The refuge and the local Northern Paiutes had a good relationship, something these unlearned knuckleheads knew nothing about since Finicum was braying about "returning things to the rightful owners" as if the refuge had stolen the artifacts. During the stand-off, it was the occupiers the Native Americans were concerned about as potential thieves.
Now with the discovery of the trench of feces (there are toilet facilities in the refuge's buildings) comes more shock. The full article, "It's So Disgusting’ Malheur Militia Dug Latrine Trenches Among Sacred Artifacts," can be found in the link from Indian Country Today Media Network, but I'll quote most of it here:
Disturbingly, [U.S. Attorney Billy] Williams writes, “Occupiers appear to have excavated two large trenches and an improvised road on or adjacent to grounds containing sensitive artifacts. At least one of these trenches contains human feces.”
The refuge was once part of the 1.8 million acre Malheur Indian reservation which belonged to several Northern Paiute bands including the nearby Burns Paiute tribe.The buildings the militants occupied demanding the “return” of federal lands to ranchers, miners and loggers contained over 4,000 artifacts and maps of graves and other culturally significant sites on the refuge.
“That whole area is an artifact area,” Jarvis Kennedy, Burns Paiute tribal council member told ICTMN, “If you just walk across there you’ll see chips on the ground where someone made an arrowhead. It’s everywhere.”
When asked what he thought of the latrines Kennedy said, “Just see this…this is their mindset—not really caring about anything. For them to do that in that area is so disgusting.”
He doesn’t think the militants weren’t simply clueless either, “I think they didn’t care. We did our press conference. We took our stand. They knew.”
“We want to ensure our archaeology department is involved in the investigation,” Burns Paiute tribal chairwoman Charlotte Roderique insists, “Praying there hasn’t been too much damage, but definitely concerned about the disturbance of any remains or anything like that. Because this the cruelest thing anyone can do.”
...
The tribe, itself, will be holding a day of spiritual prayers to cleanse the land. They will send out a notification via tribal newspapers and by word of mouth for others to come and pray with the Paiute people. “We want to cleanse the land,” Roderique says, “and not disturb animal life or the spirits of our people.”
[Burns Paiute tribal chairwoman Charlotte Roderique] noted how the occupation has brought her tribe together and even members of the community who have historically been at odds with the tribe.
“At one of the town meetings, right at the beginning, one of the gentlemen who owns a big ranching outfit addressed the meeting and said that his family had been ranching for 5 generations in this area. The first generation was wiped out by fires during the Bannock War, but he said, ‘We’ve worked, we sit at the table with tribal people and make decisions on fish and wildlife and the environment and way to control noxious weeds and I have no animosity toward the tribe.’ I think we all have gotten past the ‘I hate white people/I hate Indians’ interaction.
However, she has received threatening letters, emails and texts from Bundy supporters which she immediately forwards to the FBI. “If it has a Colorado prefix,” Roderique says, “ I can be sure it’s one of the militia people here on their cell phone.”
And finally,
Although, no one in the tribe is happy with the late militant spokesman LaVoy Finicum’s death after he ran a police blockade and charged police while armed they do wonder if it is tied to his handling of their artifacts in the Youtube video he put out criticizing the way the tribe’s artifacts were stored.
“He [Finicum} had the bag of flints he was waving them and the next day he is dead,” Roderique told ICTMN. “He should never have picked those up and disturbed those spirits who made them. If it is flint arrowheads, someone who was a warrior or was a good hunter—those are the kind who can come back and do these things.”
