United States v. Leonard Fridall Terry Antoine

This case once again pits the federal government’s efforts to save the bald eagle from extinction against the bird’s profound significance to Native spirituality. Appellant Leonard Fridall Terry Antoine, a member of a Canadian Indian tribe, is spending two years in prison for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), 16 U.S.C. §§ 668 -668d. We must decide whether his conviction violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb to 2000bb-4.

1. Antoine is a member of the Cowi-chan Band of the Salish Indian Tribe in British Columbia. He obtained dead eagles in Canada and brought feathers and other eagle parts into the United States, where he swapped them for money and goods. Antoine claims that these exchanges are part of the native custom of “potlatch,” which to him has religious significance. United States authorities charged him with violating BGEPA, which makes it illegal to “knowingly ... take, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or in any manner, any bald eagle” or part thereof. 16 U.S.C. § 668 (a).

Notwithstanding this prohibition, members of federally…