Burns Paiutes to Ammon Bundy: You're not the victim

By Kelly House | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on February 07, 2016 at 7:00 AM, updated February 07, 2016 at 8:51 AM

BURNS— Members of the Burns Paiute Tribe found it comical and frustrating when Ammon Bundy and his followers seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the name of ranchers they claimed had lost the land unfairly to the federal government.

The Paiutes, too, had complaints about their treatment by federal land managers. The government seized 1.5 million acres of their people's ancestral homeland in 1879, and members waited nine decades to receive compensation checks for $743.20 each.

One person bought a washer-dryer set. Another bought college textbooks and sent in a tuition check. Some paid down bills, bought groceries and banked what was left ...

"You can't walk 50 meters in any direction without seeing evidence of tribal people having been there before," said Diane Teeman, the tribe's archaeologist ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/02/burns_paiutes_to_ammon_bundy_y.html