Kevin Jenkins

kevin@thespectrum.com

Supporters of an Arizona Strip rancher killed during a series of arrests surrounding the January occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge gathered Saturday in St. George and at state capitols across the country to protest federal government “overreach” and bolster calls for an independent investigation of the deadly shooting.

Robert LaVoy Finicum, who was known by his middle name, was killed Jan. 26 after his vehicle was stopped by officers as he and other militant constitutionalists were en route to a speaking engagement near the Malheur National Forest site the demonstrators had demanded be turned over to county control.

Although the protesters have been arrested on federal charges, authorities have said an unidentified state patrolman fired the fatal shots in the forest whose name, ironically, means “misfortune” or “tragedy” in French.

Law enforcement officers and Finicum supporters have provided differing accounts of the shooting, and both have also chosen not to release results of Finicum’s autopsy. Finicum’s Feb. 5 funeral in Kanab included an open casket which sparked a flurry of comments on social media when The Spectrum & Daily News reported Finicum had not been shot in the face as a family member had claimed.

“Stand By Me for Liberty” rallies in honor of Finicum were scheduled to take place in at least 35 states at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The demonstration in St. George was quiet as some 70 people prayed, sang the National Anthem and carried protest signs on the south side of the Washington County administration building, directly across the road from Tabernacle Street federal agency offices.

It also included a recording of the song “The Hanging Tree” from one of the movie installments in “The Hunger Games” series, which tells of a people’s efforts to end an oppressive government. Several people signed a petition in support of the Finicum family’s efforts.

“This is a peaceful rally. We want to stay on the good side of law enforcement,” Sharla Christie said during opening remarks to the crowd.

Christie fought to control her emotions as she talked about her own family’s ranching history on the Arizona Strip that has occasionally included disagreements with federal land managers.

LaVoy Adair, a neighbor of the Finicums in Cane Beds, said popular and law enforcement accounts of the constitutionalists as armed and violent individuals doesn’t match his experience with Finicum.

“I’ve ridden with LaVoy. I’ve helped round up his cows,” Adair said. “LaVoy wasn’t a hard individual. He was a family man. I talked with him the last time he was in town (during a brief return from Oregon in January). He wanted to come home to his family.”

Finicum’s wife and 11 children all spoke in quick succession during Finicum’s funeral last month, some of them vowing to carry on their father’s work. Most are adults; Adair said one high school age child remains at home and four foster children living with the family were taken away by state agents during the January occupation.

Logandale, Nevada resident Margaret Houston said she was attending in hopes of bringing attention to her own family’s plight.

Houston’s brother, Cliven Bundy, and four of her nephews have also been arrested by federal authorities during incidents surrounding the Oregon situation, but related to years worth of hostilities between the Bundys and the government.

Bundy and his sons initially became embroiled in a conflict with land managers over Bundy’s cattle grazing activities near Bunkerville and the federally managed Gold Butte area.

Bundy was under court orders to stop grazing his cattle on public lands without a permit and without paying required fees, and when the government ultimately moved to impound the cattle in April 2014 it sparked an armed rebellion as supporters from around the country arrived in southern Nevada to stop the impoundment and insist the government return the cattle to the Bundys.

“I want my family and friends out of jail. They’re not guilty of anything,” Houston said. “They’re not guilty of the bogus charges brought up against them. … It’s time for we the people to stand up.”

Houston said Finicum was “one of the cowboys who came and rode with our family” during the tensions over the impounded cattle.

“We had no protection. No protection until that Wednesday,” she said, recounting how militia members rallied to their cause after one family member was taken into custody amid a physical altercation that also left her on the ground.

“One of (the federal officers) came up from behind me and threw me in the dirt. Picked me up and body slammed me,” she said. “It’s really hard to go through those things and then see the terrible things they say about your family.”

Federal prosecutors’ accounts of the standoff, issued as part of the indictment against the Bundys, have highlighted the fear the land managers experienced when they found themselves surrounded by a large number of armed individuals, including some who appeared to be taking up sniper positions on the elevated highway near the impoundment site and looking for the best angle to fire from.

Finicum’s brother, Guy, extended his sympathies to the Bundys while offering a cautionary perspective of the disputes.

“Reach out to your neighbors,” he told the crowd. “Don’t get into confrontations and arguments, because if you do that you lose the spirit of God and you lose the power that stands behind you in liberty.”

But Guy also described his brother’s cause as one of loving his neighbor and attempting to fulfill “a rescue mission” to individuals “who have been beat down.”

“These men were not violent, militant or threatening in any way. But they were not willing to go away quietly and let injustices prevail. … As in every situation, you can look at it from a lot of different angles,” he said. “You can debate, if you want to, the methods that were employed … but I defy anybody to impugn the motives.”

Guy said his brother accompanied some of the Bundys to Oregon for a brief rally, not expecting at first to remain an extended period of time. When the situation became a monthlong effort to occupy the wildlife reserve while insisting federal land managers cede their authority to the local sheriff under Constitutional principles, Guy went to visit LaVoy to offer “some brotherly advice,” he said.

“I knew that the way he was doing it was a dangerous thing,” Guy said. “I knew there was a real possibility he might not be coming home. … He was willing to take that risk.”

Guy, who lives in Fredonia about 30 miles from his brother’s family, said his only knowledge of the circumstances in Oregon was what he got from Facebook and the media. He told the local sheriff and federal officials there that he wanted to try to defuse the situation.

But in Oregon, he “listened to LaVoy’s heart” and found things looked different than what he’d expected. The sheriff’s office had barricades around it and appeared to be under siege but in Malheur, things were peaceful and calm, he said.

“Did I think they were going to succeed? No. But I knew their hearts were set,” he said.

“You’ll notice, if you listen to me, that I’ve made no negative comments about the officers involved,” Guy said. “We’re so quick to have an opinion without (correct) information, and we’re so quick to form a bad opinion about somebody else. … And that’s wrong.”

Follow Kevin Jenkins, @SpectrumJenkins. Call him at 435-674-6253.

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