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“We don’t want them flying around trying to watch our sun dances or ceremonies or something,” he said.

For years, meals at the summer sun dance ceremonies on the Eastern Shoshone tribe’s lands in Wyoming were missing something that was once a staple of the sacred rituals.

Black Elk grew up in the community with a mother who was deeply traditional and a father who had been a Benedictine monk, attending traditional sun dances every summer and Catholic Mass every Sunday.

He said that fans made from the feathers are used for healing and blessing purposes while eagle bones can be shaped into whistles for sun dance ceremonies and other rituals.

In just an hour’s drive, you’re transported from landlocked Lecce, where the sun dances across limestone churches and streets paved in marble, to a quiet seaside town.