Comments

1
It's pretty much the same as when we armed Osama bin Laden to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
2
ugh, the Paiute didn't "own" the land "originally". they either found it unoccupied or took it from a previous people. displacement through force is the norm for human history. and i doubt there's documentation that it's an unbroken cultural lineage of Paiutes that far back. HUMAN habitation, sure, but specifically Paiute? please. at the very least, the original "owners" killed the megafauna that lived there, who'd "owned" it millions of years.

the ranchers are protesting "federal management of public lands". i'm sure the BLM would love to have a larger local presence to respond to local particularities, but, you know, "limited gubmint" and all. hoist by your own petards, retards.
3
Armed occupation of government buildings happens a lot more often than you may think in this country, and it pretty much never results in violence from either side, regardless of what race the occupiers are.

American Indians used to do it fairly often, and not long ago ago armed black panthers occupied buildings in California. No one was killed in that instance.
4
As reprehensible as these "rugged independent individualists" (#yallqueda) are, I do wonder if they don't have a semi-valid claim to being more in keeping with the traditional historical interpretation of "Constitutionality" under our government...which is a long history of theft "motivated by greed and anger". It seems to me that "settlers" and "pioneers" are much less heroic than the light we've seen them in.
5
It's Ammon, not Ammond. The Stranger staff needs to read up more on Book of Mormon heroes Mormon parents name their kids after. :)
6
@2 the Paiutes most definitely owned (what became ) the refuge in the 1870s, it was held in trust for them by the federal gov't which decided to boot them after being pestered by the whiny ranchers/settlers. But as the article says when the federal teat was withdrawn the ranchers/settlers couldn't make a go of the area and, still under federal mgmt but depopulated of natives, it was converted to a wildlife refuge.
7
@5 Oh god. Thanks for catching that.
8
I can't find the info online but much of the Malheur Refuge is from PURCHASES of ranches in the 1930s -- I assume because the ranchers couldn't make a financial go of it due to the Depression -- and if you have seen the country you can see why.

So the idea that the Feds took the land (beyond initially stealing it from the Native Americans) is simply historically inaccurate.
10
@9 Posting garbage anonymously online is basically the safest, easiest thing a person can do, FYI.

Look in the mirror.
11
@6: I guess I was thinking of the concept of property in and of itself. Good points.
12
Similarly Liberals in Seattle STOLE SEATTLE LANDS from the Duwamish.

Hypocrites.
13
@12 True. That said: Seattle liberals aren't occupying the Duwamish Longhouse and claiming it was stolen from them.
14
@Sydney Brownstone Actually Liberals at the Stranger are illegally occupying real property owned by the Duwamish located at 1535 11th Ave in Seattle all of which is Duwamish land.
15
Ranchers are, and always have been killers of animals and ecology, I feel nothing but hate and disgust for them!

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