The Burns Paiute tribe in Oregon was the latest group to voice their dissent towards the gun-toting protestors who took over several buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since last Saturday.
The self-styled militiamen, led by Nevada cattle rancher Ammon Bundy, have been in a standoff with feds in protest against policies governing the use of federal land in the west. Although the 13,700 acre Burns Paiute Reservation is separate from the wildlife refuge, the American Indian tribe considers it part of their ancestral land, hence sacred.
In a news conference held on Wednesday at the tribe’s cultural centre, some 30 minutes away from the preserve, tribe leader Charlotte Rodrique said “The protestors have no right to this land. It belongs to the native people who live here” and “…they are desecrating one of our sacred sites” with their occupation.
Jarvis Kennedy, a tribal council member was also reported saying: “We don’t need these guys here. They need to go home and get out of here.”
In the evening of the same day in Burns, Harney County Sheriff David Ward was welcome by the cheers of a sizeable crowd as he made it clear that it is time for the group at the refuge to “pack up and go home”.
Bundy’s group of ranchers have been in a long-standing row with the Bureau of land management over federal policies covering the use of public land, including grazing. “It is our goal to get the logger back to logging, the rancher back to ranching”, Ammon said on Tuesday. But Native Americans are among other groups who believe that the government is better equipped to manage the public land for everyone to make use of.
Randy Eardley, a Bureau of Land Management spokesperson said “It is frustrating when I hear the demand that we return the land to the people because it is in the people’s hands – the people own it.”
The Burns Paiute tribe had signed an agreement in 1868 with federal officials requiring them to look after the native’s safety against “any crime or injury perpetrated by white man upon the Indians”, the tribe says. In 1872 the tribe had signed a treaty that was never ratified later and which had forced them to move to a sprawling reservation. Some had later returned and bought property in the Burns area. Around 200 tribal members live there now.
