Sheriff meets with armed group, asks them to leave

The leader of the anti-government militia that has occupied a federal wildlife refuge in OR and the local sheriff met on Thursday in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully.

During the brief meeting, Sheriff David Ward asked Ammon Bundy to respect the wishes of Harney County residents and leave the land, the sheriff’s office said on Twitter.

The week-long standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside the town of Burns, Oregon, was spurred by the imprisonment of two ranchers for setting fires that spread to federal land. Authorities have not yet moved to remove the group of roughly two dozen people, some from as far away as Arizona and MI.

“I am here today to ask those folks to go home and let us get our lives back in Harney County”, he told a crowd of about 500 people crammed into a building in the Harney County Fairgrounds on a foggy, chilly night. They say they are protesting the imprisonment of two local ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, who have been sentenced to prison for arson on federally owned land.

Rodrique, the leader of the Burns Paiute tribe, said the armed occupiers who took over the refuge Saturday are not welcome and have no rights to the property in a Wednesday press conference.

Bundy has told reporters they will leave when there’s a plan in place to turn over federal lands to locals.

This isn’t a struggle for “constitutional rights”, it’s an act of theft of public land.

The situation was more calm on Thursday when a series of area ranchers visited for chats with the Bundys, who discussed their beliefs that the federal government had overreached its authority, often pausing to read from the U.S. Constitution.

Bundy said his group poses a threat to no one.

The Oregonian reported that Ward offered to provide Bundy and his group a safe escort out of the refuge.

Carla Teeman, a social services assistant for the tribe, echoed much of the core criticism about the occupiers when she stated, “As a Native, if we were to go out there and fight back like they are, we would have been dead by now”.

Earlier Wednesday the leader of an American Indian tribe that regards the preserve as sacred issued a rebuke to Ammon’s group, saying they are not welcome at the snowy bird sanctuary and must leave.

The Hammonds’ plight is just their latest beef between the Bundys and the federal government over land disputes following a standoff in April 2014 over disputed territory and unpaid grazing fees.

The father and son were convicted of arson and given five-year prison sentences. “But I understand and hear their anger”, said Walden.

Their spokesperson says they don’t want violence, but they are ready to die for their cause.

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