Flying free

WORLEY - A few moments before Jane Fink released a golden eagle, a mother watching with her family turned to her small child.

"Remember this moment," she said.

The child said nothing, but nodded. He would try.

Fink, wearing Kevlar-lined gloves and standing on the green lawn outside the Coeur d'Alene Casino, held the eagle close as it fussed and screeched in her arms.

She petted its head a final time, then stepped forward tossed the nine-pound bird into the air. First, it descended, seemingly headed for the ground, as the executive director of Birds of Prey Northwest warned it might.

But it pulled up, its brown-feathered wings flapping. Steadily, it gained speed and climbed.

The crowd, standing under an awning for protection from the rain, rushed onto the grass, snapped more pictures and followed its flight to freedom.

"Go, go, go," several yelled.

It went. Higher.

The golden eagle with a 6-foot wingspan soared over the casino roof, continuing upward toward gray skies and clouds. Within seconds, it was gone.

Some stood and still searched the skies, hoping for a last glimpse.

Marcy Morris, tribal member, was overwhelmed at what she experienced.

"It was just a magnificent sight," she said. "I'm honored to be able to sit here and watch the eagle fly."

Like many, she feared it would quickly land and be unable to take off again.

"My hope was just keep soaring, just soar above us," she said, her eyes glistening from tears. "He went straight toward the golf course. There's plenty of mileage there for him to continue to soar on. It was a wonderful, wonderful sight."

The young, male golden eagle, flying free for the first time, was released Thursday morning as part of the annual Coeur d'Alene Elders Dinner at the casino. More than 1,200 elders from tribes and communities across the Northwest and Canada arrived for the event.

The eagle has long been sacred to Native Americans.

"He flies the highest of all God's creation," said Dave Matheson, Casino CEO, before the release. "He flies right next to the creator himself, way up beyond the clouds."

"He can hear things and pass them on to the creator."

Fink said despite its successful flight to freedom, the golden eagle faces an uncertain future.

Seventy-five percent don't survive their first year. They run the threat of electrocution, being shot, struck by vehicles or colliding with wind turbines.

This eagle was orphaned young, and has been under the care of Birds of Prey since it came to the nonprofit 14 months ago. He learned to fly, to hunt, and to hopefully, survive. Finally, it came time for him to try to navigate the world on his own.

Fink, one quarter Cherokee, said the golden eagle must find a home.

"He may establish a territory here, or he may move on," she said.

One golden eagle that was rehabilitated by Birds of Prey and released with a radio transmitter went north to British Columbia for the summer, then to Alberta.

While bald eagles live near water and dine on fish, golden eagles reside near prairie and open fields, where they swoop down on mammals like ground squirrels and prairie dogs.

"I think he has a better shot than most because of all the people that will be watching out for him. If this bird is grounded, people will know to get him some help."

The ceremony featured prayers, blessings and songs led by tribal elders Cliff SiJohn and Alfred Nomee

"Grandfather in heaven, thank you for our brother, who is about to be released into the air," SiJohn said. "The eagle will soar into the clouds to see with his eyes many things our eyes will never see."

The event was open to the public. The tribe, he said, tries to include its neighbors in everything.

"Even when they spit on us, even when they frown on us and push us away we still have open arms for human beings because good begets good," he said.

Nita Magnuson, volunteer with Birds of Prey, said it's a major project to rehabilitate a raptor. She didn't know how the eagle would react to its freedom.

"I don't know what I expected, but it went better than I expected," she said.

It was, she said, a "spiritual moment."

"I felt it," Magnuson said. "I saw he was free, it just touched my heart."

Matheson referred to the release of the rehabbed raptor as a "sacred moment in time."

"For he is the one that watches over this land, he watches over our people. He watches over the coming generations, that this Earth will be protected, that the future will be preserved, for it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the great creator."

Nomee, who watched quietly, smiled as the eagle soared.

"To see him not even touch the ground, just to go from her arm, take flight, up and over the casino, that is of significance," he said. "That tells me he is a free spirit, released again back to nature where he belongs."