For hundreds of years, Native Americans have used eagle feathers for religious and cultural purposes including marriage, and naming ceremonies. In recognition of the significance of these feathers to Native Americans, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established the National Eagle Repository in the early '70s to provide Native Americans with the feathers of federally protected golden and bald eagles. When Scott Aikin, a Natural Resource Officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs gave a blessing at Thursday's ceremony, he used the wing of a bald eagle to do so, part of his ceremonial dance costume.

"I think often times pow-wows are misconstrued by the general public as being kind of a secular event of gathering, just a celebration, but its much more than that. And so the eagle for me the Bald Eagle particularly, when I bring her out there into the arena where dance, its my responsibility to make sure that I am worthy of taking her out there. So there's a connection to the eagle that each tradition tribal member has to their eagle."

Aikin says feathers from eagles and other raptors are gifts from the creator and important teaching tools for raising their children. Aikin helps to determine if tribal members are eligible to apply for eagle feathers from the repository. Ron Tull, Interior Department Radio News Service, Washington.