July 31, 2008
Source: Religion News Service
http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=16186
An American Indian inmate in Wyoming has reached an agreement with prison officials to allow him and other inmates access to bald eagle feathers for use in sacred ceremonies.
Stephen Pevar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented inmate Andrew John Yellowbear, called the decision a "great victory for religious freedom."
Yellowbear, a North Arapaho tribesman, is serving a life sentence at the Wyoming State Penitentiary. Even after Yellowbear was granted a federal permit to keep 10 feathers for daily prayer, prison officials confiscated the only one he had.