Man to plead guilty in eagle ‘killing spree’ on reservation

A Washington state man accused of helping kill thousands of birds is expected to plead guilty Wednesday to shooting eagles on a Native Indian reservation in Montana and selling their feathers and body parts on the black market.

The prosecution over golden and bald 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.

A grand jury indictment in December quotes defendant Travis John Branson saying in a January 2021 text he was going on a “killing spree” to obtain eagle tails. Branson and a second defendant, Simon Paul, killed about 3,600 birds, including eagles on the Flathead reservation and elsewhere, according to the indictment. Federal authorities have not disclosed how all the birds were killed, nor where else the killings happened.

Branson, of Cusick, Wash., sold a purchaser two sets of golden eagle tail feathers — highly prized among many Native American tribes — for $650 in March 2021, according to court documents.

Less than two weeks later, law enforcement stopped Branson on the reservation and found in his vehicle the feet and feathers of a golden eagle he had shot near Polson, Mont., according to filings that included a photo of the bird’s severed feet with their massive talons. The bird’s carcass had been “cleaned” by the second defendant, Simon Paul, and was found in a nearby field, prosecutors wrote.

Multiple phones seized by authorities during the stop yielded photos and text messages that described “the shooting, killing and ultimate selling of bald and golden eagles throughout the United States,” prosecutors said.

Feathers and other parts of eagles are illegal to sell but widely used by Native Americans in ceremonies and during powwows.

Branson, who remained free following the indictment, reached a deal with prosecutors last month to plead guilty to four counts: conspiracy, wildlife trafficking and two counts of trafficking in federally protected bald and golden eagles.