The possession of eagle feathers is restricted by federal law. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi follows the flight of these birds' remains from a wildlife hospital to a national repository and back to Virginia, into Indigenous hands.
Earlier this year, WMRA and NPR reported on how the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro had admitted more and more bald eagles in recent years.
KARRA PIERCE: They are doing better in the wild, which is great – their numbers have kind of rebounded from a previous low, but with that, they are struggling sometimes to find appropriate habitat to live in.
Dr. Karra Pierce is the director of veterinary services at the center.
PIERCE: Oftentimes they're actually scavenging on the side of the road … putting them at risk, potentially, to be hit by a car. Another big thing we see with our bald eagles is lead intoxication.
Last year, the hospital admitted 66 eagles. Nine recovered and were released, but the other 57 died or were euthanized. Wildlife Center staff mentioned to me that all of the eagles that pass away there are transported to the National Eagle Repository in Colorado – and thus, my search for their final resting place began. I called Liza Roman, who runs the eagle program there.
LIZA ROMAN: The National Eagle Repository was established in the 1970s, and it fulfills the purpose of distribution of deceased bald and golden eagles and their parts and feathers to enrolled members of United States federally recognized Native American tribes.
The raptors are protected by both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
ROMAN: These laws prohibit the unpermitted take of bald and golden eagles, including the killing, harassment, or other harm of eagles; the trade and sale of their parts, feathers, the eagle itself, including nests and eggs …
Illegal possession and trade of eagle remains is investigated and prosecuted by federal law enforcement. Among those who qualify to own these items are scientists, museums, and Native Americans who use them for religious or spiritual purposes.
ROMAN: Applicants can apply for everything from the head down to the claws and feet, so the head, trunk, feet, the wings, tailfeathers, the entire bird is utilized.
Roman said the repository receives, on average, 73 deceased eagles per year from Virginia. So I wondered – do some of them return to the lands where they once nested? There are seven federally recognized tribes in Virginia – including the Monacan Indian Nation in Amherst County. The historic Monacan territory included much of Virginia west of the fall line, including the Blue Ridge Mountains and into present-day West Virginia and North Carolina.
LOU BRANHAM: This seven-and-a-half acres of land that we have here is the heart of our community.
I met with Assistant Chief Lou Branham inside the Monacan Ancestral Museum, at the base of Bear Mountain. Their total tribal enrollment is around 3,000 people, about 600 of whom live around Amherst and Rockbridge counties.
BRANHAM: This is where everything originated – it started here. Located on this premises is the museum, but it's also the old Indian Mission school that is a Virginia historical landmark, that was active from 1868 until 1964, when schools integrated.
Despite the history of European colonization, intentional attempts at erasure such as the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, and the racial slurs Branham still hears to this day, her family has remained resolutely proud of their heritage.
BRANHAM: I was born who I was born to be. You cannot stop blood, the bloodline. Documentation, yeah, it can waver it some, it might halt it for a while, but you can't stop who I was born to be and who I was raised to be.
Branham spoke with me about the spiritual significance of eagles and their feathers.
BRANHAM: In the Native culture, that is the best gift that you can receive, is an eagle feather. And that is because it brings about strength and wisdom and courage and honor. As a little girl, I was told that the eagle is so special because they can fly higher than any bird that the Creator made, and we rely on them to take our prayers to the Creator through the eagle wings, which I always thought was a beautiful story that I was told when I was younger. … I have one when I smudge my house, which is the burning of sweetgrass or sage, and it's a purification of your home or yourself.
She remembers the first eagle feather she ever received. Her father, Chief Ronnie Branham, gave it to her when she was 14, after they shared a reflective moment about life and the future.
BRANHAM: He said, "this was gifted to me for my strength and my dedication to our people … but you're the next generation. I've made my footsteps. And now it's time for you to make your own. Follow me, but make your own footsteps."
Branham said tribal members also use feathers from the repository to make powwow regalia, such as fans and bustles for ceremonial dances. She taught her son, now 23 years old, how to handle them with respect.
BRANHAM: If they come within a wing or if they come in a tail you have to pluck them out, you have to treat them … clean them, and then we take an iron on low heat and you press them … Me, it's an honor for me to have them to be able to gift them. … My elders have fallen sick and gone to the hospital, or if they're at death, I do take one to lay on them at death when they're in the hospital dying, or if they're sick I will take one with prayer ties that's made of sage, sweetgrass … and if you do depart this world, be guaranteed that this feather will match another feather which will create two wings for you to get to your Creator.
It's through these practices, this reverence, that both the old ways and the eagle live on.
