Would they fumigate the pope?

Winnemem Wintu's Mike Preston, 26, dances during the salmon ceremony. The deer toes that ring his ankles make a rhythmic clacking sound meant to make any approaching enemies or evil spirits aware of his presence. (Marc Dadigan/GlobalPost)

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — When the Winnemem Wintu tribe traveled from their home in California to New Zealand this spring, they carried with them dozens of hard-coated suitcases and bazooka-shaped tubes, protection for some of their most delicate and hallowed possessions.

Inside were feather trailers, headdresses, spears, manzanita firewood and a variety of sacred regalia that are inextricably tied to the small tribe’s spiritual beliefs and were required for a ceremony they planned to hold while abroad. To the Winnemem, these are items of the highest religious potency.

But to New Zealand Biosecurity officials these were also items that posed a potential threat to their island’s delicate ecosystem and agricultural industry.

One official insisted on inspecting a spirit basket that belonged to the tribe’s spiritual leader Caleen Sisk-Franco. The basket is a sacred healing item more than 100 years old and had never before been seen by outsiders.

"I need you to open that," the official said, despite Sisk-Franco's protests. Inside were four tiny flicker feathers, less than an inch long and each as old as the basket itself. They had never been removed in more than a century.

"We're going to have to fumigate those," the official said.

"Don’t you understand these aren’t ordinary feathers?" Sisk-Franco said. She explained that the official was asking her to kill the spirits in the feathers that had been passed down through the generations.

"Either you'll have to mail it back, or you'll have to allow us to fumigate it," the official replied firmly. "There are no other options."

As the tribe's chief and spiritual leader, she felt humiliated. Would the pope, she wondered, have to submit to such a process if he arrived with similar regalia?

Sisk-Franco ended up mailing the feathers back to the states, which damaged their efficacy. The rest of the Winnemem's regalia was fumigated and treated with a form of formaldehyde. About a week later, the feathers were returned congealed and torn, and reeking of chemicals. During the ceremony, the deer toes, typically hard and rigid, turned rubbery and crumbled from the dancers' regalia.

“It was like they took the shroud of Turin and set it on fire,” said headman Mark Franco, who’s also Sisk-Franco’s husband.

With the growth of internet communication tools from Skype to Facebook, the world has grown smaller for indigenous peoples just as it has for everyone else. The Winnemem themselves have hosted indigenous representatives from the Altai region of Mongolia, and Sisk-Franco made contacts with New Zealand’s Maori while attending a United Nations conference on indigenous issues.

But as the global community of indigenous peoples makes more connections, it’s likely more will be traveling abroad with religious regalia, which can include items such as feathers and eagle bone whistles that some countries might consider potential biohazards.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/asia/100528/new-zealand-winnemem-wintu-tribe-california