Community
January 21
2021
The Washington, D.C. Seige
Has Western Roots continued from page 8
to Portland, Oregon, ready to brawl with
locals and anti-fascists, who countered their
demonstrations and often obliged their vio-
lent impulses. Members of the Three Per-
centers vowed to support Oregon state leg-
islators who fled the state to avoid a vote on
climate change legislation in 2019, includ-
ing Sen. Brian Boquist, who said that if the
state police wanted to arrest him for flee-
ing his legislative duties, they should “send
bachelors and come heavily armed.” This
summer, when protests over racial inequity
spread across the nation in the wake of the
killing of George Floyd by police, right-
wing paramilitary groups in places like
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and Olympia, Wash-
ington, showed up in combat gear, ostensi-
bly to keep the peace and protect property.
Recently, right-wing extremists
have found a new cause: the COVID-19
pandemic and consequent public health
measures, such as business closures and
mask mandates. Western extremist groups
like the Three Percenters and Ammon Bun-
dy’s newly formed People’s Rights organi-
zation have been “seizing on the pandemic
and trying to build political power, main-
stream their beliefs and build public trust,”
said Amy Herzfeld-Copple, the deputy di-
rector of the Western States Center. Ammon
Bundy, who has played a prominent role in
protests against public health orders, was
arrested twice this summer for disrupting
the Idaho Legislature.
A couple of weeks before the insur-
rection in Washington, D.C., demonstrators
in Salem, Oregon, made a sort of watered-
down test run. On December 21, protesters
demonstrating against public health restric-
tions broke down doors at the state Capitol
and attacked journalists covering their rally.
Since then, reports have emerged that they
gained access to the building with aid from
Republican state Rep. Mike Nearman, a
claim that draws comparison to accusations
that federal police officials aided the crowds
that entered the U.S. Senate and House.
(Editor’s note: Since the original publication
of this article video footage has confirmed
Nearman’s role in this incident.)
This groundswell of anti-govern-
ment extremism in response to Trump’s
failed claims of election fraud and the coro-
navirus pandemic has turned the nation
into a possible powder keg. “We’re likely
to see the effects of their violence for years
to come,” said Herzfeld-Copple. “It’s an
extension of a pattern of local government
being threatened by political violence.”
While no one knows whether
Trump’s departure from office will be a
source of continued unrest, history clearly
indicates that the threat of future violence is
likely to lie in the West and its federal pub-
lic lands. Biden’s pledges to act on climate
change and restore Bears Ears and Grand
Staircase-Escalante, two national monu-
ments that were shrunk by Trump, could be
flashpoints. “By simply doing their job, the
Interior Department will create more po-
tential flashpoints,” said Aaron Weiss, the
deputy director for the Center for Western
Priorities. “Being good stewards means
rounding Bundy cattle up. They can’t con-
tinue to coddle these extremists.”
Now, the West and rest of the coun-
try are left wondering where these tensions
will flare up next. History tells us that any
attempts at an ambitious federal public-land
policy will be met with right-wing resis-
tance.
And yet there are hopeful touch-
stones in the region, including the site of the
last Bundy occupation in Burns, Oregon.
Collaboration and community conversa-
tions around land management, both before
and since the 2016 occupation, blunted local
support for the extremists who descended
on the small eastern Oregon town. Accord-
ing to Peter Walker, a University of Oregon
geographer who chronicled the occupation
and aftermath in his book Sagebrush Col-
laboration: How Harney County Defeated
the Takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Ref-
uge, one local rancher told him: “Collabora-
tion is what inoculated us from the Bundy
virus.”
“Instead of a glamorous revolu-
tion,” as promised by the Bundy-lead mili-
tants, Walker told Oregon Quarterly, the
community embraced a less exciting, but
far more democratic and peaceful approach.
“Harney County (has) returned to the much
less glamorous, time-consuming, some-
times tedious but often effective work of
sitting across the table with people of differ-
ent viewpoints to find mutually beneficial,
practical solutions to shared problems.”
This article was originally published by
High Country News on January 8, 2021.
Carl Segerstrom is an assistant editor
at High Country News, covering Alaska,
the Pacific Northwest and the Northern
Rockies from Spokane, Washington. Email
him at carls@hcn.org.
9
¡El Amigo Mexican Food
and Bakery! continued from front page
they purchased the Hobo Bakery
business and equipment. The bak-
ery officially opened in mid-Janu-
ary after a soft opening that lasted
a few weeks which gave them a
chance to find out what people like
and what will sell. “It was just a
good opportunity since we were
looking to expand
the food truck,”
says Deysy. “We
had a lot of people
at the food truck
asking for Mexican
pastries, flan, and
other desserts, but
with such a small
space in the truck,
it was impossible
to make that work.
So when we heard
this was available,
it just all came to-
gether.”
fruit filled cakes, cookies, breads,
and much more. In the summer
they plan to offer frozen treats.
Olivia has a lot of ideas for the
future, and hopes to expand the
space and even offer fresh vegeta-
bles and other market type items.
Both Teodoro and Olivia,
Teodoro Carreno runs El Amigo Mexican Food Truck.
The bakery offers a large
variety of authentic Mexican
sweets and pastries, including
pan dolce (sweet bread), a vari-
ety of flakey pastries (including
croissants), bunuelos (fried dough
covered in cinnamon sugar) sweet
and savory filled empenadas (like
a turnover), churros (fried-dough
pastry), montecadas (sweet, but-
tery, and dense muffin or small
loaf), milhojas (a thousand layers
cake), flan and tiramsu, cream and
and Nancy and Deysy, say they
plan to purchase homes and settle
in Vernonia. “We already feel like
we are part of the community be-
cause everyone has been so wel-
coming since our first day,” says
Nancy. “We’re so grateful for all
the support we’ve been given. It
really feels like we belong here.”
El Amigo Bakery, 805 Bridge St.
El Amigo Mexican Food Truck,
847 Bridge St. (503) 547-3524
Mariolino’s
Pizza & Grill
Serving
breakfast, lunch & dinner
Daily Specials
We have ice cream!
Cones-Shakes-Sundaes
721 Madison Avenue, Vernonia
Serving Vernonia since 1970
(503) 429-5018