Crowd Gathers Near Halfway To Discuss Citizens’ Rights, Harney County

HALFWAY – Terrie Simons was heartbroken when she heard that Robert “LaVoy” Finicum had been shot and killed by Oregon State Police troopers Jan. 26 beside a Harney County highway.

But Simons’ sorrow galvanized her to action.

Peaceful action with a message and a purpose.

“Let’s start by trying to reunite our county and our community,” Simons, 49, of Halfway said a little before noon Saturday.

Less than a half hour later, as about 100 people gathered in a slushy parking lot about two miles southeast of Halfway, Simons’ efforts of the previous two weeks began to bear fruit.

Simons was one of the organizers of a “Rural Lives Matter” rally that brought a crowd to eastern Baker County on a seasonably chilly February day with temperatures in the upper 30s and occasional beams of sunlight piercing a thin overcast.

The flier for the event stated that the rally was “dedicated to the Hammonds and the memory of LaVoy Finicum and Jack Yantis.”

Finicum is the Arizona rancher who was fatally shot by OSP officers. He was one of the main spokesmen for the group which occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County starting Jan. 2.

Simons called Finicum’s death “a tragic event.”

But she also believes that some of the points Finicum and his fellow protesters have tried to make – among them the role the federal government plays in managing public lands in the rural West – are vital issues that need to be debated.

Encouraging that debate is one of the main purposes Simons and co-organizers Tom Huff and Kasey Wright, both Pine Valley residents, had in planning Saturday’s rally.

Simons said she hopes to ensure that Finicum’s death, rather than inflaming people on all sides of the debate, instead prompts them to engage in civil discussions.

“We all want to live a happy, healthy life,” Simons said. “We’re all in this together.”

Huff, 48, who’s the sixth generation of his family to live in Pine Valley, agreed.

“Our intention is to figure out a way to work together, to find common ground and to have no bloodshed,” Huff said prior to the rally.

Huff said he believes that Finicum’s death, though it should not have happened, can spawn a public dialogue that leads to a better society and a more equitable relationship between the public and the federal government.

“If I was the one shot and killed I would hope something good would come out of it,” Huff said.

Wright, 25, who grew up in Idaho and moved to Pine Valley a few years ago to help her husband operate his family’s farm, said the occupation of the Wildlife Refuge in general, and Finicum’s death in particular, convinced her that she needed to participate in the debate rather than merely watch it.

“This is where I stand – how can we come together and collaborate in a way that benefits everyone?” Wright said.

Simons, who introduced the seven speakers – who included Huff and Wright – started the rally by inviting the audience to say the Pledge of Allegiance and to listen to her prayer.

Before introducing the first speaker, Simons said she hopes that “never a drop of blood” will be shed in Baker County over this debate.

“We truly do believe in the rule of law,” Simons said. “We want to stand up, not standoff.”

The first speaker was Bill Harvey, chairman of the Baker County Board of Commissioners.

Harvey introduced themes that other speakers would also delve into, including the power that people should have over the actions of the government – and in particular the federal government, which manages about half of Baker County’s 2 million acres.

“The government is run by the governed,” Harvey said. “That’s you – us. We are the owners of the land.”

Harvey pointed toward the round tower that looms, rather like a rusty pyramid, less than a mile from the rally site.

It’s a wigwam burner that was used to burn sawdust and other wood scraps from a lumber mill that once operated in Pine Valley.

“I want to see something like that again in Baker County,” Harvey said. “Our forests are mismanaged at best, or not managed at all, at worst.”

Harvey said he and fellow commissioner Mark Bennett, who followed him on the flatbed trailer that served as a podium, are using the federal “coordination” progress to give Baker County, and its citizens, an “equal footing with the federal government” when it comes to managing federal land in the county.

Harvey emphasized that although he’s confident that many Baker County residents recognize their rights, and will defend them vigorously, they will also do so peacefully.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen in Baker County, and I don’t think it will,” he said.

Bennett agreed.

“We don’t want our community divided,” he said.

Bennett said that although he is upset about what has happened in Harney County, he also believes that the publicity has forced people to realize that “it is time for a debate on the West.”

In particular, he said Americans need to consider whether federal policies such as the possible designation of a national monument in the Owyhee country of Malheur County, and the potential restrictions that could impose on how local residents use public land, are wise.

“There’s a moral issue of just what’s flat out fair, what’s right,” Bennett said.

Kody Justus, who hopes to join Bennett and Harvey on the County Commission by being elected this year to the seat Tim L. Kerns is vacating in retirement, said the Commission’s use of the coordination law is “an important step.”

“We’re going to have to decide how we’re going to be governed,” said Justus, who visited the Malheur Wildlife Refuge and met with the occupiers there in January.

He said Baker County residents should have influence over how the public lands in the county are managed.

“I don’t think we were meant to be one size fits all,” Justus said. “We were meant to make our own decisions.”

John Hoopes, a Baker County Sheriff’s deputy who plans to challenge Sheriff Travis Ash, who is seeking election this year, said he was “sickened” when he heard that Finicum had been fatally shot.

Hoopes said he traveled to the Wildlife Refuge because he wanted to see the situation for himself, and he didn’t trust media reports.

“They’re just people,” Hoopes said of the protesters, four of whom were still occupying the Refuge this morning. “They brought their women and children. They didn’t come to war.”

Hoopes said he believes the federal government “is out of control – it’s way too big.”

He said he is studying constitutional issues “every single day.”

“I’m not watching the news at home on my butt,” Hoopes said.

Wright echoed Hoopes’ thoughts regarding the size and power of the federal government.

“It’s time to stand up and use our unalienable rights to stop this oppression,” she said. “Our Constitution was written and intended for the common man, therefore it needs no interpretation.”

The final speaker was Leo Castillo of Baker City, who hosts a weekly radio program, “World Gone Crazy.”

Castillo said he hopes the centuries-old tradition of common law will become re-established in the U.S., what he called the “one supreme law of the land.”

“We need to continue this groundswell of education,” he said. “We are the change that needs to happen.”

Castillo also emphasized that the movement is peaceful, and that it should continue to be so.

“Nobody has been calling for violence,” he said. “We have to do this peaceably. It’s taken us a long time to lose all the rights we have. Let’s not keep resentment and hatred in our own hearts. I want to win people over to our side.”

Castillo said that although violence has no place in the protest, he understands why people are angry about the five-year prison sentences for Dwight and Steven Hammond, the Harney County ranchers who were convicted of arson after two fires they started on their property spread to public land, and about the death of Finicum.

“It’s a healthy, normal reaction to be outraged,” Castillo said.

Saturday’s rally was not confined to Baker County residents.

Brent Neely and his wife, Morgan, drove from Lostine, in Wallowa County, with their three sons – Philip, 4, Eli, 3, and Gabriel, 16 months.

Brent said they made the three-hour drive because “we’re concerned about the direction our government has been heading, and I think it’s really important to be educated, to learn about our Constitution.”

See more in Monday’s issue of the Baker City Herald.