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Wednesday, September 21, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Bookstore Oregon standoff trial is underway
hosts
author
events
By Steven Dubois
Associated Press
Pamela Royes will visit
Paulina Springs Books on
Friday, September 23 at 6:30
p.m. to talk about her mem-
oir, “Temperance Creek.”
This beautifully crafted book
tells the story of Pamela
and her family’s adventur-
ous existence in the remote
Hell’s Canyon of Eastern
Oregon. As they faced many
challenges together their
perseverance and faith in
one another helped them
through some very difficult
times.
Former Oregon governor
Barbara Roberts will visit
the bookstore on Saturday,
September 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Paulina Springs and
Partners in Care welcome
Roberts as she discusses her
book “Death Without Denial,
Grief Without Apology.”
Written for both the indi-
vidual facing death and for
those who must grieve after
a death, Roberts offers read-
ers enthusiastic support to
abandon the silence that too
often accompanies impend-
ing death and those who must
grieve.
Local author Jill Stanford
returns to Paulina Springs
Books Saturday, October 8
at 6:30 p.m. with an anthol-
ogy of cowgirls poets.
Stanford has edited a delight-
ful book featuring the
poems, thoughts and musi-
cal lyrics of real ranching
women and cowgirls who
have lived the true Western
experience.
Refreshments will be
served at all events and a $5
admission will be refunded
upon purchase of the featured
book.
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PORTLAND (AP) — The
leaders of an armed standoff
at a rural wildlife refuge say
they came to Oregon’s high
desert country to help locals
deal with an overreaching
federal government that has
abused people’s land rights
for decades.
“I felt we were not there to
break the law but to enforce
the law,” said occupier Ryan
Bundy, referring to the U.S.
Constitution. Bundy, who
acted as his own attorney
Tuesday, September 13, as
a trial began for him and six
others accused in the stand-
off, told the court he wasn’t
anti-government, “as long as
it’s done correctly.”
But in opening statements
prosecutors said Bundy and
the other protesters broke the
law when they threatened and
intimidated federal employ-
ees during the 41-day take-
over of the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge.
“Everyone in this great
nation has a right to his or her
beliefs. We are not prosecut-
ing the defendants because
we don’t like what they think
or said,” federal prosecutor
Geoffrey Barrow told jurors.
“We are prosecuting them
because of what they did.”
Barrow dismissed claims
by group leader Ammon
B u n d y, Ry a n B u n d y ’s
brother, and others that the
takeover was a legitimate
protest of federal land man-
agement. The Bundy brothers
are part of a Nevada ranching
family embroiled in a long-
running dispute over land
use.
The standoff began as a
protest against the imprison-
ment of two Oregon ranchers
convicted of setting fires and
quickly grew into demands
for the U.S. government
to turn public lands over
to locals. The issue traces
back to the 1970s and the
Sagebrush Rebellion, a move
by Western states to win more
control of vast federal land
holdings.
The seven on trial are
charged with conspiring to
impede Interior Department
employees from doing their
jobs through intimidation or
threats. Five are also charged
with possession of a firearm
in a federal facility.
Barrow said he will detail
how the occupiers were
divided into squads and
drilled in hand-to-hand com-
bat. He also said one of the
participants in the standoff
will testify against his former
allies.
Marcus Mumford, the
defense attorney for Ammon
Bundy, said in his opening
statement that the occupa-
tion had nothing to do with
impeding federal employees.
Ammon Bundy “did what
he did to demand account-
ability from the federal gov-
ernment,” Mumford said.
“He demanded the federal
government obey the law —
the nerve.”
Bundy grew up the son of
a rancher, Mumford said, and
became a “reluctant activist.”
Mumford repeatedly
asserted that Bundy was try-
ing to take the refuge land
legally by a practice known
as adverse possession, which
is a way to gain title to land
by occupying it for a period
of time.
Mumford ended his state-
ment by noting that Bundy
and his followers never aimed
a gun at anyone.
Referencing the fatal
shooting by police of occu-
pation spokesman Robert
“Lavoy” Finicum, he said
only one side of the standoff
shot someone. “And it wasn’t
Mr. Bundy.”
At the refuge near Burns,
Oregon, protesters mostly
came and went as they
pleased. They changed the
signs to “Harney County
Resource Center” and said
they would give the land to
local officials to administer.
The occupation roiled the
surrounding area, with some
locals supporting the move-
ment and others denouncing
the occupiers as unwanted
outsiders.
Counterprotesters, includ-
ing environmentalists, trav-
eled to eastern Oregon and
urged the federal government
to administer public lands for
the widest possible uses, for
everyone from ranchers to
bird watchers.
The Bundys were arrested
in a Jan. 26 traffic stop that
included the fatal shoot-
ing of Finicum, an occupa-
tion spokesman. Four hold-
outs stayed at the refuge for
another 16 days.
On Tuesday about a dozen
protesters showed up out-
side the federal courthouse
in downtown Portland. They
waved an upside-down
American flag and marched
around the building during
the trial’s lunch break.
“We’re slowly losing our
rights, whether it’s our rights
to farm, our rights to fish,
our rights to have ponds on
our property, water,” said
John Lamb, a protester from
Bozeman, Montana. “I just
see that we’re losing them
all, slowly but surely — and
we don’t even have a say-so
in it.”
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