Jan 26, 2021
On today’s episode of the Resistance Library Podcast Sam and Dave
discuss the Oregon Standoff and why it’s
important.
When one talks about the Bundy Family, the first thing that springs
to mind is the standoff in Nevada in 2014. However, perhaps even
more important is the standoff and occupation at Oregon’s Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge in 2016. Indeed, the two events are often
conflated because Ammon Bundy is the son of Cliven Bundy, the man
who stood up to the federal government over
“grazing
fees” on Bureau of Land Management land.
The occupation was a highlight for both the militia and the
sovereign citizen movement as well as proponents of states’ rights.
The main argument from those occupying the land is that the federal
government is mandated by law to turn over the land that they
manage to the individual states in which the land sits. This, they
argued, was particularly true of the Bureau of Land Management,
United States Forestry Service, and United States Fish and Wildlife
Service land.
The 2016 Oregon standoff was over two ranchers convicted of arson
on federal lands – despite the fact that the men, a father and son
pair named Dwight and Steven Dwight Hammond, did not want their
support.
Harney County in rural eastern Oregon is one of the largest
counties in the United States by land mass, but one of the smallest
when it comes to population. With a mere 7,700 people, cows
outnumber humans in Harney by a factor of 14-to-1. Nearly three
quarters of the land in the county is federally managed. The
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was established by then-President
Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. It’s a large area of the county and
surrounding area at 187,757 acres.
You can read the full article “The
Oregon Standoff: Understanding LaVoy Finicum’s Death & the
Management of BLM Land” at Ammo.com.
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