An armed militia is occupying eastern Oregon's Malheur Wildlife Refuge to protest the federal government's treatment of local ranchers. The protesters accuse the Bureau of Land Management of overreach and violations of their constitutional rights.
08 January 2016
Oregon Governor Kate Brown has issued a statement ordering the minutemen to "decamp immediately."
The Harney County Sheriff and Ammon Bundy took to Twitter to discuss their meeting.
07 January 2016
The meeting between Harney County Sheriff and the Oregon militia has ended for today.
A meeting between Ammon Bundy and Harney County Sheriff David Ward is underway.
The Harney County Sheriff has announced a call to meet with the refuge occupiers.
The militia occupying the Malheur wildlife refuge may as well be shadow-boxing; the absence of a federal response so far makes this a very unusual standoff.
Today's major development in the Oregon standoff was the interview the Bundy brothers gave to the 11-year-old reporter for the local school newspaper.
06 January 2016
The local Native American tribe says the land the militia wants to take from the federal government actually belongs to them.
"They are endangering one of our sacred sites," Charlotte Rodrique, the chairwoman of the Burns Paiute Tribe, said at a news conference Wednesday morning.
“I’m, like, hold on a minute, if you want to get technical about it … the land belongs to the Paiute here,” Selena Sam, a member of the tribe’s council who works at a local diner, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Ammon Bundy's Twitter account is no longer suspended.
05 January 2016
Twitter has suspended Ammon Bundy's account.
Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is quoting multiple US officials who deny reports about the government planning to cut power to the Malheur building currently occupied by the militia.
The Guardian had reported on the plans earlier today, citing an unnamed federal official based in Washington, DC.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is calling on the government to take a slow and cautious approach to the Malheur standoff.
“They need to back off and let this drag off so that it ends in a peaceful way,” Rhodes told Time magazine. “If they go in there and crush these guys instead of waiting them out, there will be a serious reaction across the country.”
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who confronted the BLM with an armed militia in 2014, called the occupation of the wildlife refuge a peaceful protest, and accused the government of stoking fear.
"It’s our first amendment right to peaceful assembly and protest. And my boys have done that. They haven’t destroyed any property. They have not infringed upon anyone’s rights,” Bundy told the Guardian.
His sons Ammon, Mel and Ryan are among the militia that took over the Malheur Wildlife Refuge on Saturday.
Bundy also said he was baffled that the local authorities closed the schools for the week.
“I’d go visit with the sheriff and the school officials and tell them what’s on my mind. I’d say, ‘Why shut the school down? That’s just fear-mongering'," the rancher said.
The US government is planning to shut off the power to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, currently occupied by the militia group, an unnamed official told the Guardian.
“After they shut off the power, they’ll kill the phone service,” the official said. “Then they’ll block all the roads so that all those guys have a long, lonely winter to think about what they’ve done.”
The Washington, DC-based official described the refuge as in "the middle of nowhere" and the weather as "flat-ass cold."
The occupation of the wildlife refuge is symbolic due to the history of Malheur. Originally farmland, Malheur was founded in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect native bird species from poaching. The Audubon Society of Portland, a conversation organization working to protect native wildlife, released a statement Monday about the occupation.
"The occupation of Malheur by armed, out of state militia groups puts one of America’s most important wildlife refuges at risk,” the statement read. “It violates the most basic principles of the Public Trust Doctrine and holds hostage public lands and public resources to serve the very narrow political agenda of the occupiers."
Ammon Bundy says there are no plans to use force, but the group is prepared to respond with force should it be used against them.
Dwight Hammond and son, Steven, are returning to prison to serve for about four more years to meet the terms of the minimum sentence. The ranchers were convicted of setting fire to federal grazing land and are the impetus for the armed sit-in at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Marion County Sheriff Dave Ward's official statement has been posted online. He explains that the Hammonds, the ranchers whose arson conviction inspired the standoff, turned themselves in at 1:37 PST and encourages the rest of the militia to "leave our community."
04 January 2016
The Oregon ranchers convicted of the arson that inspired the standoff between the government and the armed protesters have turned themselves in, the Associated Press reported.
Marion County Sheriff Dave Ward addressed the occupants of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and instructed them to "go home."
Law enforcement officials will hold a press conference at 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST) to address the militant occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon.
The militia told reporters they were confident the federal authorities would not try to remove them from the building forcefully.
While the FBI has declined to publicly comment on their response to the occupation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service has expressed hope that the matter would be resolved peacefully.
Bundy says the armed protest is about forcing the government to play by its own rules.
The militia is led by Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy who successfully defied the Bureau of Land Management in 2014 over grazing rights on federal-owned land.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, Bundy announced that his group went by the name "Citizens for Constitutional Freedom."