There have been armed confrontations with federal officials and environmentalists. In 1993, Leroy Jackson, a traditional Navajo who had challenged the decimation of his reservation's forest by a white-owned timber company, received death threats and was later found dead in his van in a remote spot in northern New Mexico under mysterious circumstances. In 1997, Santa Fe environmentalist Sam Hitt received death threats and was hung in effigy outside the offices of the organization he heads, Forest Guardians. In December of 1998, the Santa Fe offices of Animal Protection of New Mexico had its windows blown out by shotgun blasts. A group called the Minutemen claimed responsibility for the terrorist action.
Police believe the attack was in retaliation of the group's support of wolf reintroduction.
One of the targets of this attack may have been Patricia Wolff, who works as a consultant for the group. Wolff had recently released a tape-recording of a May 1998 conversation she had with a trapper named Jody Lee Cooper, who claimed that ranchers in Glenwood, New Mexico had wanted to hire him to kill the reintroduced wolves. Wolff took the tape to the Fish and Wildlife Service, which failed to follow up on the evidence. He had no motive to lie to me. This spring 15 more wolves are scheduled to be released.