Editing Harney County, Oregon (section)

==History==
The [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s living in this region at the time of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] were the [[Northern Paiute]], who fought with the [[Tenino people|Tenino]] and [[Wasco-Wishram|Wasco]] peoples. [[Peter Skene Ogden]] was the first known European to explore this area in 1826 when he led a fur brigade for the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. 

In September 3, 1855 Brigadier General Harney led the U.S. Army and surrounded and ambushed a Lakota village killing 86 people and taking many others as prisoners. This site, located in Nebraska, is now known as the Blue Water Massacre or the Battle of Ash Hollow. 

Harney County was carved out of the southern two-thirds of [[Grant County, Oregon|Grant County]] on February 25, 1889. A fierce political battle, with armed "night riders" who spirited county records from Harney to [[Burns, Oregon|Burns]], ended with Burns as the county seat in 1890.

The [[Malheur River Indian Reservation]] was created by executive order on March&nbsp;14, 1871, and the Northern Paiute within the Oregon state boundaries were settled there. The federal government "discontinued" the reservation after the [[Bannock War]] of 1878. Descendants of these people form a federally recognized tribal entity, the [[Burns Paiute Tribe]], which had 341 members in 2008.<ref name="Wadatika">{{cite web |date=September 15, 2008 |title=Wadatika Today |url=http://www.burnspaiute-nsn.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:wadatika-today&catid=37:history&Itemid=57 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220031648/http://www.burnspaiute-nsn.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:wadatika-today&catid=37:history&Itemid=57 |archive-date=February 20, 2012 |access-date=April 8, 2013 |website=Burns Paiute Tribe}}</ref> Fewer than 35.5% of the tribal members live on the [[Burns Paiute Indian Colony]] near Burns.<ref name=Wadatika/> The tribe formerly earned revenue from a small casino, the [[Old Camp Casino]], before its closure in 2012, and renting out communal tribal lands for grazing rights to local ranchers.

The first white people to arrive through Harney County were French explorers, circa 1750ː Narceese Charbonneau (father of [[Toussaint Charbonneau]]), LaValle and a priest named Joseph Nadeau. The men came aboard a Spanish supply ship and left from San Diego on a transcontinental tour to Quebec. Instead of reaching Canada, the men arrived at southern Harney County and continued towards Idaho. In the late 1820s, Peter Skene Ogden made a description of the natural features and Indian culture from Klamath County to Harney County, following the [[Sylvaille River]], and turning up afterwards towards [[Walla Walla, Washington|Walla Walla]] leading a fur brigade for [[Hudson's Bay Company]].<ref name="PSO">{{Cite web |title=Harney County - County Information |url=https://www.oacclerks.org/oacc/county.aspx?countyid=24 |access-date=April 25, 2022 |publisher=Oregon Association of County Clerks}}</ref>

===2016 militia occupation===
{{main|Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge}}
On January 2, 2016, the headquarters building of the [[Malheur National Wildlife Refuge]] was seized by armed protesters related to the [[Bundy standoff]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Zaitz |first=Les |date=January 3, 2016 |title=Militia takes over Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters |url=http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/drama_in_burns_ends_with_quiet.html#incart_big-photo |access-date=January 3, 2016 |newspaper=The Oregonian |location=Portland}}</ref> The group protested the prison sentences of two ranchers convicted of arson in wildfires set in 2001 and 2006, which the ranchers claimed spread from their land into the wildlife reserve.<ref>{{cite press release |date=October 7, 2015 |title=Eastern Oregon Ranchers Convicted of Arson Resentenced to Five Years in Prison |url=https://www.justice.gov/usao-or/pr/eastern-oregon-ranchers-convicted-arson-resentenced-five-years-prison |access-date=October 7, 2015 |publisher=U. S. Attorney's Office; District of Oregon}}</ref> Militia leaders, including [[Ammon Bundy]] and [[Jon Ritzheimer]], were arrested on January 26, 2016, in an event that included the shooting death of militant [[LaVoy Finicum]] by law enforcement at a highway blockade between Burns and John Day.<ref name="JohnsonBlankstein">{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Alex |last2=Blankstein |first2=Andrew |date=January 26, 2016 |title=Oregon Occupation Leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy Arrested, One Dead |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-occupation-leader-ammon-bundy-arrested-law-enforcement-sources-n504911 |access-date=January 26, 2016 |work=[[NBC News]]}}</ref> The following day, only four militants remained, and they surrendered on February 11, 2016.<ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Alexander |last2=Erik |first2=Ortiz |date=February 11, 2016 |title=Four Remaining Oregon Occupiers, Surrounded by FBI, Surrender |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oregon-occupiers-surrounded-fbi-surrender-after-six-weeks-protest-n516336 |access-date=February 11, 2016 |work=NBC News}}</ref>