developers have a license to kill eagles and whooping cranes.

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