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Les Zaitz/AP
Malheur Wildlife Refuge
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STORY PRINT ‘It'sPRINT
So Disgusting’ Malheur MORE EDITOR'S PICKS
Militia Dug Latrine
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Artifacts Feds...
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April 14, 2016

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On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Billy When camera
Williams released a report in district assistant and boom
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April 14, 2016
Malheur Wildlife Refuge, a site sacred The Fantasy Bet:
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to the Burns Paiute Tribe after a 41-day Is...
armed standoff with militants led by How much skill does
Ammon Bundy. it take to play...

Disturbingly, Williams writes, “Occupiers appear to have excavated two large

trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive
artifacts. At least one of these trenches contains human feces.”

The refuge was once part of the 1.8 million acre Malheur Indian reservation which
belonged to several Northern Paiute bands including the nearby Burns Paiute
tribe. The buildings the militants occupied demanding the “return” of federal
lands to ranchers, miners and loggers contained over 4,000 artifacts and maps of
graves and other culturally significant sites on the refuge.

“That whole area is an artifact area,” Jarvis Kennedy, Burns Paiute tribal council
member told ICTMN, “If you just walk across there you’ll see chips on the ground
where someone made an arrowhead. It’s everywhere.”

When asked what he thought of the latrines Kennedy said, “Just see this…this is
their mindset—not really caring about anything. For them to do that in that area is
so disgusting.”

He doesn’t think the militants weren’t simply clueless either, “I think they didn’t
care. We did our press conference. We took our stand. They knew.”

The FBI’s Art Crimes Team is handling the investigation of these culturally-
sensitive sites. General evidence gathering began on Saturday and the FBI
estimates it will take 21 days to process the entire crime scene.

“We want to ensure our archaeology department is involved in the investigation,”

Burns Paiute tribal chairwoman Charlotte Roderique insists, “Praying there hasn’t
been too much damage, but definitely concerned about the disturbance of any
remains or anything like that. Because this the cruelest thing anyone can do.”

“Still,” Roderique adds, “So thankful for all the Native nations—all the groups out
there that supported us through this whole thing. Knowing that other people
cared has meant a lot. Knowing here are people out there who can understand our
situation, our concern about our ancestors’ remains. Even tribes that have their
own issues going on regarding archaeology of the land and ARPA cases that are
out there.”

She had received letters of support not only from tribes across the country but MOST SHARED
from as far away as Peru and from remote Russian communities.

The tribe, itself, will be holding a day of spiritual prayers to cleanse the land. They The Power of
Cherokee Women
will send out a notification via tribal newspapers and by word of mouth for others
to come and pray with the Paiute people. “We want to cleanse the land,”
Roderique says, “and not disturb animal life or the spirits of our people.”
American Indian
She noted how the occupation has brought her tribe together and even members Poet John Trudell
Walks On
of the community who have historically been at odds with the tribe.

“At one of the town meetings, right at the beginning, one of the gentlemen who Why Don’t You
owns a big ranching outfit addressed the meeting and said that his family had People Just Get
been ranching for 5 generations in this area. The first generation was wiped out by Over It? Here’s Why
fires during the Bannock War, but he said, ‘We’ve worked, we sit at the table with
tribal people and make decisions on fish and wildlife and the environment and Natives and the
way to control noxious weeds and I have no animosity toward the tribe.’ I think American Holocaust
we all have gotten past the ‘I hate white people/I hate Indians’ interaction.

However, she has received threatening letters, emails and texts from Bundy
The Wampanoag
supporters which she immediately forwards to the FBI. “If it has a Colorado Side of the First
prefix,” Roderique says, “ I can be sure it’s one of the militia people here on their Thanksgiving Story
cell phone.”

Although, no one in the tribe is happy with the late militant spokesman LaVoy
Finicum’s death after he ran a police blockade and charged police while armed
they do wonder if it is tied to his handling of their artifacts in the Youtube video
he put out criticizing the way the tribe’s artifacts were stored.

“He [Finicum} had the bag of flints he was waving them and the next day he is
dead,” Roderique told ICTMN. “He should never have picked those up and
disturbed those spirits who made them. If it is flint arrowheads, someone who was
a warrior or was a good hunter—those are the kind who can come back and do
 these things.”

Her son has been working on archaeological digs for over 20 years and he always
purifies himself before and after.

“When you are at a site and going to be looking for our ancestors’ possessions and
taking pictures of them you need to prepare yourself. You need to cleanse
yourself. Some people say they have bad dreams and talk in their sleep. Tribal
people always prepare themselves.”

Ammon Bundy continues to ignore the Burns Paiute tribe’s connection to land
which was never ceded in any treaty to the United States. In custody since
January 26, he released a statement on Friday through his lawyer saying, “This
land belongs to the people. We must get our government in control and back to
benefiting the people.”

His father Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who held a standoff in 2014 against
federal agents for refusing to pay $1 million in grazing fees owed to the Bureau of
Land Management, was arrested a week ago at the Portland airport attempting to
join the occupation at Malheur and rally support of the last holdouts. He was
denied bail on Tuesday due to being a flight risk and for “lawless and violent”
behavior.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven W. Myhre in a memo seeking Cliven Bundy's

pretrial detention quoted a Bundy Ranch Facebook post from February 10 that
announced Cliven was headed to Oregon and read in part: "WAKE UP
PATRIOTS! WAKE UP MILITIA! IT'S TIME!!!!!''

"When he uses the term militia, he's talking about guns,'' Myhre said.

Michelle Fiore, Nevada assemblywoman and Bundy supporter who over a live-
streamed phone conversation convinced the last holdouts to leave the refuge, took
issue with the description of the Bundy family’s armed resistance as violent.

“This was a bunch of cowboys camping out in the middle of nowhere,” Fiore
claimed, “They were exercising their constitutional rights to assemble, to free
speech: their right to bear arms.”

Jacqueline Keeler is a Navajo/Yankton Dakota Sioux writer living in Portland,

Oregon and co-founder of Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry, creators of
Not Your Mascot. She has been published in Telesur, Earth Island Journal and
the Nation and interviewed on MSNBC and DemocracyNow and Native
American Calling. She has a forthcoming book called “Not Your Disappearing
Indian” and podcast. On twitter:

Tweet 53 53
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1 Comment
 tmsyr11
This is NOT the first time "militia" types have taken over a US Federal
compound. The damages and destruction were just as obscene and
disgusting (if not worst) than the current-active "reports" given by the
US Govt. and their "media-sponsors".
http://www.maquah.net/Historical/1972/images/72-11-
11_damage_to_BIA.jpg If the charges and allegations against the US
Govt. (in 1972) were taken as "truth" or "conspiracies", then what is so
different about TODAY when the US Govt. carries out the similar
investigations and studies to the aftermath of citizens taking on the
power of the US Government?
http://www.framingredpower.org/archive/newspapers/frp.wapo.19721123.xml
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Thu, 02/18/2016 - 23:21

READ MORE
Billy Williams Malheur Wildlife Refuge Burns Paiute Tribe Ammon Bundy
Malheur Indian Reservation Northern Paiute Sacred Artifacts Jarvis Kennedy
Latrines Sacred Objects FBI Art Crimes Team Charlotte Roderique
Cliven Bundy Steven W. Myhre Michelle Fiore Jacqueline Keeler

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