The religious leader of a Native American tribe may be facing jail time after being found using eagle feathers for religious purposes. While a case is pending against Pastor Robert Soto at the federal court, his lawyer said that the United States is now targeting natives for doing no wrong and merely observing their religion.
“This is a particularly egregious case where the federal government sent an undercover agent into a core religious ceremony, confiscated religious property, and criminally prosecuted people simply for practicing their religion,” said Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
Soto is the religious leader of the Lipan Apache tribe that hails from Texas. Despite this particular Native American tribe being recognized at the state level, it is not at the federal level. Thus, Soto’s using eagle feathers for religious rituals was bound to become an issue considering the bird, which happened to be the United States’ national bird, is protected under federal laws that do not, unfortunately, recognize the tribe’s religion. During one such religious ceremony, undercover federal agents happened to confiscate eagle feathers from Soto and arrest him for possessing them illegally. They went on to charge him with a crime that is punishable with a fine of $250,000 and a jail term of up to 15 years.
Obviously, Soto condemned the federal government’s actions, saying it had violated the circle that members of the Lipan Apache tribe consider sacred.
“It was violating everything we were as native people,” he said. “I think if I remember anything of that day was the children running around, and some were crying and some were trying to hide.”
While not all Native American tribes are recognized by the federal government, some are. The ones that are recognized can apply for a permit that would allow them to use as many eagle feathers as they like from the National Eagle Repository for religious purposes.
However, Goodrich disproves of the ‘byzantine application process’, saying it is nothing short of disgusting to expect Native Americans to prove that they have retained their cultural and communal identities over the years in order to receive recognition from the federal government.
Photo Credits: Robert Soto
