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Keeping the “Sacred” in Sacred Traditions
Eagles and eagle feathers have been a hot topic in the news across the continent lately. Sadly, the news has been as much bad as good. While eagle populations are slowly recovering, not all is going well for this majestic bird.
Many of the headlines are about the massacre of at least fourteen eagles in Canada, the court battle of a non-Indian new-age spiritual group to gain the right to hold eagle parts for ceremony, and the prosecution of a native man for selling eagle parts across the country.
To Native American peoples in every location where eagles are indigenous, they are a revered animal. The greatest gift and honoring one can receive in our cultural way is to be given an eagle feather, feathers, or other part, such as a talon.
Eagles are a protected species because of their near extinction in recent decades. As the Americas became more and more populated, eagles and other wildlife were decimated by the effects of pesticides like DDT, and the bullets of farmers and ranchers who perceived them as a threat to crops and livestock. Immigrants to the Americas treated the eagle much like they did the indigenous peoples themselves. They didn’t understand them, and so they didn’t like them, and so they sought to eliminate them…national symbol of freedom or not.
The vast majority of native ceremonies did not and still do not require that an eagle’s life be taken. Like all birds, the eagle molts, shedding its beautiful feathers. Like all hunting animals, the eagle fights among its own for territory, and birds sometimes die in these struggles for dominance.
A more recent cause of mortality for the eagle is power lines and automobiles. They also die of starvation and loss of habitat. Even eco-tourism can have a devastating effect, as eager viewers crowd feeding eagles and force them into flight, expending precious energy reserves and disrupting their hard-won meals.
So, how could a bird of such enormous spiritual value be worth more dead than alive? It’s very simple. As long as there are people willing to pay money for feathers and parts, there will be people willing to kill eagles.
What is wrong with the scenario goes far deeper than the slaughter of endangered and protected species for profit, however. What is wrong with this picture has a spiritual root.
If the eagle is sacred to us, we need to carefully examine what that means. Does it mean that we should have as many eagle feathers as we can, or does it mean that the way we obtain them is as important as the feathers themselves?
Is an object still sacred, and can it offer us any power, strength, medicine or vision, if it was purchased from someone who sells sacred objects for a living? If we believe that the medicine of the eagle is more than just its physical parts, isn’t it possible that participating in such a transaction might actually bring us bad medicine?
Contest powwows are thought to be one of the reasons the black market in eagle parts is reaching new heights, along with European collectors, and new-age religious groups who claim they have as much right to possessing eagle parts for ceremony as indigenous peoples do. Hopefully, for the sake of the birds and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, the law will continue to recognize the true spiritual connection between the people of this land and its sacred places and inhabitants.
It makes me think of something I was told once, a number of years ago, by a man who poured water for a sweat lodge. He always reminded that our elders had died to keep these sacred ways alive, and how fortunate we were to have them. But he also said something else.
“The medicines have a way of taking care of themselves” he would sometimes tell us. He would offer a story of how someone who stole an object or did something in a bad way later suffered the consequences. He told us that, in this way, the sacred traditions sometimes protected themselves.
We must each come to our own understanding of what sacred is, and assume responsibility for our own actions. We cannot somehow stand apart from this, no matter who we are, no matter how humble or how famous. There is no divine excuse that shelters us from the cause and effect relationship of our actions.
Each of us has a personal feeling and understanding about our relationship to the eagle; about what we deserve and should be allowed to have, about how we should conduct ourselves in the presence of eagle feathers, about what their medicine is and how it affects us.
This is what I have learned and come to believe.
People who are a part of the indigenous community, who act in a good way, who live as close as they can to the traditional ways of generosity and selflessness, will be recognized. They will receive feathers.
If these people dance, and they need items for their regalia, those will come to them. If they deserve the honoring that the gift of a sacred feather brings, it will come about. In turn, they will eventually do the same for someone else, and pass on some of the feathers that have been shared with them.
Getting feathers should take time. If the Eagle is sacred, if our ways are sacred, than they should not be handed down and passed on lightly. It should take time for you to develop into a human being worthy of holding a sacred object. It should require more than a single act of generosity, courage, fortitude or strength. Do not think in terms of what you are going to get, but of what you have to give to others.
People who were not raised in a native household, and some who were, will need to be taught about caring for feathers, preferably before they are given one of significance. Otherwise, they may treat a feather in a way that offends people, and is offensive to that animal’s spirit. Feathers and other sacred items need to be gifted with thought and care.
Walking a good walk is its own reward. Trust that many blessings will come into your life, not because you desire them, but because you attract them, over time and through adversity, by doing the best you can without seeking recognition for your deeds.
Our traditional ways are kept sacred by the actions of those who practice them. Humble humans though we may be, imperfect as we are, we walk a sacred path. If we walk it in a good way, it will not go un-noticed. We will receive the honoring of sacred gifts, and they will be given to us in a traditional way.
Finally, in all earnestness, if you need a large bustle and you haven’t got an eagle, consider the turkey. This is a traditional bird for a number of south-eastern tribes. Its barred, multi-colored, numerous feathers create striking regalia with an old-time quality; one that stands out in an arena crowded with eagle fans and eagle bustles. Perhaps most importantly, if the turkey were again as popular as it once was, the eagle population would see some small amount of relief in at least one circle.
We may not be able to control the actions of the poachers, or the collectors, or the newly enlightened non-Indians who wish to have the same rights to eagles as native people do. We do have the power and the responsibility to make certain that our own actions do not further contribute to the demise of the eagle. We are capable of influencing others by our own right actions…by walking our talk, and keeping it sacred.
By Corina Roberts, Founder, Redbird
P.O. Box 702, Simi Valley, CA 93062
(805) 217-0364
E: [email protected]
August 2005
Eagles and eagle feathers have been a hot topic in the news across the continent lately. Sadly, the news has been as much bad as good. While eagle populations are slowly recovering, not all is going well for this majestic bird.
Many of the headlines are about the massacre of at least fourteen eagles in Canada, the court battle of a non-Indian new-age spiritual group to gain the right to hold eagle parts for ceremony, and the prosecution of a native man for selling eagle parts across the country.
To Native American peoples in every location where eagles are indigenous, they are a revered animal. The greatest gift and honoring one can receive in our cultural way is to be given an eagle feather, feathers, or other part, such as a talon.
Eagles are a protected species because of their near extinction in recent decades. As the Americas became more and more populated, eagles and other wildlife were decimated by the effects of pesticides like DDT, and the bullets of farmers and ranchers who perceived them as a threat to crops and livestock. Immigrants to the Americas treated the eagle much like they did the indigenous peoples themselves. They didn’t understand them, and so they didn’t like them, and so they sought to eliminate them…national symbol of freedom or not.
The vast majority of native ceremonies did not and still do not require that an eagle’s life be taken. Like all birds, the eagle molts, shedding its beautiful feathers. Like all hunting animals, the eagle fights among its own for territory, and birds sometimes die in these struggles for dominance.
A more recent cause of mortality for the eagle is power lines and automobiles. They also die of starvation and loss of habitat. Even eco-tourism can have a devastating effect, as eager viewers crowd feeding eagles and force them into flight, expending precious energy reserves and disrupting their hard-won meals.
So, how could a bird of such enormous spiritual value be worth more dead than alive? It’s very simple. As long as there are people willing to pay money for feathers and parts, there will be people willing to kill eagles.
What is wrong with the scenario goes far deeper than the slaughter of endangered and protected species for profit, however. What is wrong with this picture has a spiritual root.
If the eagle is sacred to us, we need to carefully examine what that means. Does it mean that we should have as many eagle feathers as we can, or does it mean that the way we obtain them is as important as the feathers themselves?
Is an object still sacred, and can it offer us any power, strength, medicine or vision, if it was purchased from someone who sells sacred objects for a living? If we believe that the medicine of the eagle is more than just its physical parts, isn’t it possible that participating in such a transaction might actually bring us bad medicine?
Contest powwows are thought to be one of the reasons the black market in eagle parts is reaching new heights, along with European collectors, and new-age religious groups who claim they have as much right to possessing eagle parts for ceremony as indigenous peoples do. Hopefully, for the sake of the birds and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, the law will continue to recognize the true spiritual connection between the people of this land and its sacred places and inhabitants.
It makes me think of something I was told once, a number of years ago, by a man who poured water for a sweat lodge. He always reminded that our elders had died to keep these sacred ways alive, and how fortunate we were to have them. But he also said something else.
“The medicines have a way of taking care of themselves” he would sometimes tell us. He would offer a story of how someone who stole an object or did something in a bad way later suffered the consequences. He told us that, in this way, the sacred traditions sometimes protected themselves.
We must each come to our own understanding of what sacred is, and assume responsibility for our own actions. We cannot somehow stand apart from this, no matter who we are, no matter how humble or how famous. There is no divine excuse that shelters us from the cause and effect relationship of our actions.
Each of us has a personal feeling and understanding about our relationship to the eagle; about what we deserve and should be allowed to have, about how we should conduct ourselves in the presence of eagle feathers, about what their medicine is and how it affects us.
This is what I have learned and come to believe.
People who are a part of the indigenous community, who act in a good way, who live as close as they can to the traditional ways of generosity and selflessness, will be recognized. They will receive feathers.
If these people dance, and they need items for their regalia, those will come to them. If they deserve the honoring that the gift of a sacred feather brings, it will come about. In turn, they will eventually do the same for someone else, and pass on some of the feathers that have been shared with them.
Getting feathers should take time. If the Eagle is sacred, if our ways are sacred, than they should not be handed down and passed on lightly. It should take time for you to develop into a human being worthy of holding a sacred object. It should require more than a single act of generosity, courage, fortitude or strength. Do not think in terms of what you are going to get, but of what you have to give to others.
People who were not raised in a native household, and some who were, will need to be taught about caring for feathers, preferably before they are given one of significance. Otherwise, they may treat a feather in a way that offends people, and is offensive to that animal’s spirit. Feathers and other sacred items need to be gifted with thought and care.
Walking a good walk is its own reward. Trust that many blessings will come into your life, not because you desire them, but because you attract them, over time and through adversity, by doing the best you can without seeking recognition for your deeds.
Our traditional ways are kept sacred by the actions of those who practice them. Humble humans though we may be, imperfect as we are, we walk a sacred path. If we walk it in a good way, it will not go un-noticed. We will receive the honoring of sacred gifts, and they will be given to us in a traditional way.
Finally, in all earnestness, if you need a large bustle and you haven’t got an eagle, consider the turkey. This is a traditional bird for a number of south-eastern tribes. Its barred, multi-colored, numerous feathers create striking regalia with an old-time quality; one that stands out in an arena crowded with eagle fans and eagle bustles. Perhaps most importantly, if the turkey were again as popular as it once was, the eagle population would see some small amount of relief in at least one circle.
We may not be able to control the actions of the poachers, or the collectors, or the newly enlightened non-Indians who wish to have the same rights to eagles as native people do. We do have the power and the responsibility to make certain that our own actions do not further contribute to the demise of the eagle. We are capable of influencing others by our own right actions…by walking our talk, and keeping it sacred.
By Corina Roberts, Founder, Redbird
P.O. Box 702, Simi Valley, CA 93062
(805) 217-0364
E: [email protected]
August 2005
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