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“He didn’t do it just to kill an eagle,” Antelope said of Friday. “He was doing it for a religion reason – and it was for our Sun Dance. That’s one of the highest ceremonies for our tribe.”

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – The lawyer for a Northern Arapaho man who killed a bald eagle for use in his tribe’s Sun Dance four years ago says he’s working with federal prosecutors to resolve the case ahead of a scheduled October trial date.

Winslow Friday has acknowledged that he shot and killed a bald eagle without a permit on the Wind River Reservation in central Wyoming in March 2005.

But the question of whether Friday should be prosecuted for killing the iconic bird has spawned a legal dispute that has ranged all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined early this year to review his case.

Friday, now in his mid-20s, could possibly face up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine if convicted. He’s scheduled to go to trial Oct. 5 before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne.

Jim Barrett, an assistant federal public defender in Cheyenne, represents Friday. Barrett said he’s negotiating with federal prosecutors to reach a disposition of the case, possibly including transferring it to another court.

“I think the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Mr. Friday and the tribe are both dealing with one another in good faith to try to find a position that is acceptable to both, that recognizes both parties’ interest in the matter,” Barrett said. “What form it’s ultimately going to take, I don’t know.”

Kelly Rankin, U.S. Attorney for Wyoming, declined comment on Friday’s case.

Whatever the ultimate resolution of the government’s case against Friday, Barrett said he believes the situation shows that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs to establish a better way of working with American Indians whose religious beliefs demand that they kill eagles for religious purposes.

Barrett emphasized that killing eagles for American Indian religious practices doesn’t have a significant effect on the eagle population.

“Not any of us would want our religious practices regulated the way the tribe’s practices are, particularly when there’s little actual impact,” Barrett said. “If they were out with automatic weapons knocking eagles out of the sky by the hundreds and impacting the population, well, OK, you might be able to work something out. But that’s not happening.”

Friday has said that he didn’t know about a federal program that allows American Indians to apply for permits to kill eagles for religious purposes at the time he killed the bird.

Lawyers representing Friday and the Northern Arapaho Tribe have argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did its best to keep the program secret and only grudgingly issued permits to American Indians. Attempts to reach agency officials for comment on Friday were unsuccessful.

The bald eagle was removed from the federal list of threatened species in 2007, following its reclassification in 1995 from endangered to threatened. However, the species has remained protected under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

American Indians may apply to the federal government for eagle feathers and carcasses for use in religious ceremonies. However, many recipients have complained that the birds and feathers are often decayed and unfit for use.

U.S. District Judge William Downes in late 2006 dismissed the government’s case against Friday. The judge wrote then that the federal government pays mere lip service to respecting the religious beliefs of American Indians.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver later reversed Downes’ ruling.

Friday was unsuccessful in his efforts to get either a hearing before the full Denver court or the U.S. Supreme Court. The case then went back to Judge Johnson for trial.

Attempts to reach Friday for comment on the negotiations on his case were unsuccessful.

Donovan Antelope, spokesman for the Northern Arapaho Tribe, said Friday that many tribal members consider Friday’s case important because it touches on issues of tribal sovereignty.

“He didn’t do it just to kill an eagle,” Antelope said of Friday. “He was doing it for a religion reason – and it was for our Sun Dance. That’s one of the highest ceremonies for our tribe.”