Man Pleads Guilty To Bald Eagle 'Killing Spree'

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A Washington state man accused of helping kill thousands of birds pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to shooting eagles on an American Indian reservation in Montana and selling their feathers and body parts on the black market.

Travis John Branson pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wildlife trafficking and two counts of trafficking federally protected bald and golden eagles, under a plea deal reached last month with government attorneys.

The prosecution over eagles killed on the Flathead Indian Reservation underscores the persistence of a thriving illegal trade in eagle feathers despite a law enforcement crackdown in the 2010s that netted dozens of criminal indictments across the U.S. West and Midwest. Feathers and other parts of eagles are widely used by Native Americans in ceremonies and during powwows.

Court documents quote Branson saying in a January 2021 text that he was going on a “killing spree” to obtain eagle tails. Branson and a second defendant, Simon Paul, killed approximately 3,600 birds, including eagles on the Flathead reservation and elsewhere, according to a December indictment.

Federal authorities have not disclosed how most of those birds were killed, nor where else the killings happened, and the issue was not discussed during Wednesday’s hearing.

Branson, of Cusick, Washington, sold an unidentified purchaser two sets of golden eagle tail feathers — highly prized among many Native American tribes — for $650 in March 2021, according to prosecutors.

Less than two weeks later, law enforcement stopped him on the reservation and found in his vehicle the feet and feathers of a golden eagle he had shot near Polson, Montana, which is on the reservation according to court filings