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Ammon Bundy, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, speaks during an interview at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Oregon. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
A group that says it’s opposed to government regulation will host Ammon Bundy, leader of an armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge, as part a gathering in Whitefish later this month. While a number of organizations opposed to the conference are planning to hold their own event in response.
On its website, This West is OUR West says the conference scheduled for all day on Oct. 13 at Grouse Mountain Lodge is about “exploring land, water, property and civil rights in the western states.” Bundy, who was part of the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and participated in a standoff against law enforcement officials at his father Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Nevada in 2014, is set to speak at the event titled, “A New Code of the West.”
The principal organizer of the event is Laura Lee O’Neil, founder of the group This West is OUR West.
O’Neil described the gathering, in an interview with the Daily Inter Lake, as people getting together to “have a dialogue about issues that are important to us.”
“There are a lot of issues we will talk about, public versus private land, forest management and several others,” she said.
She said they weren’t a formal group and that they don’t consider themselves “alt-right” or “right-wing radicals” as they have been described by others.
In response to the conference, the Montana Wilderness Association, in partnership with Montana Wildlife Federation, Montana Human Rights Network, and Love Lives Here, are set to host an event on the same day. The event is called “Montana Undivided: A Rally for Human Rights and Public Lands,” and is set for 10 a.m. on Oct. 13 at Depot Park in downtown Whitefish.
A group that includes Whitefish residents, tribal representatives and public land advocates denounced the New Code of the West event in a release Thursday from the Montana Human Rights Network, which claims This West is OUR West is rooted in the militia movement of the 1990s and spreads an ideology that is “anti-government, anti-Indian, and anti-environmental movements.”
Bob Brown, former Montana secretary of state and state legislator, lives in Whitefish and is among those speaking out against the event.
“By inviting Ammon Bundy, organizers and participants of this event are attempting to normalize the seizure of public lands and to legitimize threats against federal and local law enforcement,” Brown said in a statement. “This extremist event flies in the face of the values Montanans of all political persuasions share. It has no place in Whitefish or anywhere else in Montana.”
This would be the third time in the past eight months that a member of the Bundy family has spoken in northwestern Montana.
During the A New Code of the West event, a full list of speakers are scheduled to attend, according to the group’s website. It says the day will include an array of speakers and subjects to provide an updated overview of “The Deep State” and its impact in the West of “bureaucratic agency over-reach, federal Indian policy, public versus private property rights, environmental and jurisdictional issues affecting our country and each of our communities.” The website lists a registration fee of $75 to $150 per person for the day.
For more information about the “This is OUR West” event, visit www.thiswestisourwest.com.
The Montana Human Rights Network issued its take on the conference in brief on its website, at https://mhrn.org/2018/09/25/codeofwest/