Armed white men seizing the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon on January 2, 2016, were repeating a history longer than anyone has yet noted.

The occupation of Malheur connects to the 15th century Papal Bulls sanctioning "Christian Discovery." An historical line from Christian Discovery runs through colonial invasion of the New World, continues across the continent in the name of United States Manifest Destiny, and culminates in the seizure of all Indian lands as "public lands" (subject to "reservations" held in "trust" for the displaced Indians).

The Malheur invaders say they want to put control of public lands in the hands of ranchers and local governments. They call these lands "ours." But the Malheur occupation echoes earlier invasions of the same lands, whereby the original inhabitants—the Northern Paiute—were displaced.

The Burns Paiute Reservation—about 13,000 acres—constitutes the last vestige of Indian control of the region. Their ancestral lands included over 52 thousand square miles—more than 33 million acres.