National Eagle Repository

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Bald eagles in the National Eagle Repository

The National Eagle Repository is a United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) -operated facility in Commerce City near Denver , Colorado that collects all bald eagles and golden eagles found dead in the United States and makes them available to Indians for cultural purposes.

The bald eagle as the state symbol of the United States has long been a protected species . The hunt for bald eagles has been completely banned in the US since 1940, and the law was extended to include golden eagles in 1962. No one may own, import, export, buy or sell live or dead animals of either species or body parts such as feathers or claws, eggs and nests without special permission .

tasks

Bald eagle
Golden eagle

All authorities must send dead specimens of the two species to the National Eagle Repository , where the specimens are registered, measured, and weighed. Most animals come from bird strikes , especially from cars, electric shocks on overhead lines, and finds from poachers . In addition, zoos and other authorized owners of the two species send in their dead animals. On average, around 2000 animals come to the collection point in whole or in part every year.

The registered animals are then sent to Indians from the peoples recognized under federal law, who use them for religious and cultural purposes. Perishable eagle parts are packed in dry ice and sent overnight by express mail. The best known use is the use of eagle feathers in the Warbonnet designated headdress. Eagles and their body parts in Indian possession may be bequeathed to other recognized Indians or passed on non-commercially; selling or giving them to non-Indians is a criminal offense.

Eligible persons can be placed on a waiting list maintained by the National Eagle Repository . At the beginning of 2010 the average waiting time for a complete eagle was around 3.5 years with around 6,000 entries on the waiting list. However, requests for individual springs are processed within a few weeks. In the mid-1970s, around 300 Indians a year submitted an application for an eagle or eagle parts, in the mid-1990s there were around 3,000 applications annually. In 2012 the number of annual applications had already risen to around 4,500. The reason is that more and more Indians are turning to traditional cultures and need eagle feathers for traditional ceremonies. The number of eagles sent in, however, is not growing.

Authority history

For a long time, Indians, who mainly need eagle feathers for religious and cultural purposes, could only obtain a permit with great difficulty, which had to be granted personally by the USFWS director. As a result, the protected eagles were repeatedly hunted without authorization.

The National Eagle Repository was founded in Pocatello , Idaho in the early 1970s to provide a legal outlet. The repository, later located in Ashland , Oregon at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory , initially obtained eagles and eagle parts mainly from confiscations by the USFWS and distributed them to Indians for cultic purposes. The number of units distributed was low, waiting times were long and the application process was bureaucratic.

In 1985 a legal dispute over the unauthorized hunt for protected eagles went to the highest court. In US vs. Dion , the Supreme Court decided that hunting and fishing rights granted by historical treaties between tribes and the US government (so-called treaty rights , some of which are of an international nature) can be restricted by the Congress through legislation. The conviction of Dwight Dion Sr., a member of the Yankton Sioux tribe , for the unauthorized shooting of four bald eagles on the floor of the Yankton reservation stood .

On April 29, 1994, after meeting more than 300 Native American tribal representatives , US President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Memorandum reorganizing the collection and distribution of eagles and eagle parts to Native Americans for religious purposes by the National Eagle Repository . As a result of the presidential decision, the repository moved to Denver in 1995 and got a location in the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge , a disused chemical weapons production facility .

literature

  • Bruce E. Beans: Eagle's Plume: The Struggle to Preserve the Life and Haunts of America's Bald Eagle . Scribner, New York 1996, ISBN 0-684-80696-7 .
  • Alison Renteln: The cultural defense . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-515402-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940 16 USC 668-668d.
  2. ^ Amendment of Bald Eagle Protection Act, PL 87-884 (76 Stat. 1346) October 24, 1962, see also Jody Millar: The Protection of Eagles and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (PDF; 297 kB) . In: "Journal of Raptor Research", No. 36 (2002), pp. 29-31.
  3. ↑ a b c d James Brooke: Agency Struggles to Meet the Demand for a Sacred Treasure . In: "New York Times" November 25, 1996.
  4. ↑ Bruce E. Beans: Eagle's Plume . New York 1996, p. 165.
  5. ^ New York Times: A Repository for Eagles Finds Itself in Demand , May 4, 2012
  6. ^ A b Alison Renteln: The cultural defense . Oxford 2004, pp. 96-97.
  7. ^ Francis Paul Prucha: Documents of United States Indian policy , 3rd edition. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 2000, ISBN 0-8032-3728-6 , p. 347. ( Distribution of Eagle Feathers for Indian Religious Purposes , April 29, 1994. )
  8. ↑ Bruce E. Beans: Eagle's Plume . New York 1996, p. 164. For the background to the move, see also Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1995 . United States Congress, House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, pp. 301-303.

Coordinates: 39 ° 49 ′ 41.7 ″  N , 104 ° 51 ′ 31.5 ″  W.