The
TIGER
BOYS
CLAW TO
SIXTH
IN STATE
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
– PAGE A10
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W EDNESDAY , F EBRUARY 3, 2016
N O . 5
18 P AGES
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OREGON STANDOFF:
JUSTICE OR AMBUSH?
Sheriff’s
natural
resources
plan won’t
be on May
ballot
Judge rules
petition in
violation of
Constitution
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
File photo
Anti-occupation protesters hold signs in the back of the John Day Senior Center Jan. 26. A group of refuge occupiers, including
Ammon and Ryan Bundy, was supposed to speak at the meeting before authorities apprehended them on Highway 395 north of Burns.
Grant County residents on both sides of spectrum
By Angel Carpenter
and Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
J
OHN DAY — Reac-
tions remain mixed
in the county where
Ammon Bundy and
others were headed for
a community meeting when
they were arrested and one
killed Jan. 26.
Whether for or against, or
somewhere in between, the
takeover of the refuge and the
imprisonment of the Harney
County ranchers, the John
Day meeting and the death of
LaVoy Finicum are hotly de-
bated by local residents and
people throughout the nation.
Some are calling the
shooting murder, the ultimate
expression of government
overreach and the abolish-
ment of free speech.
Others are saying author-
ities waited too long to take
action to end the armed occu-
pation of the Malheur Nation-
al Wildlife Refuge that began
Jan. 2, where a small group of
holdouts still remains.
Canyon City resident Tad
Houpt, who organized the
Jan. 26 meeting and invited
the refuge occupiers, said
he is planning another meet-
ing, but he would not specify
the date because he did not
File photo
Tad Houpt of Canyon City breaks the news to the audience at a meeting Jan.
26 in John Day that the Bundys had been arrested en route to the meeting
where they were expected to speak.
exercise their First Amend-
ment rights and inform people
who wanted to know what
was actually happening in
Harney County.
“Those people (the occu-
piers) were coming up to ex-
ercise free speech, the right
to express ourselves in an
open forum,” he said. “That
message of free speech was
stopped by the Oregon State
Police and the FBI. There is a
reason they did not want those
people in Grant County.”
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want the government “to as-
sassinate some more speak-
ers.” He said, after watching
the FBI video of Finicum’s
shooting, he is certain that is
what happened.
“They’re using tactics
of war against the people of
Grant and Harney counties,
and that’s treason,” he said.
“When our government is at
war with the people, that’s
treason. The truth will come
out on this in the long run.”
John Day resident Jim
Sproul was one of many who
stayed to speak at the Jan.
26 meeting even after learn-
ing the refuge occupiers had
been apprehended en route.
He said Thursday they were
“ambushed” while trying to
Sproul said the situation is
far broader than the Bundys
or the Hammonds, the father
and son ranchers from Burns
whose resentencing for set-
ting ¿ res that burned on fed-
eral land was a rallying cry
for the group that took over
the refuge. Sproul said it rep-
resented “federal overreach at
its greatest.”
“I hope that out of all this
we learn something,” he said.
“We’re losing our people, our
way of life, and now we’re
losing our free speech.”
A group of picketers
showed up at the meeting to
protest against the refuge oc-
cupiers, and Sproul said he
respected their First Amend-
ment rights.
John Day resident Judy
Schuette, who organized the
group of about 50 picketers,
said she planned to stay for
the entire meeting but became
uncomfortable after news
broke of the arrests and the
shooting. She said some of
the attendees appeared to be
agitated, and someone told
her it might not be a safe en-
vironment, so she left early.
“I think there is still a lot
of unknown ahead of us,”
she said. “If that faction
continues to be active with
See SIDES, Page A18
Standoff further polarizes federal land debate
Experts: Incident
likely to reinforce
opinions on both
sides of issue
Federal land by state
Land area by percent of state
0-10%
11-30%
Mont.
31-50%
51-80%
> 80%
N.H.
Ore.
Idaho
By Mateusz Perkowski
and Eric Mortenson
EO Media Group
The showdown between
federal agents and armed
militants in Southeast Ore-
gon will likely further polar-
ize the public over the man-
agement of federal lands,
experts say.
For some, the recent kill-
ing of an armed protester
and arrests of several others
will buttress the view they
Wyo.
Nev.
Calif.
Utah
Ariz.
Colo.
N.M.
Alaska
Hawaii
were extremist militants
with unrealistic goals.
For others, the govern-
ment’s actions and its siege
D.C.
Source:
Congressional
Research
Service
Fla. Alan Kenaga/
Capital Press
of remaining protesters oc-
cupying the Malheur Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge will
confirm fears of persecution
by federal agencies.
Whether the standoff will
ultimately lead to changes
in the federal government’s
oversight of the West’s vast
public lands is also subject
to varying interpretations.
Char Miller, an environ-
mental analysis professor at
Pomona College, said that
Ammon Bundy and the oth-
er armed protesters miscal-
culated the public’s reaction
to the occupation.
The national attention
may have boosted the pro-
tester’s egos, but it also
created a backlash against
using the threat of violence
to influence federal land
policy, Miller said.
See LAND, Page A18
The natural resources plan
created by the sheriff and a
group he deputized will not
be one of the items on the
May ballot for local elec-
tors.
Grant County Circuit
Court Judge William D. Cra-
mer Jr. ruled Jan. 26 that the
prospective petition for the
local initiative failed to meet
the requirements of the Ore-
gon Constitution and ordered
the county clerk to decertify
the petition and remove it
from the ballot.
Prairie City resident Fran-
ces Preston said she ¿ led
the petition on behalf of the
Grant County Coordination
Committee, a group depu-
tized by Grant County Sher-
iff Glenn Palmer to create the
Grant County, Oregon Pub-
lic Lands Natural Resources
Plan last year. The plan was
not adopted by the county
commissioners. The petition
sought to adopt the plan and
invoke coordination with the
U.S. Forest Service.
Cramer ruled the plan
did not meet constitutional
requirements to include the
full text of the proposed law
— because the full text of the
unof¿ cial resources plan was
not included — and to only
concern one subject. Further,
he ruled the initiative was ad-
ministrative in nature, where-
as only legislative matters
are subject to the initiative
process.
Preston said it was her ¿ rst
time ¿ ling a petition, and she
plans to use what she learned
to pursue the petition again
for the November ballot.
“It’s all fair,” she said. “It
was a learning experience. I
already have a rewrite I was
prepared to submit, but there
wasn’t going to be enough
time.”
County residents King
Williams and Mark Webb
challenged the initiative,
which sent the matter to the
judge to review.
Williams said voters
would not have known what
they were voting for because
the text of the natural re-
sources plan was not includ-
ed. He said he is not opposed
to many of the items included
in the plan created by Preston
and others. He said, howev-
er, the county already has an
adopted plan in place, and
any changes should be made
through a public process in-
volving hearings and com-
munity input.
Cramer noted the chal-
lenges also brought up points
that “may be well taken”
about whether the plan, even
if it had been adopted by vot-
ers, would have been legally
enforceable. He said those
points, however, were be-
yond the scope of his review.
The committee deputized
by Palmer to create the plan
includes Todd, Elaine and
Mike Smith; Brooks Smith;
Judy Kerr; Billie Jo and Terry
George; Dave Traylor; Roger
McKinley; Jim Sproul; and
Preston.