Oath Keepers Muster in Oregon to Prevent 139-Year-Old Gold Mines from Being Seized by BLM video

Earlier this month, officials with the Bureau of Land Management sent a letter ordering local miners working at the Sugar Pine Mining Claim in the Galice Mining District near Merlin, OR to vacate the property that locals have mined for the past 139 years. Raw Story notes the fact that the owners of the claim subsequently contacted the Oath Keepers of Josephine County, an organization of ex-and-current military and law enforcement professionals who have sworn an oath to refuse orders that violate the US Constitution, who then called for militia members from around the country to gather at the mining claim in order to ensure that the Bureau of Land Management respects the miners’ Fifth Amendment right to due process.

As armed Oath Keepers began to gather at the site on Tuesday, SWAT vehicles were seen staging nearby, raising fears that a Bundy ranch style standoff might take place.

The dispute centers around the Sugar Pine Mining Claim itself, which Congress set aside for local miners in 1876, allowing them to establish their own rules and regulations. KDRV-TV notes that the Bureau of Land Management says that the claim does not allow the miners to sidestep its regulatory authority as the claim has changed hands in the past, but locals say that the claim’s community regulatory system has been grandfathered in and that, absent intervention through a specific process by the Department of the Interior, BLM lacks the authority to regulate the mines. The Galice Mining District Executive Committee said in a statement, “Under the 1955 Surface Resources Act, claims of this age have exclusive surface rights unless the Department of Interior utilized a mechanism outlined in that Act to sever those surface rights. Demands to BLM to produce evidence of their surface authority in accordance to the 1955 Act have thus far garnered only ‘because we say so’ answers and numerous stonewalling tactics. The Stop Orders came after several months of back and forth maneuvering from both sides, and are clearly retaliatory in nature.”

The stakes are high, as The Blaze notes that the Galice Mining District has already yielded over 10 million ounces of gold, with experts saying that 90 million more ounces are available to be extracted. Read More