It probably wasn’t the tweet most people expected to see out of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge where a group of armed men have been holed up since Saturday.
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The Bureau of Land Management says the Bundy family has an outstanding payment of $1.1 million for the fees and a penalty bill.
“For them to come in and say we’re going to give it to the rightful owners – I’m laughing”, she said Wednesday at a news conference.
The leadership of the Burns Paiute Tribe, a Native American tribe that once occupied the Malheur National Wildlife refuge, called on the militant protesters to go home on Wednesday.
The man behind the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge comes from a Mormon family that has been challenging government authority for at least two decades. The sheriff’s office said they planned to meet again Friday.
The group also is protesting the five-year prison sentences given to two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond.
Frank said he sympathizes with the group’s anti-federalist views, but believes their tactics will fail to accomplish anything.
Other comments during the press conference highlighted how school shutdowns during the occupation were keeping tribe members’ kids out of school, as well as how the occupiers never acknowledged the rights of the Burns Paiute Indians when taking over the land. Ward has said the militants have “alternative motives”.
A member of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, walks to the front gate Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Ore.
Cliven Bundy’s son Ammon claimed the federally owned wildlife refuge in rural, eastern OR belonged to the people.
Some nearby residents have backed the protest, but no local organizations have voiced support for the continued occupation at the refuge.
The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon’s high desert country on Saturday. They apparently want the government to hand over this public land to local ranchers, loggers, and miners.
Indeed the Malheur refuge is home to culturally important sites to the Burns Paiute tribe.
Bundy has been leading an armed group of white militiamen known as the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom.
Bundy said on Tuesday that once the group’s mission was accomplished, they would leave.
It is understandable that they do not want to escalate the situation and take human life, but they are allowing this group to obtain exactly what they want and making the U.S. Government look like the fool.
Almost 53 percent of the land in OR is owned by the United States government, and that has led to tensions with local communities over mining, ranching, grazing and logging rights.
Bundy said his group poses a threat to no one. A judge later ruled that the terms fell short of minmum sentences requiring them to serve about four more years.
The Hammonds were convicted of arson three years ago and served no more than a year.
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This report first appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s website.
