Government birds of a feather overregulate together

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2015/11/06/government-birds-of-a-feather-overregulate-together/

Native American tribes contribute a great richness to our American heritage. Sadly, the beliefs and traditions of many tribes, such as the Lipan Apache tribe of Texas and Klickitat and Cascade tribes in the Northwest, are in jeopardy – and it is important that we fight to protect them before it is too late.

Pastor Robert Soto is an award-winning Native American feather dancer and Lipan Apache religious leader. In 2006, an undercover federal agent infiltrated his tribe’s powwow, a traditional religious ceremony with drums, dancing, and singing, to search for individuals using unregistered eagle feathers. After interrogating Mr. Soto and other tribal members, the agent confiscated 42 eagle feathers and threatened the tribal members with fines and jail time.

Many Native American tribes consider eagle feathers to be sacred. They believe that no bird flies higher in the sky than the eagle, and the eagle is, therefore, closest to the Creator. Mr. Soto and his Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas find feathers naturally available in the wild and hand them down from generation to generation. Federal law allows large power companies and wind turbines to kill numerous eagles every year. It also permits museums, scientists and zoos to possess feathers in the name of science. Yet, under federal law, Native Americans are only allowed to possess feathers–and use them for religious purposes—if their tribe is recognized by the federal government. Sadly, although Mr. Soto’s tribe is recognized by the state of Texas, anthropologists and historians, the federal government does not recognize the Lipan Apache, thus making it illegal for them to practice a core part of their religious tradition.

Meanwhile, in the same year, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced a new project to expand a stretch of Highway 26 near Mount Hood. The Klickitat and Cascade peoples have used the area surrounding Mount Hood for centuries in religious rituals such as vision quests, meditation, and as a sacred ancestral burial ground.

As soon the tribes’ hereditary chiefs, Wilbur Slockish and Johnny Jackson, along with tribal leader Carol Logan, learned of the highway expansion plans, they alerted officials to the sacred and centuries-old burial grounds in the area and pled with them to find alternatives for road expansion that would protect these sacred lands. Yet their pleas for compromise fell on deaf ears.

In 2008 ODOT bulldozed the tribes’ burial sites without consulting the tribes, surveying the sacred and historic sites, or considering alternatives that would have avoided damaging the sacred sites. And, in an almost cruel fashion, the government’s project destroyed sacred marker stones and removed safe access for the tribes to the grave-sites, yet left the other side of highway completely untouched.

The government bulldozed Native American burial sites in 2008 to expand Highway 26 in Oregon. (Becket Fund)

The government bulldozed Native American burial sites in 2008 to expand Highway 26 in Oregon. (Becket Fund)

Currently, the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, as well as the Klickitat and Cascade tribes, are in litigation against the federal government. Each tribe is fighting for the right, as they have for centuries, to practice their faith similar to the many “tired, hungry masses” that fled to America.

In March 2015, the federal government returned Mr. Soto’s eagle feathers – nine years after confiscating them – but refuses to repeal the arbitrary law forbidding him to use or pass down to subsequent generations the eagle feathers, essentially still barring his ability to practice his faith.

Late this summer, Chiefs Slockish and Jackson also returned to court following failed negotiations to restore their sacred lands and ensure the government works with the tribe on future construction in the area. Even if both tribes receive a positive ruling, the fact remains that many other cases like them still exist and the United States government continues to belittle the heritage and faith of these historic and important people. It is time for the government to protect the religious freedom of all Native Americans in the U.S. and stop taking away what is most precious to them as a people.

Melinda Skea is director of communications at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Robert Soto, Wilber Slockish, Johnny Jackson and Carol Logan in their respective cases. Follow her on Twitter at @skeamelinda

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