Fish and Wildlife drops legal challenge to eagle killings

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Fish and Wildlife drops legal challenge to eagle killings

By BEN NEARY
May. 13, 2016 8:26 PM EDT

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday dropped its legal challenge to an American Indian tribe killing bald eagles for religious purposes on its Wyoming reservation — a move that could clear the way for issuing a federal permit in coming months.

The agency filed notice with a federal appeals court in Denver that it won't continue to appeal a lower court decision allowing the killing.

U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne previously ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service violated the Northern Arapaho Tribe's religious freedoms by denying permission to kill bald eagles — the national bird — on the Wind River Indian Reservation for its annual Sun Dance.

The Northern Arapaho share the reservation with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, which opposes killing eagles. Johnson stated the First Amendment prohibited the federal government from burdening one American Indian tribe's exercise of religious rights to benefit another tribe.

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Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e73dadbfd0424c8499ce72eb2678cfcf/fish-and-wildlife-drops-appeal-wyoming-eagle-kill-ruling

[virgogal]

1. Uh,huh. Killings eagles is a religious act.

[2naSalit]

2. It is for some tribes.

Sadly the Northern Arapaho were essentially "dumped" onto the Wind River Indian Reservation which belongs to the Eastern Shoshoni, they don't get along well but the government insisted. They Northern Arapaho were supposed to be there on a temporary basis but no place was ever found for them so they ended up staying. And like the government did with so many other tribes, they placed many who were not compatible on small reservations together in the hope that they would kill each other off.

The Northern Arapaho and several other tribes do have a ceremony where eagles end up dead, it's their thing and they do it. Since the reservations are supposed to be sovereign nations, the US government shouldn't have any say in the matter, though it was probably a good thing when the species was endangered, but they have recovered. And it isn't like they kill a whole bunch of them, it may be one or two birds in total... Sundance is a very serious religious ceremony.

And that's the way it is.

[cleanhippie]

3. Doesn't make it any more right. Why we tolerate the ceremonial killing of animals baffles me.

Considering the opposition to killin animals for food, that we allow killing them for ceremonial reasons is baffling. "Because religion or tradition" is the worst argument one can make.

[2naSalit]

4. There is a religion right here in the

good ol' US of A that promotes child sexual abuse and child/woman slavery...

I would not defend it and I have mixed feelings about some of the practices in the Sundance but it's not for me to determine the what why or how of it, these practices go back before any religions we might be aware of in current times... people have a variety of values. It may interest you to know that these tribes also value an respect wildlife far more than any of the European descendants do and were t not for the tribes protecting them on their lands we might not have many species living today thanks to European conquest and skewed values.

Just sayin' ...I am a conservationist and I would like a lot more wild animals around than people and I feel that wildlife need far more protection than they get from us. I also respect ancient practices that have been retained which are far more in tune with the natural environment than anything I've seen from the dominant society who lashes out and condemns others without understanding what's actually going on.