By Kathleen Martens
APTN Investigates
A Lethbridge woman is still deciding whether to appeal a trafficking conviction for possessing an eagle wing.
Finances are holding Rachel CrowSpreadingWings back but her emotion is propelling her forward.
“I am so angry,” she said in a telephone interview from her home in Alberta.
The member of the Blood Tribe or Kainai Nation south of Calgary was charged in 2013 after she obtained the wing from two men who told her they found the bird. CrowSpreadingWings says she “gifted” them tobacco and an additional $250 to buy groceries and bus fare.
“My Indian name is Holy Feather Woman, and so when these guys came and they asked me to help them – if I could help them – I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Alberta Fish and Wildlife learned of the transaction and seized the wing. CrowSpreadingWings was charged with one count of trafficking in eagle parts and one count of possession of an exotic animal.
CrowSpreadingWings, who represented herself in court because she was denied Legal Aid, admitted to having the wing but argued she had special access as a First Nation person. The four-day trial started in November 2014 and ended in June 2015.
The sentencing took place on August 17, with provincial court Judge Sylvia Oishi explaining there is a “legal” way for First Nations’ people to obtain eagle feathers and CrowSpreadingWings broke the law. The Crown asked the judge to fine the single mother of two $7,000 as a deterrent to others.
But a Calgary defence lawyer that heard about the case on the radio represented CrowSpreadingWings at no charge that day. He succeeded in arguing the fine be reduced to $1,000.
Still, CrowSpreadingWings says she can’t afford to pay.
She is further upset by the rules around eagle feathers she learned after the fact.
“(They) are taking it upon themselves to decide what is cultural and what isn’t,” she said of provincial officials, “without being blessed by Elders, or having their faces painted, or any involvement in the culture whatsoever.”
To do it legally, Aboriginal people must fill out a form at a Fish and Wildlife district office explaining why they want some of the eagle feathers the department keeps in storage. “This will be considered and they will receive a response in writing,” said an Alberta government spokesman.
The request is denied if it’s not going for a specific spiritual or faith-based purpose, the spokesman said from Edmonton, which does not include “competitive dance costumes or trade or barter.”
CrowSpreadingWings says the government appears to have a narrow interpretation of what is spiritual. She also pointed out that not all dances are competitive.
Yet, alone in court trying to make a constitutional argument, CrowSpreadingWings was aware she faced a maximum penalty of a $200,000 fine or four years in prison. “Without a community to back me, it just looks like I’m just standing there having a temper tantrum about my rights.”
CrowSpreadingWings says she contacted the Assembly of First Nations for support but did not hear back. APTN Investigates asked AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde for comment but was told he was travelling. She says she also begged her chief and council to sit with her in the courtroom and there was no response.
Blood Chief Charles Weasel Head did send APTN this written statement: “…We do have many ancient religious traditions and practices with respect to the use of eagle feathers in many aspects of our culture that remain with us today,” he said. “We also have respect for the laws of this country aimed at conservation.”
“However in some instances it appears that the two worlds collide and our people are placed in a quandary and sometimes at a disadvantage. My hope is that one day we will find a way to balance the ancient traditions and rights of First Nations, the intricate laws and regulations of federal and provincial governments and our collective desire to preserve and conserve the natural resources of this country.”
CrowSpreadingWings says she was offered a deal to avoid court by performing 20 hours of community service but she refused because: “I would have had to say that I was wrong.”
“I can’t say that my culture is wrong,” the 34-year-old explained. “I can’t say that ‘gifting’ – whether it’s monetary or material – is wrong. I won’t say that. This is how I was raised.”
CrowSpreadingWings said she had been praying for feathers to make ceremonial bustles for each of her young sons to wear in the Chicken Dance when the men with the eagle appeared. She took it as a positive sign.
She says she intended to take only the feathers she needed and give the rest to her brother – a Sundance leader. She learned that would have led to more criminal charges, such as trafficking in eagle parts.
The man who sold her the wing was also fined $7,000 but served 45 days in jail instead.
The court experience has her thinking about the one legally obtained eagle feather she has. It was a gift from Fish and Wildlife upon her graduation from Lethbridge College last spring.
“Here in Lethbridge, every graduation that involves First Nations or Metis people or Inuit people, the organizers fill out the paperwork, they count how many feathers they need, and then they send that in to Fish and Wildlife, and Fish and Wildlife looks at it and then they find their feathers, and then they give them to the school. So like when my son graduated Kindergarten, he got plumes.”
CrowSpreadingWings says eagles are protected but no longer endangered in Alberta.
Follow Kathleen Martens on twitter: @katmarte
