Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
Harney County, Oregon / 2016
Imagine if armed militia and Patriot groups from across the country descended on your community to occupy nearby public lands and claimed that they were protecting you. Well, that’s exactly what happened in Burns, Oregon, a town of 2,700 people, for 41 days in the winter of 2016.
The occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were members of the Patriot movement, an extremist group with paramilitary ties, who were demanding the refuge be transferred out of federal lands. They used public displays of weaponry and threats of political violence to try to have their way in the community.
The Patriot movement organizing in Harney County led to an epidemic of threats against community members, including the county sheriff and his family, a faith leader, federal employees, state troopers, a leader of a local tribe, and even the Oregon governor. Many fled the county for their safety, including the sheriff and his wife. Beyond targeting specific individuals, this kind of activity has ripple effects. Across the state, political events and community discussions were disrupted and sometimes canceled.
Just like many rural communities across the US, Harney County residents were fed up with these attempts at using intimidation and violence to gain political influence, and decided to say enough is enough. Refusing to let fear silence them, hundreds of local residents raised their voices in unison: the armed outsiders needed to go home. Community meetings drew hundreds of people, all speaking out and calling upon the occupiers to go home.
They organized a peaceful demonstration to greet the Patriot groups and showed through the local media that some rural Oregonians have a different idea about how we solve problems! Supporters submitted letters to the editor in the local paper against the armed occupation. In a Day of Action called by the Rural Organizing Project, thousands of people across Oregon took to the streets to tell paramilitaries and other Patriot groups to leave Harney County.
The next day, hundreds of Harney County residents closed their businesses, took the day off from work, and stood in front of the County Courthouse to make it clear that the paramilitaries did not represent them and needed to leave. Some paramilitary affiliates began harassing, threatening, and intimidating locals, including shouting in their faces and sticking yellow shooting targets on them. Locals stuck close together on the courthouse steps, chanting, drinking hot coffee provided by the local coffee shop, and exchanging stories of experiences from the last month.
As a result of this big, bold, and loud action that directly confronted and dispelled the armed occupiers’ claim that they had local support, Patriot groups struggled to keep morale up within their own ranks. After a couple of events that received zero local support, out-of-towners decided to head home, frustrated because they’d been promised they’d be welcomed as heroes by locals.