I remember in my pre adolescent years, the Feds mandated that Golden Eagle feathers would be somehow reserved, by law, for use only by native Americans. Apparently, zoos would be recruited to supply Golden Eagle tail feathers to our friends, the Indians. My friends and I who were into Indian lore and fooling with feathers, immediately decided that the Smithsonian National Zoo would not see another Golden Eagle tail feather to be rescued if we had anything to do with it. We made regular trips to the birds of prey enclosure with our long sticks with sticky ends to recover all the eagle feathers that happened to fall. The zoo employees somehow put up with our antics with quite a bit of patience. It was only a few years ago that I surrendered my collection to a friend whose heritage made it more interesting to him than to me.
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