On Monday, February 29, nearly two months after armed militants took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the Burns Paiute Tribe was finally allowed to visit it. The refuge is their ancient wintering grounds and filled with culturally-sensitive sites and even burial grounds of their ancestors. On Thursday, 14 more militia members were arrested, including two more members of the Bundy family who led the armed standoffs in Oregon and Nevada against federal authorities.
“I’m glad they cleaned up all those urinals they made,” Burns Paiute tribal councilman Jarvis Kennedy told ICTMN. “They went in with Hazmat suits on and got all of that out of there and covered it up. When I first saw it kind of made me mad. That’s our burial ground area.”
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The 178,000-acre refuge was once part of the Malheur Indian Reservation that was the homeland of Northern Paiute tribes like Wadatika, the name Burns Paiute people called themselves after small seeds they harvested along Malheur and Harney Lakes.
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Read the rest of the article at the DGR News Service.