The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Eagle Aviary in Oklahoma is urging hunters to switch to non-lead ammunition after an eagle the tribe released likely died of lead poisoning in Colorado.
The aviary is a rehabilitation center for injured bald and golden eagles, which play an important role in Potawatomi culture.
“We believe these eagles help carry our prayers,” said Jennifer Randell, the aviary's director.
The eagles in captivity are given Potawatomi names, and tribal members can bring home feathers naturally shed by the birds for ceremonies.
Last year, two healthy golden eagle chicks were born at the facility. The staff got them ready to live independently, and months later they were set to be released to the wild.
“In our beliefs and our culture, they've been out there taking care of us,” Randell said. “We feel like we have a responsibility to these eagles, and so to come full circle, to have them actually nest in captivity, and then have those young be able to be released back to the wild, and back being our messengers, is really the dream.”
In mid-October 2025, the team traveled to White Sulphur Springs, Montana, along an eagle migration corridor. On top of a mountain, the wind was blowing strong and it was sleeting.
“To see them fly off the side of that mountain — and the female just went right into the wind. We watched her look down her wings and just all those instincts came into her right in front of us, and she just took off,” Randell said. “It was the most beautiful thing I've ever experienced.”
The female, Mnotagwzékwé, and male, Nëmkis, were the first golden eagles hatched in captivity and released into the wild by a Native American aviary, according to the tribe.
Through telemetry devices, the aviary could see the eagles following the migration path throughout Montana and into Wyoming.
But in late December, the data showed that the eagle had been on the ground in Colorado for longer than expected. Then, he was headed into Denver in a vehicle.
The aviary got in touch with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which helped with the rescue. Nëmkis died soon after. A blood test revealed he had elevated lead levels.
“When that happened, it was really a hard pill to swallow,” Randell said.
She said the bird likely ingested lead from scavenging on a carcass containing lead bullet fragments. It wouldn’t be an uncommon outcome.
A 2022 study by scientists at the U.S. Geological Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that almost half of bald and golden eagles in the country had lead poisoning. Models they shared suggested the levels of lead poisoning were slowing population growth for both species. The scavengers’ lead concentrations can be higher in the winter, when live prey is harder to find and they’re more likely to feast on gut piles left behind by hunters.
CPW helped return the golden eagle to the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Bree Dunham, a manager at the aviary, said the community held sweats and feasts when the eggs were laid and when Nëmkis returned.
“That was a really hard thing for us to tell our community — not because we think they would be disappointed, but just because we knew how invested they were in that,” she said.
Dunham and Randell are asking hunters to try non-toxic ammunition alternatives, like copper.
“What we decided is that we would make sure we got the word out to try to help that not happen to other eagles,” Randell said.
Wildlife advocates and gun rights groups have clashed over the idea of banning lead ammunition, but only California has outright banned it. But Dunham and Randell believe, along with many hunting and conservation groups, that encouraging hunters to make the switch voluntarily is a better approach.
Still, under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule to phase out the use of lead ammunition and tackle in eight national wildlife refuges in the eastern part of the country. But the Trump administration reversed it and in a September 2026 executive order, the president ordered federal agencies to soon “permit the use of traditional lead ammunition and tackle.” The longstanding ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting remains in place.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
