As the armed siege of an eastern Oregon wildlife refuge entered its second week, the rightwing militia faced increasing pressure to surrender – including from former supporters of the occupation’s leader.

Ammon Bundy, the Nevada rancher who organized the takeover of the Malheur national wildlife refuge headquarters, avoided reporters all weekend as some of the protesters began to leave the occupation and as local residents and activists who had previously backed Bundy demanded that he and his militiamen retreat.

“We’re gonna figure some way to get him out,” Travis Williams, a 46-year-old Harney County rancher, told the Guardian on Saturday night. Williams had met and collaborated with Bundy last month in advance of a large rally to protest against the prosecution and imprisonment of local cattle ranchers Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven. But he and other local allies of Bundy were shocked when Bundy and fellow out-of-state men hijacked the protests and formed a heavily armed militia that seized a number of buildings at the federal wildlife sanctuary, located 30 miles away from the town of Burns.

By Friday night, Williams and other Harney County residents who were previously aligned with Bundy were publicly requesting that the Nevada rancher and the rest of the occupiers leave the refuge and allow community representatives to take over the cause of fighting for increased local control of federally managed lands.

Williams said he appreciated that Bundy’s militia was shining a light on ranchers who have fought the federal government for years over land-use rights. “It got the media out there,” he said.

But Williams said he’s ready for Bundy to accept the offer of Harney County sheriff Dave Ward to peacefully escort the militia off the refuge and out of state. “I’d like to be able to send him home in the right way that would help us keep this energy that he created,” he said. “If he goes home the wrong way – in handcuffs or a casket – I’m afraid that’s going to be bad.”

Speaking at a packed community meeting on Friday night, local resident Melodi Molt, reading from a carefully worded letter that a group of residents later hand-delivered to Bundy, said: “We thank you for stirring us to action, which we hope will peaceably lead to justice for the Hammonds … With that being said, we feel that any good which may come out of this event has reached its full potential.”

Molt and Williams are both part of a community committee that Bundy recently helped form but which has since severed ties with the militia leader. Their public rebuke came days after a chorus of Burns residents unaffiliated with Bundy also demanded that he end the occupation.

Over the weekend, a number of outside rightwing groups that showed up to Burns heavily armed – claiming to be peacekeeping mediators – also encouraged the Bundy militia to end the occupation as soon as possible. Brandon Curtiss, president of a group called 3% of Idaho, said he has been supportive of Bundy in the past, but that it was clearly time for the standoff to end. “Ammon’s a good friend of mine. I still talk to him every day,” he said. “I tell him, ‘I don’t condone what you did. You left a mess.’”

Meanwhile, at the refuge, Bundy failed to show up to the militia’s daily morning press conference on Saturday and then canceled the news event altogether on Sunday. Several sources noted that at least a small handful of occupiers have left the compound in recent days as the occupation drags on indefinitely.

Melvin Lee, a Tucson, Arizona resident, was in and out of the compound throughout the week and is affiliated with “patriot” groups that support similar causes to those backed by the Bundy militia. But by Saturday night, he was on the road back home and said he had convinced a number of fellow Arizona residents to pull out of the occupation as tensions and fears of potential violence continued to escalate.

“I support sticking up for anybody’s constitutional rights,” Lee, 45, told the Guardian by phone as he drove to Arizona. He said he respected Bundy, but that it appeared some of the armed militiamen at the refuge were unprepared to handle a conflict with police – should it come to that. “Nobody had talked to them about what to do if law enforcement or FBI or whoever showed up to remove them.”

A 42-year-old Arizona resident, who left with Lee and requested anonymity because his employer did not know he was at the occupation, added that he feared one of the younger men at the refuge could get caught up in violence if the FBI does show up. “These guys in the militia are looking for that big hoora moment – and they’re gonna get it at the expense of some young 20-year-old kid who’s never been in the military and is just trying to do what he thinks is right.”

On Sunday afternoon, in the federal building that houses the occupation’s shared living area, kitchen and storage room, protesters who have been involved from the start said they would not back down until Bundy and other militia leaders felt it was appropriate. One room was filled with an abundance of food and toiletries – a supply that has constantly been replenished and grown as supporters near and far continue to donate goods.

As they prepared the night’s dinner, which included marinated chicken breasts and salmon steaks, occupiers Debra Carter Pope and Melissa Cooper confirmed that a few members of the group had left, either due to fatigue or because they had to return to family or jobs back home.

“We’re a little tired … but we’re still pretty positive,” said Pope, a 61-year-old Fallon, Nevada, resident, who does the majority of cooking for the occupation. She’s been drinking Red Bull energy drinks to keep up. But Pope said she was in no rush to see the occupation come to an end. “It’s a big happy family here and I’m loving cooking for everybody.”

In his last public appearance on Friday morning, Bundy said he would eventually take the sheriff’s offer for free passage out of the state – “but not yet”.

Pope’s fiance, Corey Lequieu, said he would not be surprised if the militia stayed for months. He cited the Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island in California, which went on for 19 months in 1969 and 1970. “This isn’t going to happen overnight,” said Lequieu, who works for a hauling company. But he said he did hope the refuge occupation ultimately was shorter than the Alcatraz takeover. “I don’t want to be here for that long. I’ve gotta get back to work.”