1 rancher renounces federal grazing contract at Bundy event

The leader of an armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in OR plans to have a ceremony Saturday for ranchers to renounce federal ownership of public land and tear up their federal grazing contracts.

Ryan Bundy, right, gestures toward Adrian Sewell at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in near Burns, Ore., Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016.

“We’re going to stay here until these people are gone”, said Kieran Seckling, who is protesting the occupation. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has said shes angry because federal authorities have not dealt with Bundys group.Bundy, speaking to The Associated Press late Friday while sitting at a desk inside one of the refuge buildings, dismissed the governors request.“It just again shows the ignorance of some of our elected officials, ” he said.

Weeks into their government standoff at a federal wildlife refuge in eastern OR, a right-wing militia group’s attempts to reconcile with a local Native American tribe by filming themselves rummaging through their belongings has sparked outrage.

Sewell posted a video on Facebook on Thursday in which he discussed what he was about to do. “I really don’t think, at this point, even having another phone conversation here without him would be beneficial”, Bundy said before leaving Friday.

“If they wanted to come get us they would have come got us already”, Bundy said. “Well, I’m answering the call, and I’m on my way into battle, and I need your prayers, because there’s a lot at stake – my life, my liberty, and my property”. In the video, Sewell asks for support and prayers from those who agree with his decision.

In a letter dated Friday to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the tribe demanded that law enforcement officials stop allowing Arizona businessman Ammon Bundy and his supporters free passage to and from the federal bird sanctuary. And second, they want an easier sentence for Dwight Hammond and his son Steven, ranchers who were convicted in 2012 of committing arson on federal lands in Oregon.

First, they want the federal government to relinquish control of the wildlife refuge so “people can reclaim their resources”, [Bundy] told CNN [earlier this month].

Midday on Saturday, a small counter-protest gathered on an overlook about five miles from the refuge, chanting for the group to go home. In 2014, when federal agents started seizing his cattle, Bundy owed $1.2 million to the Bureau of Land Management.

“It’s the third highest ranking award in the USA military”.

Bundy, Sewell and others say they are concerned with what they see as federal overreach in a number of areas related to regulation of federal lands.

Federal authorities are trying to resolve the three-week old standoff, but have so far made no moves against Bundy’s group.