A building at the Harney County Fairgrounds in rural OR was packed to the seams Wednesday night, as local residents discussed an ongoing occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
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But Ward said he is “keeping all options open”.
One of those organizations, the Pacific Patriots Network, issued a “call to action” for its members to establish a safety perimeter around the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in remote southeastern OR as leaders of the protest again said they had no immediate plans to leave.
A member of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters stands next to a fire Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016, near Burns, Ore.
Authorities haven’t removes the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and MI.
Ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son Steven, 46, were convicted of arson on federal land in 2012, but a court ruled their original sentences were too short.
During that meeting, Ward told Bundy that he was seeking a peaceful resolution to the almost week-long standoff and offered to escort the occupiers out of Oregon. Ward has asked Bundy and the group to leave and go home.
The Bureau of Land Management says the Bundy family has an outstanding payment of $1.1 million for the fees and a penalty bill. “We understand them to be lawful, and we understand them to be necessary after we have exhausted all prudent measures”.
“It is our goal to get the logger back to logging, the rancher back to ranching”, Ammon Bundy said Tuesday.
The takeover comes amid a dispute that dates back decades in the West. In the 1970s, Nevada and other states pushed for local control in what was known as the Sagebrush Rebellion.
But what if it doesn’t blow over quickly, and they don’t go home?
The most recent stand-off was in 2014 when federal authorities attempted to seize his father Cliven’s cattle as the family had not paid grazing fees, but backed down when confronted with a group of armed, angry ranchers. However he said people needed to express but their anger peacefully and lawfully.Ive got my own frustrations, weve got visitors in town that have their frustrations, but theres appropriate ways to work out our differences, he said. “It just really rubs me the wrong way that we have a bunch of misinformed people in here – they’re not the original owners”. Her friend had heard about the protest, a rally inspired by the sentencing of two local ranchers on arson charges, and the protesters had come to eastern OR saying the government should relinquish the land to locals. She says the federal government has a responsibility to protect the native people’s land.
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The committee – not affiliated with the county in any official capacity – said returning the land to the people who live in the region would be a huge economic benefit. They will now serve about four more years each.
