Awestruck children told: 'This bird is for all of you guys' as eagle returned to his home in the wild
Karen Unland, Journal Staff Writer
"It was good and exciting because it was the first time I ever saw a bald eagle," said Jesse Turner, nine, one of about 450 students at Prince Charles who had a chance to witness the release. "I saw about three golden eagles before, when I went to the rez (reserve) to see my Kokum (grandmother)."
The bald eagle, rehabilitated by the Strathcona Raptor Shelter earlier this fall, was brought to Prince Charles because "the children here need some moral support," said Duane Goodstriker, leader of the Blackfoot Nations' First Thunder Society and the father of two boys at the school.
"The bald eagle -- or the thunderbird, as we know it -- gives life to all of creation in the spring," he said, buffeted by a wintry wind before the ceremony to release the eagle began. "When it leaves in the fall, it's a signal also for hibernation."
The eagle had been feeding on a coyote when it got bogged down in the muskeg, said Karl Grantmyre, director of the raptor shelter. "She had a lot of mud and junk all over."
Grantmyre said he usually calls Goodstriker when an eagle comes to the shelter so the release can be accompanied by a ceremony.
The eagles respond well to it, Grantmyre said.
"They get some sense of what's going on. They're intelligent."
The observers formed a circle in the middle of the field around a small teepee decorated with images of previously released eagles. Goodstriker stood in the centre of the circle.
"This bird is for all of you guys here," he said. "You watch this bird fly and that's how you can be when you grow up."
Wrapped in a red blanket, Blackfoot elder Rosie Dayrider said a prayer over the teepee, bathed in the smoke from a smudge in Goodstriker's hands. Then a circle of drummers began to drum and sing, their voices carried away by the wind.
Goodstriker toured the circle, letting the smoke waft over the students. As the drumming crescendoed, he returned to the teepee, tipped it over and set the eagle free.
A soft cry emerged from the circle. "Oh my goodness," gasped one onlooker. The eagle soared above the children, barely flapping its wings in the strong wind.
"The way it turned, it's almost like it turned back to look at us," said Clementine Spence, curriculum co-ordinator at Prince Charles.
After one last look, the eagle took off over the backstop in the corner of the field, the children following her flight until she was no longer visible.
The students will never forget this experience, said principal Jeanne Carter. "When they talk in their Cree classes, it will be there," she said. "It's a sight I'll never forget."
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The Edmonton Journal
A bald eagle swooped out of the Prince Charles schoolyard Thursday, an awe-inspiring sight for a circle of students, parents and teachers at the largely aboriginal school.
Greg Southam, the Journal / Students from the mostly aboriginal Prince Charles school watched as a bald eagle was released Thursday.
Greg Southam, the Journal / Duane Goodstriker, from the Blackfoot Nations' First Thunder Society releases the eagle from a miniature teepee.
