Sheriff calls off plans to talk with armed group

Sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and others traveled to the refuge and occupied the visitors center over the weekend. “But I understand and hear their anger”, said Walden.

If the local and federal law enforcement agencies have been slow to respond to the action, social media has been buzzing with mockery and ridicule.

The small, armed group occupying a remote national wildlife preserve in OR has said repeatedly that local people should control federal lands – a sentiment that frustrates critics who say the lands are already…

Rancher Georgia Marshall speaks at a Harney County meeting.

The armed occupation by roughly 20 people at the refuge entered a fifth day Wednesday with no end in sight. Though they didn’t have a personal connection to the Hammonds, their family has a history of tension with the government over the use of federal land.

“The protesters have no right to this land”. Ammon Bundy, the leader of a small, armed group that is oc…

A few days ago Bundy said the group would eventually leave.

Like the Bundys, Santilli isn’t from Burns, Oregon. In the late 1800s, they were forced off a sprawling reservation created by an 1872 treaty that was never ratified.

There has been no evident police presence outside the snowy, desolate wildlife refuge in southeast OR since the occupiers took over the main building on Saturday. In fact, President Roosevelt laid claim to the land in 1908, deeming it a national wildlife refuge.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) – Three Oregon sheriffs met Thursday with an armed group occupying a federal wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon and asked them to leave, after residents made it clear they wanted them to go home.

At that meeting, Ward said he hoped residents would put up a united front to peacefully resolve the conflict with the group.

Locals said they sympathized with the armed group’s complaints about federal land management policies but disagreed with their tactics.

We asked some Douglas County residents what they thought about the situation. By the time the two sides signed the treaty, the Native Americans weren’t in a strong position to negotiate. Members of the Burns Paiute Tribe have also spoken out against Bundy’s group.

Rodrique says that the protesters are desecrating sacred land and endangering the community.

“He gave us some things to think about and we’re going to think about those, and we’ll let you know”, Bundy said after the meeting, which lasted less than 10 minutes.

“But that can be done without us leaving”, said Bundy.

The committee – not affiliated with the county in any official capacity – said returning the land to the people who live in the region would be a huge economic benefit.

The protesters are demanding a plan to turn over federal lands to locals. “We manage it the best we can for its owners, the people, and whether it’s for recreating, for grazing, for energy and mineral development”. The group also objects to a lengthy prison sentence for two local ranchers convicted of arson. The Hammonds, who turned themselves in Monday to start five-year federal prison sentences, said the fires were set to protect their property from invasive plants and wildfires.