 This weekend, Burns Paiute tribal chairperson Charlotte Roderique spoke to Indian Country Today Media Network about the status of the occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, “We are really worried about the status of the artifacts down there.” 
 
 On Friday, the tribe delivered a letter to federal agencies including the U.S. Attorney and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last week, the tribe requested assistance in protecting Paiute artifacts from the armed protesters, calling for an inventory of items in the refuge, and criminal prosecution of the group under the Archeological Resources Protection Act. In letters to the White House and Department of Justice this week, Brown requested assistance from the FBI and other law enforcement in removing the militia group from federal land, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. “I’m not going to give them the satisfaction of meeting with them,” Charlotte Rodrique, chairwoman of the Burns Paiute tribe, told the Guardian last week. “Let’s make sure that we take care of the heritage of the Native American people.” 
 
 Added militia member Blaine Cooper: “The rightful owners need to come back and claim their belongings.” 
 
 But Kennedy said the tribe has a good relationship with refuge officials and noted that the Paiute people refuse to communicate with militia leaders or visit the occupation. I don’t know what these people are doing if they are doing things to just get a rise or to be martyr—all they are doing is making enemies out of the people they professed to support.” 
 
 Carla Burnside, the U.S. This shall include all remains, sites, objects, structures, artifacts, implements, plants, animals, and locations within the tribe's aboriginal territory.’” 
 
 Occupation leader Ammon Bundy, from Arizona and son of Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher involved in a standoff with the federal government over $1 million in unpaid grazing fees on public land, has offered to meet with the tribe but the tribe says he has no right to hold their history hostage and have refused to grant him even the appearance of such authority by meeting with him. In the video, Finicum notes decades-old papers strewn across the floor, and one box allegedly containing a rat's nest.
– The Paiute tribe is really getting fed up with the militia occupying federal land in Oregon. The latest straw came Wednesday when an occupier posted a video showing him rummaging through Paiute artifacts and documents. LaVoy Finicum apparently had good intentions. "We want to make sure these things are returned to their rightful owner … so we're reaching out to the Paiute people in the sincerest manner," he said, inviting leaders to pick up the relics he said were "rotting" in cardboard boxes, per Mashable. "Let's make sure that we take care of the heritage of the Native American people." However, Paiute leaders—who say they have a positive relationship with refuge officials—argue the militia is trying to seize land that's part of their ancestral territory, per the Guardian. "I feel disrespected that they're even out there. It's like me going through their drawers at their house," says Jarvis Kennedy, the tribal council's sergeant-at-arms. "How would they feel if I drove over their grave and went through their heirlooms?" he adds. Though he fears some artifacts will be stolen, Kennedy gave no indication that he would go pick them up. "All the stuff they are doing out there, it's like a crime scene," he says. "Once this is done, we'll see what's missing." Last week, the tribe asked federal agencies to prosecute occupiers who "disturb, damage, remove, alter, or deface any archaeological resource on the refuge property," per Indian Country Today Media Network.