‘Who knows what they’re stomping on?’: Tribe worried about Ore. refuge artifacts
The Burns Paiute Tribe is seeking criminal charges against the armed occupiers of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, accusing the men of damaging important cultural resources on the tribe’s native land.
The tribe is urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect those resources, in part by prosecuting “violators of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act” on the remote bird refuge.
“Armed protestors don’t belong here,” Charlotte Roderique, chair of the Burns Paiute Tribal Council, said in a statement Friday. “They continue to desecrate one of our most important sacred sites. They should be held accountable.”
The 184,000-acre refuge, in remote southeastern Oregon, is the historical home to the tribe, which once roamed across southeastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. More than 4,000 tribal artifacts are housed and cared for on the property, including spears and stone tools, some dating nearly 10,000 years. Videos posted online by the occupiers show them sitting at desks in the refuge offices and using government computers that contain maps and sensitive details about
the location of Paiute artifacts.
Jarvis Kennedy, another member of the Tribal Council, fears that the occupiers could be selling off sacred artifacts. “They could be on eBay right now — we don’t know,” Kennedy said. With militia members coming and going freely from the refuge, Kennedy said, “who knows what’s leaving there?”