Stacey Dash
Burns, Oregon (CNN)The leaders of the Burns Paiute tribe have a message for the men and women who have taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge outside Burns, Oregon: “Go home. We don’t want you here.”
The message came from several tribe members whose ancestors fought and died over portions of that land long before the ranchers and farmers had it, long before the federal government even existed.
The tribe is still fighting over land use but now works with the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management to save its archaeological sites.
“We have good relations with the refuge. They protect our cultural rights there,” said tribal council Chairwoman Charlotte Rodrique.
The group occupying this reserve call themselves Citizens for Constitutional Freedom and believe the land belongs to them:
The Bureau of Land Management is the same agency that has riled up Nevada rancher Ammon Bundy and thearmed protesters who joined him from out of state. The men took over the wildlife refuge headquarters, saying they would stay until the land was returned to who they consider its owners, the 100 or so ranchers and farmers who worked the land as far back as 1900.
“We are exercising our constitutional rights. We won’t leave until these lands have been turned over to the their rightful owners,” Bundy said. “More than 100 ranchers and farmers used to work this land, which was taken illegally by the federal government.”
“Rightful owners” is an extremely subjective phrase. And the leaders of the the Paiute tribe agree:
“They just need to get the hell out of here,” tribal council member Jarvis Kennedy told a crowd of reporters and local residents who showed up to listen to what the tribe had to say on the matter….
“To me they are just a bunch of bullies and little criminals coming in here and trying to push us around over here and occupy our aboriginal territories out there where our ancestors are buried,” Kennedy said…
The tribe said it has never ceded its right to the land but received federal recognition in 1868 and signed a treaty with the federal government that requires it to protect the safety of the natives and promised to prosecute any crime or injury perpetrated by any white man upon them.
The federal government is not living up to their end of the bargain…surprise, surprise. This land lawfully belongs to Paiute people. And the hypocrisy of this whole situation — let’s not forget that:
The tribe members are quick to point out that they think things would be much different if it were them trying to take back the land the same way.
“We’d be already shot up, blown up or in jail. Just being honest; they are used to killing us,” Kennedy said. “They are white men. That is the difference. That is just how I see it.”
We as natives, if people are taking up arms, have to do the same. We can’t show up to a gun fight with a knife. The question is why has it come to this? We know what is right — but now it is time to do what is right!
This land is our land! We did not migrate here. We have been here since the beginning of time. Its time for these “Citizens for Constitutional Freedom” to get the heck out.
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