The Malheur Takeover (2016)

On a January morning in 2016, armed militants walked into a federal wildlife refuge in remote Oregon, declared themselves revolutionaries, and stayed for 41 days. They weren't oppressed. They weren't starving. They claimed they were fighting government tyranny over grazing fees - as if paying to use land that belongs to all Americans was somehow oppression.

This is the story of how entitled white ranchers seized public land - your land, land that belongs to every American - desecrated Indigenous sacred sites, endangered federal workers, and mostly walked away free. It's a case study in who gets to break the law in America.

The Spark (That Wasn't Really the Spark)

The excuse was two ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, father and son, convicted of arson on federal land. In 2001, after illegally slaughtering deer on Bureau of Land Management property, Steven Hammond handed out matches and told his hunting party to "light up the whole country on fire" to destroy the evidence. The fire burned 139 acres of federal land and nearly killed his nephew, who had to run for his life through eight-foot flames. In 2006, Steven set backfires during a burn ban that endangered four BLM firefighters camping above. They had to scramble to safety while the Hammonds tried to protect their winter feed.

The Hammonds were convicted in 2012. A federal judge gave them light sentences (three months and a year), ignoring the five-year mandatory minimum for arson. Prosecutors appealed. In 2015, the Ninth Circuit ordered the Hammonds resentenced to the full five years. The Hammonds disavowed the takeover and turned themselves in. But Ammon Bundy, son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy (who'd held his own armed standoff against the feds in 2014), claimed he received a divine message. God, apparently, wanted him to seize a bird sanctuary.

The Real Agenda

This wasn't about the Hammonds. It was about entitled ranchers who thought public land - land that belongs to every American taxpayer - should be theirs to exploit without rules or fees. The Bundys weren't put-upon farmers victimized by big government. They were grifters who'd been grazing cattle on federal land for years while refusing to pay what everyone else pays.

Ammon Bundy and his crew - calling themselves Citizens for Constitutional Freedom - wanted the federal government to hand over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Not to "the people." To them. To local ranchers who saw millions of acres of public land as their private ranch, free for the taking. They talked about "restoring" land to "rightful owners," conveniently ignoring that the actual rightful owners were the Burns Paiute Tribe, whose ancestors had lived there for thousands of years before white settlers showed up. And ignoring that the land belonged to all Americans - including the birders, hikers, and families who used it, not just ranchers who wanted it for free.

Malheur was established in 1908 by Theodore Roosevelt as public land, protected for wildlife and future generations. It's a critical stopover on the Pacific Flyway for hundreds of thousands of migratory birds. The refuge brings $15 million annually into the local economy through birding tourism. But to the occupiers, it was federal tyranny incarnate - land they believed should be free for them to use without paying fees or following environmental rules that protected everyone else's right to that land.

Whose Land?

The Burns Paiute watched in horror. Malheur was their ancestral winter gathering place, sacred ground where their people had lived for 9,000 to 15,000 years. The refuge headquarters held over 4,000 cultural artifacts - stone tools, baskets, ceremonial items - that the tribe stored there because they didn't have their own museum. The land itself was a burial ground.

The occupiers rifled through tribal artifacts on camera. They bulldozed roads through archaeological sites, destroying evidence of ancient villages. Charlotte Rodrique, tribal chairwoman, pleaded with federal authorities to stop the militants' free movement on and off the refuge, fearing artifacts would be sold to finance their cause. "They didn't know what they were getting into, they didn't do their homework," said tribal councilman Jarvis Kennedy. "I was raised like this to know that it's always going to be our land - no matter who owns it."

The militants never consulted the tribe. They never acknowledged that the land they claimed to "liberate" had been stolen from Indigenous people in the first place. In 1879, after a treaty the federal government never ratified, Paiute people - including children - were force-marched through knee-deep snow off their ancestral territory. "They literally walked our people, children and women off our lands," Kennedy said. "They had no problem killing us."

The Takeover

For 41 days, armed men controlled the refuge. They brought in semi-trucks full of supplies. Supporters from across the West joined them. Law enforcement, haunted by the deaths at Ruby Ridge and Waco, took a hands-off approach. The militants came and went freely, giving press conferences, posting YouTube videos, sitting in rocking chairs with rifles.

Federal employees couldn't do their jobs. Some had been followed home by out-of-state vehicles in the days before the takeover. Their children were followed to school. The town of Burns became a circus of militia members, journalists, and FBI agents.

On January 26, authorities finally acted. They stopped two vehicles carrying takeover leaders on their way to a community meeting. One truck pulled over peacefully. The other, driven by Arizona rancher Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, sped toward a roadblock at 70 mph, nearly hitting an FBI agent before crashing into a snowbank. Finicum jumped out, yelling "Go ahead and shoot me" while reaching repeatedly for a loaded 9mm handgun in his jacket pocket. Oregon State Police shot him three times. He died at the scene.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy were arrested. The takeover limped on for two more weeks. The final four holdouts surrendered on February 11 after negotiations involving a Nevada assemblywoman and the Reverend Franklin Graham.

The Aftermath (Or: Crime Pays If You're White)

Here's where it gets infuriating. In October 2016, a jury acquitted Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five others of all charges - conspiracy to impede federal workers, possession of firearms in a federal facility, everything. The jury bought their argument that they were just exercising their constitutional rights.

Other occupiers got slaps on the wrist. Some pleaded guilty and received probation. A handful got short prison sentences. Blaine Cooper, who recruited militia members, got time served. Most paid a few thousand dollars in restitution to repair the damage they'd caused.

What they caused: bulldozed roads through sacred sites, rifled through and potentially damaged thousands of irreplaceable artifacts, left the refuge trashed with human waste and destroyed equipment, terrorized federal employees and their families, and cost taxpayers millions in law enforcement response. They desecrated Indigenous burial grounds and treated tribal heritage like props in their political theater.

The only person who died was Finicum, who'd spent weeks telling anyone with a camera that he'd rather die than go to jail. He got his wish. Finicum was so marinated in anti-government propaganda and conspiracy theories that he drove 70 mph at a police roadblock, bailed out into the snow, and repeatedly reached for his gun while screaming at cops to shoot him. They obliged. He nearly killed an FBI agent with his truck and endangered everyone in his vehicle with his suicide-by-cop theatrics. The occupiers immediately made him a martyr. rallies sprang up across the West. His supporters sold t-shirts. Someone auctioned a painting for $2,500 to benefit "the Bundy Ranch." Finicum became proof of federal tyranny - never mind that he'd literally asked to be shot and went for his weapon three times. FBI agents at the scene initially lied about firing shots, leading to an investigation and one agent's indictment for making false statements (he was later acquitted).

In 2018, President Trump pardoned the Hammonds (pardoning the worst Americans is a pattern of his now), the ranchers whose case supposedly started it all. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke lobbied for the pardons. The message was clear: if you're a white rancher fighting the federal government, you'll be fine.

The Pattern

The Malheur takeover didn't happen in a vacuum. It was part of a long tradition of white settlers claiming they have more right to Western land than the federal government - or the Indigenous people who were there first. The Bundys and their supporters see themselves as patriots. They wrapped themselves in the Constitution while trampling on the rights of everyone else.

Compare this to how law enforcement treats Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock, or Black Lives Matter protesters, or any group of non-white Americans who challenge government authority. Imagine if the Burns Paiute had armed themselves and seized the refuge, demanding its return. There wouldn't have been 41 days of negotiation. There would have been bloodshed on day one.

The occupiers proved that in America, if you're white, armed, and angry about the wrong things, you can take over federal property, desecrate sacred Indigenous sites, endanger lives, and walk away with barely a scratch. Most got probation and small fines. The Hammonds got pardoned. And somewhere, another Bundy is planning the next standoff, emboldened by the knowledge that crime pays - if you look the right way and hate the right people.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice, District of Oregon, "Final Defendant Sentenced for Armed Takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge," June 12, 2018.
• U.S. Department of Justice, District of Oregon, "Eastern Oregon Ranchers Convicted of Arson Resentenced to Five Years in Prison," February 4, 2016.
• Oregon Public Broadcasting, "Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupation Ends," February 11, 2016.
• High Country News, "Acquitted, convicted, fined or free: after the Oregon standoff," January 24, 2024.
• National Public Radio, "Bundy's Malheur Occupation Creates Unintended Tribe Unity To Save Native American Land," October 27, 2016.
• Burns Paiute Tribe statements via Oregon Public Broadcasting and CNN, January 2016.
• CNN, "Shooting death of LaVoy Finicum justified, necessary, prosecutor says," March 9, 2016.
• National Wildlife Federation, "Malheur Refuge on the Rebound," December 2016-January 2017.
• Wildfire Today, "Hammond arson case timeline," 2016.