As the media continue spotlighting the armed extremists occupying the federal headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, their complaints about federal government “over-reach,” and their demands that the feds “give the land back,” members of another group say that if there were to be any giveback, they ought to be first in line.
Charlotte Rodrique, chairwoman of the Burns Paiute Tribe.They are the Burns Paiute Tribe, descendants of the people the U.S. Army under Gen. George Crook starved and murdered into submission in the 1860s in a successful effort to confine them to a 1.8 million-acre reservation. This was later reduced to the 1,000 or so acres where the 420-member tribe is now headquartered. The Paiute leaders are profoundly irked by the occupiers’ demands. Amanda Peacher reports:
“Armed protesters don’t belong here. By their actions, they are endangering one of our sacred sites,” said tribal Chair Charlotte Rodrique. Rodrique said she told a friend she was offended by the militants’ notion that they could return the refuge lands to their rightful owners. “I’m sitting here trying to write an acceptance letter for when they return all this land to us,” Rodrique said.
For all too many American Indians, it’s a familiar story.