Two Tribes Dragged Washington to Court Over an Eagle Permit It Already Buried Once

Federal wildlife agents quietly closed an investigation into illegal eagle killings at a New Mexico preserve.

Then Washington tried to push through a second permit over the same two tribes' religious objections.

What a federal judge decided about that permit just handed two tribes a rare win over Washington.

A 2023 Biden Fish Wildlife Service Permit Okayed Eagle Kill or Capture

The Pueblo of Jemez received its first special permit to “take” – meaning capturing or killing – an eagle inside Valles Caldera National Preserve in 2023.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service DNA examination later indicated hunters took more eagles than that permit allowed, according to former Joshua Tree National Park deputy superintendent Frank Buono and the watchdog group Caldera Action.

Caldera Action says the 2023 take violated the Lacey Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

The Park Service referred the matter for possible prosecution, and prosecutors declined to bring charges in September 2024.

No one was ever identified as responsible, and the file was closed.

Retired National Park Service Biological Resources Division chief Elaine Leslie says internal agency paperwork once flatly ruled out ever allowing this kind of permit inside a park unit, and a Fish and Wildlife Service memo said the same.

That rule didn't survive contact with the Pueblo of Jemez's second application.

Two Pueblos Said the Government Never Protected Their Religious Rights

The Pueblo of Jemez applied for a new permit, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved it on July 20, 2026.

The National Park Service's environmental review cleared a special use permit authorizing a take between October 28 and November 27, 2026, with a roughly thirty-day closure of about 5,751 acres in the preserve's northwest corner.

The Pueblo of Santa Clara and the Pueblo of Zia took part in the federally required consultation process and watched their objections go nowhere anyway.

"Both Pueblos have deep and meaningful connections to the preserve and its wildlife," the tribes wrote in their complaint.

"Allowing harm to come to eagles in the preserve is strongly against the Pueblos' cultural and religious values," they added.

The two tribes argue the Park Service's review skipped basic population data on eagles in the area, as required under federal environmental law.

They also say the 2023 permit itself was issued without consulting them at all, in violation of federal historic preservation law.

The National Park Service signed its final approval on October 26, 2026, and the two tribes sued that same day.

A Judge Sided With the Tribes and Stopped Washington Cold

U.S. District Judge Kea Riggs issued a temporary order on October 28, 2026, blocking the government from issuing the permit.

Riggs found that killing an eagle inside the preserve would burden the religious exercise of the pueblos objecting to it, not just the pueblo seeking to carry it out.

The order is temporary, and the underlying lawsuit is still pending.

For now, the eagle that was supposed to die before November 27 stays alive.

The Agency That Already Failed These Tribes Once Tried Again

The real story at Valles Caldera isn't a fight over one eagle.

It's a federal agency that watched its permit process get exceeded once, declined to prosecute anyone over it, and then tried to run the exact same program back two years later without fixing a single safeguard.

A retired superintendent and a retired biologist who built their careers inside the Park Service are the ones calling this a case of environmental-law malpractice, not outside activists looking for a fight.

This isn't a dispute between environmentalists and a tribe, either.

It's two sovereign pueblos, Santa Clara and Zia, each holding distinct eagle traditions, going to federal court against the same federal government that is supposed to answer to all three nations equally.

It took a judge, not the agency, to hit pause.

That's the actual pattern: when a federal bureaucracy gets caught letting a permit run wild, the fix comes from a courtroom, not from the agency that issued it in the first place.

Sources:

• Courthouse News Service, "New Mexico Pueblo Tribes Sue Over Eagle-Take Plan at National Preserve," Courthouse News Service, 2026.
• Law360, "Eagle Hunt Blocked Over NM Tribes' Religious Harm Fears," Law360, October 28, 2026.
• Ted Williams, "Opinion: NPS Recommends Eagle Take at Valles Caldera Preserve," Albuquerque Journal, October 11, 2026.
• Missoula Current, "Pueblo Tribes Sue Over Eagle-Take Plan at National Preserve," Missoula Current, 2026.
• Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, "Ceremonial Eagle Kill at Valles Caldera Authorized by Parks Service Prompts Lawsuit," PEER, 2024.