(AP Photo/Rebecca Boone). Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum speaks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Ore.
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Late Tuesday, Bundy told reporters that protesters had received information that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had obtained arrest warrants for some of the armed occupiers, and that authorities were planning to raid the refuge.
The leader of a small group of armed activists who have occupied a remote wildlife refuge in OR hinted on Wednesday that the standoff may be nearing its end.
“While the disagreement occurring in OR about the use of federal lands is not a Church matter, Church leaders strongly condemn the armed seizure of the facility and are deeply troubled by the reports that those who have seized the facility suggest that they are doing so based on scriptural principles”, said the statement released by the LDS Church.
Bundy has appeared as a leader of the militia group along with his brother Ryan.
As the takeover entered its third day, authorities had not moved in and had not shut off power to the refuge, Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum said. But environmentalists and others say US officials should keep control for the broadest possible benefit to business, recreation and the environment.
A pickup blocked the entrance Tuesday morning to a national wildlife refuge in OR where a small, armed group has been occupying the remote area since Saturday.
“We believe these armed extremists have been emboldened by what they saw as a clear victory at the Cliven Bundy ranch and the fact that no one was held accountable for taking up arms against agents of the federal government”, Ms Beirich from the SPLC said.
“They are desecrating one of our sacred traditional cultural properties”, said Charlotte Rodrique, the tribal chair.
So far, law enforcement hasn’t taken action against the group. They have repeatedly said they intend to stay at the compound indefinitely.
Bundy is demanding that the refuge be handed over to locals.
“And the state’s role is to protect the counties from the federal government – and the county’s role is to protect the people from the state so the people can go about freely using their lands and resources and their rights….” But Finicum said the group would examine the underlying land ownership transactions to begin to “unwind it”.
“Everybody in the United States owns that land”, he added.
Rodrique said she “had to laugh” at that statement, because she knew Bundy wasn’t talking about giving the land back to the tribe.
For example, it owns 53 percent of OR, 85 percent of Nevada and 66 percent of Utah, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Wednesday night, at a Harney County community meeting, residents cheered when Sheriff David Ward called for the “outsiders” to “go home”, according to a tweet by JJ MacNab, a writer on anti-government groups who attended the meeting. “We manage it the best we can for its owners, the people, and whether it’s for recreating, for grazing, for energy and mineral development”.
The Hammonds have tried to distance themselves from the militia, saying through their attorney that the group didn’t speak for them.
Meanwhile the local sheriff has organized a town meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the standoff with the local community.
The protesters are complaining about the amount of land controlled by the federal government as well as the sentencing of two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond. “They need to go home and get out of here”.
The Hammonds, who have distanced themselves from the group, were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minimum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.
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.
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“The only thing most of the remaining land was good for was grazing, but cattle ranchers and sheep herders needed large tracts of land to feed their livestock, not the smaller parcels they could claim through homestead policies”.
