Occupiers stand their ground at refuge as tribe says ‘go home’

BURNS — Even as their presence was denounced by tribal leaders on Wednesday morning, a group of anti-government protesters who have held a massive wildlife refuge hostage said its resolve is stronger than ever.

“There’s a time to go home, we recognize that,” said Ammon Bundy, leader of the group that calls itself Citizens for Constitutional Freedom. “Enough is enough when there’s actual action happening. And we’ll know when that happens.”

Bundy, one of about 20 members of an armed militia that seized the headquarters of the 300-square-mile Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the weekend, spoke those words late Wednesday morning at what’s become a daily press conference in front of a horde of state and national media.

Bundy’s call for “actual action” was a reference to the militia’s demand that the federal government relinquish its claimed right to land in and around the refuge, and allow ranchers, loggers and other local residents to administer those lands.

Earlier Wednesday, the Burns Paiute Tribe held its own press conference, and the words were not gentle.

“I got a question for the world: What if it was a bunch of natives who took over that refuge?” tribal member Jarvis Kennedy asked a room packed with reporters at the tribe’s headquarters.

“What would happen? Think about that. We Harney County residents don’t need some clown to come in and tell us what we need. They just need to get the hell out of here. We don’t want them here.

“Our little kids are sitting at home when they should be in school,” Kennedy added.

After two weeks of winter break, local children were scheduled to return to school this week. But their classes have been canceled because of safety concerns tied to the militia’s presence.

“Armed protesters don’t belong here,” said Charlotte Roderique, chairwoman of the Burns Paiute Tribal Council. “By their actions they are desecrating one of our sacred traditional cultural properties. They are endangering our children, and the safety of our community, and they need to leave. Armed confrontation is not the answer.”

The Paiute is a federally recognized Indian tribe that inhabits southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, Northern California and Nevada. The Burns Paiute Tribe’s ancestral territory includes the area now managed as the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about 30 miles south of Burns.

The tribe’s ancestors signed a treaty with the federal government in 1868. The treaty was not ratified by Congress, but the government guaranteed that it would protect the safety and property of the Northern Paiute people, according to the tribe.

“The protesters have no claim to this land,” Roderique said Wednesday. “It belongs to the native people who continue to live here. The Malheur Wildlife Refuge is an important place for us. We have no sympathy for those who are trying to take the land from its rightful owners.”

The tribe has about 420 members and 10,000 acres, Roderique said.

“A jurisdictional issue”

Asked about the tribe’s comments, Bundy said: “I really don’t know much about that. They have rights as well. I would like to see them be free from the federal government as well. They’re controlled and regulated by the federal government very tightly, and I think they have a right to be free like everyone else.”

The standoff began Saturday after about 150 people protested in Burns over the news that local ranchers Dwight Hammond, 73, and his son, Steven Hammond, 46, were being ordered back to prison. The father and son were convicted of arson in 2012 for fires on federal land in 2001 and 2006, one of which was set to cover up deer poaching, prosecutors said. The elder Hammond initially served three months and his son one year.

Bundy is the son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was involved in a high-profile 2014 standoff there with the government over cattle-grazing rights on federally owned land.

Ammon Bundy on Wednesday reiterated his and the militia’s stance since taking to the streets of Burns on Saturday.

“This is a jurisdictional issue between the federal and state government,” Bundy said. He said the federal government is “coming down into the states and exercising territorial law inside the state” that is unlawful.

“And that is what we’re really about. If we can resolve that, if we can make sure each individual is protected under the Constitution of the United States and not tried or administered upon through territorial law, then there would not be the Hammond case. And there would not be the many abuses that we are seeing.”

In October, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene sentenced the Hammonds to an additional four years in prison in keeping with federal sentencing guidelines, according to the state Department of Justice.

The Hammonds, who according to The Associated Press have distanced themselves from the militia group, turned themselves in to authorities on Monday.

On Wednesday, Bundy said his group has uncovered new information in the Hammond case.

“We have multiple witnesses who saw, in the 2006 fire … we have evidence that two agents from the (federal) Bureau of Land Management that actually lit the fire with a drip torch on the south and the north side of the Hammonds’ Steens Mountain property.

“And because of this fire, it threatens the winter range of the Hammonds, and the Hammonds lit the backfire. This is something that, as far as we are aware of, has never been acknowledged or received in the court.

“There was not testimony. And we feel that it is strong evidence. Evidence that, going through the proper measures, we will be able to get the Hammonds released. There is information that is coming in by the hour of more and more instances of corruption.”

Bundy did not provide any physical evidence, nor identify the witnesses he said saw how the 2006 fire originated.

Walden chimes in

Asked whether he had spoken to anyone in Congress about a government-citizenry land transfer, Bundy said he had not. But he said he had heard that Greg Walden, the Oregon Republican congressman, was getting involved.

“There are individuals who understand that very well, who understand that the land and the resources were never intended to be in federal control,” Bundy said. “And that because of this unconstitutional control and entitlement at the federal level, there needs to be an unwinding of that, and land titles need to be transferred back to the people.”

Walden gave an emotional talk on the floor of the U.S. House on Tuesday, declaring that he had known the Hammonds for years. He called them “longtime, responsible ranchers in Harney County.”

“I have seen the impact of federal policies,” Walden told the House. “I have seen what happens when overzealous bureaucrats and agencies go beyond the law and clamp down on people.”

Walden said that 72 percent of Harney County — which is larger than the state of Maryland — is under federal control.

Walden said he is not defending any armed takeover, but said there may be a “constitutional crisis” at hand.

Bundy on Wednesday said he concurs with that characterization.

“Anytime you have a family that has been abused the way the Hammonds have … and ends up in prison, ends up (spending) hundreds of thousands of dollars in (legal) defense, has to pay fines, is forced to sign rights of first refusal over to the BLM on their ranch … I would say yes,” Bundy said. “That is a constitutional crisis. Absolutely.”