Big demand for eagle parts, officials say

By MARK HUME
From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Vancouver — When native elder Leonard Antoine heard about the 26 eagles found slaughtered in North Vancouver this week, it brought back a flood of bad memories.

Six years ago, RCMP and conservation officers searched his home on the Cowichan reserve as they sought the source of illegal eagle parts being sold on the competitive and lucrative North American pow-wow dance circuit.

His son, Terry Antoine, a spiritual mask dancer and renowned craftsman who made ritual costumes resplendent with eagle feathers, down, talons and whistles shaped from bones, was arrested in Florida in 1999 in what a U.S. attorney has called “one of the most significant wildlife cases in memory.”

The trail led all the way to the Cowichan reserve, near Duncan, B.C., on Vancouver Island.

“They were looking for eagles everywhere, even in the fridge,” Mr. Antoine said yesterday as he talked about how the desire of dancers has driven a black market for eagle parts.

“I told them. There are no eagles here. I don't kill eagles. I have never killed an eagle in my entire life.”

But customs agents had observed Mr. Antoine's son, who also lived on the Cowichan reserve when he wasn't travelling the pow-wow trail, taking eagle parts across the U.S. border.

A search of Terry Antoine's home turned up parts from 124 eagles, including 90 pairs of talons. At a storage locker near Seattle, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency found parts from another 29 eagles.

“A lot of people here were very angry about it,” Mr. Antoine, 76, said.

But he said Terry was just a link in a chain and did not kill birds himself.

“People used to come to him with them,” Mr. Antoine said. “When he was arrested, he laughed. He said, ‘I don't even own a gun.' ”

Mr. Antoine said native people kill eagles to get material for dance costumes and spiritual ceremonies.

“But there are only certain families that do that. The spirit dancers, the winter dancers,” he said.

Poaching is a widely accepted practice, he said, but the native community does not condone slaughters like what happened in North Vancouver this week, and he doubts a native person could be responsible.

“There, they just took the feet. That is wasteful. It's terrible. I've never heard of that before,” he said. “We believe when you kill something you use all of it. As an elder, I would say don't shoot eagles unless it's necessary. . . . If a young person shoots an eagle for no reason, then that's wrong. That happens sometimes. Some people are desperate, especially pow-wow dancers.”

In Canada and the United States, wildlife authorities routinely turn over dead eagles to native bands so they can get feathers for religious outfits, but demand far outstrips supply. Mr. Antoine said dancers often begged his son for eagle parts to embellish costumes. And, as his reputation grew, so did the demand.

Mr. Antoine said that even though his son hasn't been home since his arrest, people sometimes still knock on his door, asking for feathers.

Mr. Antoine said Terry, 51, was chosen in his early twenties to be a mask dancer, a person who plays a special role in Coast Salish religious ceremonies. Later, he became famous for his skills in weaving eagle feathers into dance costumes.

“He is a spiritual person,” Mr. Antoine said. “You don't just dig out a feather and sew it on a costume. You have to say prayers, follow special rituals. When he held a bird, he prayed for forgiveness for the taking of its life.”

In the U.S. trial, Terry Antoine's lawyer said the case illustrated a clash of cultures.

But it took a jury only two hours, in 2001, to convict him under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Court heard he bought eagles for $50 apiece from natives on Vancouver Island before dealing the parts on the pow-wow circuit.

He got two years in jail and a fine of about $250,000.

A recent bulletin from U.S. federal wildlife officers said “a tremendous black-market demand exists for eagle parts on the pow-wow circuit in the U.S. and Canada . . . [and] huge sums of money are paid for hard-to-get eagle feathers, feet, heads and other parts. At the various pow-wows held annually across North America, participants compete for tens of thousands of dollars in prize money awarded for the best costumes and dances.”

Egon Larsen, a Fish and Wildlife officer in Lethbridge, Alta., said officers there seized 200 eagle parts this week and arrested seven men, some native, some non-native.

Mr. Larsen said the North Vancouver eagle slaughter, while apparently not linked, caught his attention .

“I would not at all be surprised if there is an inter-provincial trade in eagles. I have received information that it's going on. And we know birds are moving into the States, primarily involved with native ceremonies,” Mr. Larsen said.