Lawmakers from at least five states tried to negotiate on behalf of rancher Ammon Bundy and his followers, when they took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, in January, says Oregon Public Broadcasting. The politicians, including Nevada State Assemblywoman Michelle Fiore and Matt Shea, a state representative from Washington, are part of a group known as the Coalition of Western States (COWS), which, according to their website, is determined to “restore management of public lands to the states where it constitutionally belongs.”
COWS has accused the federal government of devising “a literal, international conspiracy” to thwart ranchers and farmers of their property rights, says OPB. The group claims to have more than 50 lawmakers and grassroots leaders in his membership, but has refused to provide their names, or the group’s meeting agendas and tax filing status.
In a 90-minute phone call with the FBI and Harney County officials on Jan. 9th, days after the occupation began, COWS representatives tried to get information that would be helpful to the militants, including the FBI’s plan for dealing with them.
Fiore said on the call: “The [Bureau of Land Management] has become a bureaucratic agency of – basically – terrorism. So at what point do we band together as elected officials, and say, ‘Enough is enough of the BLM?’”
The FBI and Harney County officials urged COWS to stay away from the refuge, in case their presence emboldened occupiers. But COWS arrived anyway. “The lawmakers acknowledge they fed the militants information gathered from that meeting, and militant leaders talked openly about what they learned from those disclosures,” says OPB.
By the end of the month, when the occupation was drawing to a close, Fiore and other COWS members were in near constant contact with the militants over phone and email. And yet, it does not appear that Fiore or COWS wanted violence. After militant Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot by state police, the Nevada Assemblywoman led the remaining occupiers in prayer over the phone and urged them to stand down.
While the occupation ultimately failed, it may have won COWS more support. Fiore claims that the group has added several more supporters to its roster, including from the east coast. “We are not going away,” she says. “We are dug in, and we will fight until this tyranny is defeated.”