Ten years ago today, an armed mob of at least 30 members of the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom militia takes control of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. They demand the release of two prisoners and that the U.S. government cede authority over the Refuge, so that "the people can have their resources." The leader says he had been divinely inspired.

The occupation will last 40 days. Buildings, facilities, land and artifacts are vandalized. One of the men is killed by an FBI agent. The group eventually surrenders. Twenty-seven of the men will serve jail time.

The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is 300 square miles of protected marshland in southeast Oregon, inhabited for thousands of years by the Paiute people.