On January 2, 2016, an armed group of right-wing militants seized and occupied the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, and continued to occupy it until law enforcement made a final arrest on February 11, 2016. Their leader was Ammon Bundy, who participated in the 2014 Bundy standoff at his father's Nevada ranch. Other members of the group were loosely affiliated with non-governmental militias and the sovereign citizen movement.
The organizers were seeking an opportunity to advance their view that the federal government is constitutionally required to turn over most of the federal public land they manage to the individual states, in particular land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), United States Forest Service (USFS), and other agencies. In 2015, the militants believed they could do this by protesting the treatment of two area ranchers convicted of federal land arson, who they believed were wrongly convicted, even though the men in question, Dwight and Steven Dwight Hammond, father and son, did not want their assistance. The occupation began when Bundy led an armed party to the refuge headquarters following a peaceful public rally in the nearby city of Burns.
By February 11, all of the militants had surrendered or withdrawn from the occupation, with several leaders having been arrested after leaving the site; one of them, Robert LaVoy Finicum, was shot and killed during an attempt to arrest him after he reached toward a handgun concealed in his pocket after he tried to evade a roadblock; Ryan Bundy was wounded. More than two dozen of the militants were charged with federal offenses, including conspiracy to obstruct federal officers, firearms violations, theft, and depredation of federal property.
By August 2017, a dozen had pleaded guilty, and six of those had been sentenced to 1–2 years' probation, some including house arrest. Seven others, including Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were tried and acquitted of all federal charges. Five more had been found guilty and were sentenced months later. Seven of the militants saw prison time for their roles in the occupation. Jake Ryan and Duane Ehmer each received 366 days in prison, with Ryan additionally getting three years of supervised probation. Darryl Thorn received 18 months of prison time on November 21, 2017. Jason Patrick received 21 months on February 15, 2018. Ryan Payne was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and 3 years of supervision on February 27, 2018. Jon Ritzheimer was sentenced to 366 days in federal prison and another 12 months in a residential re-entry program. Corey Lequieu was sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of supervision. Two others, Joe O'Shaughnessy and Brian Cavalier, were detained for at least a year but released after time served, with three years of supervision each and fines.
Background
Location
Harney County is a rural county in eastern Oregon. The county seat is the city of Burns. Though it is one of the largest counties by area in the United States, its population is only about 7,700, and cattle outnumber people 14 to 1. About 73 percent of the county's area is federal land, variously managed by the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the United States Forest Service (USFS), and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, located in Harney County, was established in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt, a conservationist. Located in the Pacific Flyway, and currently encompassing 187,757 acres (760 km2), it is "one of the premiere sites for birds and birding in the U.S.", according to the Audubon Society of Portland. Tourism, especially birding, injects US$15 million into the local economy annually.
Leadership
The leader of the occupation was Ammon Bundy—a native of Bunkerville, Nevada, owner of a car fleet management company in Phoenix, Arizona, and a recent resident of Emmett, Idaho. Ammon Bundy was also the leader of a group which he formed shortly before the occupation, which he later named the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom.
Ammon's father, Cliven D. Bundy, had organized and led a somewhat similar incident in March 2014, roughly two years earlier. Both Bundys are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and claimed that their armed opposition to the federal government was ordained for them via divine messages ordering them to do so.
Also in a leadership position amongst the militants was the group's occasional spokesman LaVoy Finicum, another Mormon, who owned a ranch at Cane Beds, in the Arizona Strip, near the community of Colorado City, Arizona. He had recently authored a self-published post-apocalyptic novel. Ammon's brother, Ryan Bundy, was also amongst the militants present, and was later arrested for his role in the occupation.
On December 1, 2019, an investigation commissioned by the Washington House of Representatives reported then-Washington state legislator, theocrat, and white supremacist Matt Shea, had planned and participated in domestic terrorism on at least three occasions. This included his participation, organizing, planning, and promotion of the 2014 Bundy standoff in Nevada; the 2015 armed conflict in Priest River, Idaho; and the 2016 armed seizure of the Malheur Refuge. Shea led a delegation of right-wing legislators from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho that met with law enforcement on January 9, 2016, in Burns, Oregon, where they were apprised of confidential intended law enforcement strategies for dealing with the refuge occupiers. The state House district's Republican Representative, Cliff Bentz, attended the meeting, despite being warned by Harney County Judge Steven Grasty to decline the invitation. Bentz did, however, warn western Oregon state Representative Dallas Heard, from Roseburg, that it would be "inappropriate" for Heard to attend, though Heard ignored the advice. Shea then disclosed those details to the Bundys, according to the report.
Hammond arson case
In 2012, Dwight Lincoln Hammond Jr., 73, and Steven Dwight Hammond, 46, were both convicted of two counts of arson on federal land, in relation to two fires they set in 2001 and 2006. In a mid-trial settlement agreement, the Hammonds agreed not to appeal the arson convictions to have other charges dismissed by the government. The Hammonds were also told the prosecutor would seek the mandatory minimum sentence of five years. Ultimately, Dwight Hammond was sentenced to three months' imprisonment and his son Steven was sentenced to a year and a day's imprisonment, which both men served. In 2015, the sentences were, however, vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which then remanded re-sentencing. In October 2015, a judge re-sentenced the Hammonds to five years in prison (with credit for time served), ordering that they return to prison on January 4, 2016. Stephen was scheduled to be released on June 29, 2019, and Dwight on February 13, 2020. They were pardoned by then-President Donald Trump on July 10, 2018.
In late 2015, the Hammonds' case attracted the attention of Ammon Bundy and Ryan Payne. In November 2015, Bundy and his associates began publicizing the Hammonds' case via social media. Over the ensuing weeks, Bundy and Payne attempted to set up plans for what they described as a peaceful protest with Harney County Sheriff, David M. Ward, as well as request that the sheriff's office protect the Hammonds from being taken into custody by federal authorities. A sympathetic Ward declined Bundy and Payne's request. He later said that he began receiving death threats by email.
Despite several early meetings with Bundy and Payne, the Hammonds eventually rejected their offers of assistance.
Prelude to the occupation
On November 5, 2015, Ammon Bundy called Harney County Sheriff David Ward and arranged a meeting later the same day. At the meeting, Ammon Bundy and Montana militiaman Ryan Payne insisted to Sheriff Ward that Ward must shield Dwight and Steven Hammond against re-imprisonment. Ward recalled that when he explained that he did not have the authority to shield the Hammonds from a lawful sentence, Bundy's and Payne's demeanor became threatening. Payne told Ward that if he did not shield the Hammonds from imprisonment, "thousands" of armed militiamen would come to the county to "do Ward's job" for him—and Payne pointedly noted that he might not be able to control what else the militia might do. By late fall, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies noticed that members of anti-government militias had started to relocate to Harney County, and the USFWS began circulating a photograph of Ammon Bundy with instructions for staff to "be on the lookout".
By early December 2015, Bundy and Payne had moved to Burns. The same month, they organized a meeting at the Harney County Fairgrounds to rally support for their efforts. At the meeting, a "committee of safety" was organized by Bundy and Payne to orchestrate direct action against the Hammond sentences. According to that group's website, the Harney County Committee of Safety considers itself "a governmental body established by the people in the absence of the ability of the existing government to provide for the needs and protection of civilized society" (during the American Revolution, committees of safety were shadow governments organized to usurp authority from colonial administrators).
From mid-November to late December 2015, residents began to notice significant numbers of outsiders in the community, often dressed in military-style attire and openly carrying handguns and sometimes rifles. Some of these armed newcomers engaged in what local people considered threatening and harassing behavior, such as approaching shoppers in local stores and aggressively asking their opinions about the Hammond family. Many residents considered these actions deliberate intimidation, intended to sway the community to join the outsider's unspecified plan to "protect" the Hammonds from re-arrest. Contrary to local custom, some residents began carrying guns in public locations. Many lived in fear that some kind of violent event was about to take place.
On December 30, 2015, USFWS staff members at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were dismissed early from work. With tensions rising in nearby Burns, supervisors left staff with the final instruction not to return to the refuge unless explicitly directed to do so. Meanwhile, some Burns residents reported harassment and intimidation by militia members. According to the spouses and children of several federal employees and local police, they had been followed home or to school by vehicles with out-of-state license plates.
On January 1, 2016, a forum held at the Harney County Fairgrounds drew about 60 residents and militia members. A Burns-area resident who organized the event described it as an opportunity to defuse tensions that had been simmering between locals and out-of-town militia in the preceding days. The event alternated between expressions of sympathy for the Hammonds and suggestions that a peaceful rally could be beneficial.
The Lord was not pleased with what was happening to the Hammonds. ... If we allowed the Hammonds to continue to be punished, there would be accountability.
— Ammon Bundy, speaking in a video posted on YouTube on January 1
On January 2, a rally of about 300 people gathered in a Safeway supermarket parking lot in Burns, organized by the Pacific Patriots Network (PPN), a militia umbrella organization that includes the 3 Percenters of Idaho. Members of the Pacific Patriots Network had been active in Harney County since November, drawn there by the Hammond arson case. Following speeches, the crowd marched to the home of Dwight and Steven Hammond, stopping briefly en route to protest outside the sheriff's office and the county courthouse. The crowd then returned to the Safeway parking lot and broke up. According to KOIN, the CBS-affiliated television station in Portland, Oregon, there was "no visible police presence at any point".
Armed occupation
First week
Before the protest crowd broke up, Ammon Bundy announced to the crowd his plan to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and he encouraged people to join him. His announcement surprised a PPN rally organizer, who later stated he felt betrayed. Ammon and Ryan Bundy—along with armed associates—separated from the crowd and proceeded to the refuge headquarters, located 30 miles (48 km) south of Burns. The militants settled into the refuge and set up defensive positions. Right before the occupation began, the militants notified the Harney County Sheriff's Office and also contacted a utility company with the intention of taking over the refuge's electric and other services, according to a motion to dismiss and memorandum filed by Ammon Bundy's lawyers on May 9.
Law enforcement kept away from the refuge, but various security measures were taken in surrounding areas. By the evening of January 4, no overt police presence was visible in the area between the town and the refuge headquarters. Upon hearing of the occupation at the wildlife refuge, the two ranchers on whose behalf the militants were ostensibly acting disavowed the action.
On January 2, the militia leaders claimed to have 150 armed members at the site, though one journalist reported that no more than a dozen armed militants were on the site, and another reported a claim that there were "between six and 12". On January 3, The Oregonian said there were roughly 20 to 25 people present and that the militants had deployed into defensive positions. On January 3, Ammon Bundy claimed that area residents were supplying them.
Other protest groups took varying positions. On January 2, the 3 Percenters of Idaho militia disclaimed involvement, calling the occupation a small splinter action.
Ryan Bundy stated that the militant group wanted the Hammonds to be released and for the federal government to relinquish control of the Malheur National Forest. On January 3, Ammon Bundy said the ultimate goal of the militants was to "get the economics here in the county revived" for logging and outdoor recreation. On January 4, the militants announced a formal name for their group, Citizens for Constitutional Freedom.
On January 4, Steven E. Grasty, the judge-executive of Harney County, emailed Ammon Bundy requesting that he leave the refuge. Harney County Sheriff David Ward then requested that the Bundys and others leave. In response, Ryan Bundy said he wasn't convinced Ward spoke for all of the people in the county. Meanwhile, on January 4, Dwight and Steven Hammond voluntarily reported to begin serving the remainder of their respective prison sentences.