File/The Associated Press
A bald eagle is shown in May at the Big Beef Creek sanctuary in Seabeck. A Canadian on trial for violating a federal law protecting bald eagles admitted he brought eagle carcasses into the United States without a permit, but he denied selling them, a wildlife officer testified Thursday.

Testimony continues in bald eagle smuggling case

Canadian admits bringing eagle carcasses to the U.S., but not to sell

ELIZABETH MURTAUGH, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published October 26, 2001

"The difficulty is we're dealing with a clash of two cultures. There's the culture of the court we're sitting in, ... and there's the culture of native and aboriginal tribes." -- Michael Filipovic, defendant's lawyer

SEATTLE -- A Canadian Indian accused of smuggling bald eagle feathers and bones testified Thursday that he brought the items across the border because tribal elders had given him the rare power to purify the sacred birds for ceremonial use.

Terry Antoine, 47, of Duncan, British Columbia, has pleaded not guilty to five charges of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

He's accused of crossing the border with wings, tails, feathers and bones of bald eagles without a permit, then selling or bartering them for cash, beadwork, blankets and other goods. If convicted, he faces a maximum nine years in prison and $45,000 in fines.

Prosecutors have argued Antoine was running a black-market scheme of selling and bartering eagle parts in Washington state, Montana and Arizona.

But Antoine and his lawyer, Michael Filipovic, told federal court jurors that gift-giving within tribes is a cherished practice that can't be equated with the capitalist concept of a sale.

"The difficulty is we're dealing with a clash of two cultures," Filipovic said. "There's the culture of the court we're sitting in, ... and there's the culture of native and aboriginal tribes. ... Their history is based on a totally different economic system."

Filipovic asked to call an expert witness, a member of the Lummi Nation who could discuss the cultural importance of various tribal traditions.

But U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly sided with prosecutors, who argued Antoine's motives were not relevant.

"The government does not have to prove he intended to commit these crimes," Zilly said. "There is no motive that has to be shown to have a conviction."

Eagle feathers are used by tribes throughout North America to make masks, whistles and medicine bundles used in coming-of-age ceremonies, name-giving rituals, funeral rites and other ceremonies.

Once endangered, bald eagles are now listed as threatened in the lower 48 states. They're protected by law in the United States and in Canada.

Antoine, a mask dancer and medicine man in the Cowichan band of the Salish tribe, has not been accused of killing any eagles.

With his long, black hair pulled back in a ponytail, he told jurors Thursday that Indians would often bring him dead eagles and ask him to cleanse them for use in ceremonies.

"A lot of people thought I was gifted, because a lot of people who touched these (eagles) would get sick," he said, speaking with a hushed voice.

His father, Leonard, and his brother, Rodney, testified that Terry Antoine is a deeply spiritual man who took his role as a mask dancer seriously.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Brunner questioned that, pointing out the last time Antoine took part in a mask dance was in 1990.

Earlier Thursday, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Special Agent Tom Chisdock told the jury Antoine admitted after his arrest in May that parts from more than 100 eagles found at his home in Duncan and in a storage locker in Fife were his.

As prosecutors displayed pictures of various eagle parts confiscated from the Fife storage locker, U.S. Fish and Wildlife forensic ornithologist Pepper Trail said he examined the feathers, wings, tails and bones and determined at least 29 bald eagles, a golden eagle and other birds had been stored there.

On Wednesday, the government's key witness testified that she saw Antoine, who was then her boyfriend, buy eagle carcasses, dismember them and then sell the parts on a trip in the United States three years ago.

In June 1998, Rosa Linda Burton said she crossed the border with Antoine and saw him take eagle feathers to several buyers -- a Tacoma woman who ran a day care, a member of the Colville Confederate Tribes near Grand Coulee Dam, several people at a powwow in Montana, friends in Arizona and the owner of a bead shop in Burien.

Burton acknowledged she never witnessed an actual sale, but saw Antoine take a duffel bag with feathers into homes and businesses and return with cash or other items.

Filipovic characterized her as an angry ex-girlfriend seeking revenge.

Barbara Blackbear, who once ran a bead shop in Burien, said she bought eagle wings, tails and feathers from Antoine several times -- later giving them to ceremonial dancers in various tribes.

In this country, only religious practitioners in federally recognized U.S. tribes can legally obtain eagles or eagle parts, and the wait can be as long as three years. A similar permit system exists in Canada, where waiting lists are much shorter.

On the web:

National Eagle Repository

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Outdoors: Wildlife index