A group called 3% of Idaho arrived at the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Saturday, shortly after a brief press conference was held by the militia.
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The armed men represented the Pacific Patriot Network, a consortium of groups from Oregon, Washington and Idaho, The Oregonian reports.
At 2 p.m. today, The Oregonian reported that armed members of the Pacific Patriot Network were leaving the refuge. The standoff is seeing Bundy pitting himself against Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who is leading federal efforts to end the occupation peacefully. So, the people of Harney County must be trained and organized to provide their own security.
They arrived at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge mid morning, carrying rifles and handguns and dressed in military attire and bulletproof vests.
“I’m not afraid to go out of the state”, Bundy told reporters after the meeting.
On Saturday afternoon, Carol Bundy, wife of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, sent an email with the subject line: “How you Can Help the Patriots in OR”.
The move followed a demonstration in support of two local ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven, who were returned to prison earlier this week for setting fires that spread to federal land.
Ward said he plans to talk with Bundy again on today.
Ammon Bundy has been demanding that federal land in Oregon’s Harney County be turned over to local residents to be managed. “I threw it aside”, Walden said, and launched into an unscripted speech remarkable for its emotion and blunt clubbing of federal agencies, and as a paean to the Western lifestyle. While ranchers and others object to what they say are unfair rules, environmentalists say mining, logging and ranching have run roughshod for decades on public land and left a legacy of pollution for taxpayers to clean up. Over the years, officials refused to renew some of the family’s grazing allotments and increased fees on others. “It belongs to the native people who live here”, Charlotte Rodrique, chair of the Paiute tribe in Burns, said on Wednesday in front of the tribe’s cultural center.
That’s anybody’s guess. The strategy of law enforcement seems to be to show Bundy and his followers that most local residents want them to leave, and that way avoid a confrontation.
The FBI issued a statement saying they were continuing to seek a peaceful resolution to the situation, without giving further details. With the Hammonds voluntarily going to prison, Bundy’s end-game is not clear.
“I was asked to do this by the Lord”, said Bundy, a Mormon, as some of the militia members nodded in understanding.
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Local residents have mixed feelings about the occupation. On Friday Bundy said that at some point he will accept Sheriff Ward’s offer of an escort out of the refuge to assure safe passage, but not yet.
