By Amanda Girard

Irony lost.

The armed right-wing insurrectionists who have taken over a federal building in Oregon are claiming to protest “tyranny” by the federal government in how the Bureau of Land Management treats ranchers on federal property. This particular group of armed white men seizing land and claiming “oppression” is clearly lacking in knowledge of American history, and what actually defines “tyranny.”

As Indian Country Today Media Network previously reported, the land the occupiers are claiming as “theirs” is actually land that the federal government previously stole from the Northern Paiute tribe. The Paiutes used to own 1.5 million acres of land, but have now been relegated to a reservation amounting to just 750 acres in Burns, Oregon, where the Bundy militia is currently engaged in an armed standoff.

“President U.S. Grant established the Maiheur Indian Reservation for the Northern Paiute in 1872. It is no coincidence that the historical reservation shares a name with the Maiheur National Wildlife Refuge, site of the current armed standoff.”

The above map shows the progression of how much land Native Americans had taken from them by armed white men from the beginning of colonization to the present day.

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Also See: Response to Oregon Militia Standoff Reveals Stark Double Standards

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