Nevada Rancher Cliven Bundy Is A Right-Wing Extremist – Not A Hero

Heavily armed right-wing militia members began gathering at the cattle ranch of Cliven Bundy in arid Clark County, Nevada, in response to Bundy’s appeals for help after federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents began rounding up his cattle on April 5, 2014, because he was illegally grazing them on BLM public land. Bundy and his like-minded sons Dave, Ryan and Ammon, along with other supporters, including the far-right Oath Keepers militia, confronted the BLM staff conducting the roundup, so defined areas were setup for protestors try and ensure the safety of everybody involved.

Bundy’s cattle had been trespassing on BLM land since 1994, when the BLM cancelled his permit for the agency’s 145,604-acre Bunkerville grazing allotment. The cancellation was the result of Bundy’s 1993 decision to notify the BLM he was refusing to comply with the laws governing grazing management on federal public lands. He also quit paying federal grazing fees and didn’t submit an application for grazing authorization, which was required because the Bunkerville allotment was an ephemeral desert allotment, where grazing is only authorized when there’s been enough rain to produce sufficient forage. (The Bunkerville allotment has since been officially closed to livestock grazing because it contains critical habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise.)

Bundy, however, ignored the BLM’s cancellation of his grazing permit and their demands to remove his cattle from the allotment. In early 1998 the BLM filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court of Nevada to force him to comply with their demands, and in November the court issued an order wherein the cancellation of his Bunkerville grazing permit was affirmed, and Bundy was ordered to remove his livestock from BLM land by November 30, 1998, and pay $200 per day for any livestock that remained on the allotment after that date. Bundy refused to comply with the court order, and he continued his illegal use of the allotment. BLM surveys of the area in 2012 found hundreds of trespassing cattle.

Bundy claims that his family has “preemptive rights” to the public land he uses because they’ve been grazing cattle on it since the late 1800s, although records show they didn’t start grazing local public lands until 1954. He says the real trespassers aren’t his cattle, but the BLM, because the land really belongs to the “sovereign” state of Nevada and Clark County. But according to U.S. history and law, the federal government was the original owner of the land. (The federal government, of course, first had to extinguish the claims of local Native Americans, so if anybody has a valid prior claim to the land in dispute, it’s the local Paiute tribe.)

Bundy’s belief in his right to have unrestricted use of public land is derived from his Mormon heritage. In July 1847 pioneer members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) established Salt Lake City in nearby Utah in order to escape religious persecution. Mexican traders had been using the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through Nevada and Utah, since about 1830 to travel between the Mexican provinces of Alta California and New Mexico. And also prior to the Mormon’s arrival in Utah, U.S. forces fighting the Mexican-American War had conquered the Mexican province of Alta California, which included the Salt Lake Valley.

The signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 ended the entire Mexican-American War, and made Utah and neighboring areas officially part of the U.S. In 1849 Mormon leader Brigham Young expressed his desire for the Mormon settlements in the West to become part of a new U.S. state by unilaterally declaring the State of Deseret. Its boundaries included a lot of territory, including most of the state of Nevada, because he was sending Mormon settlers out from Salt Lake City into the surrounding wilderness. However, when Congress officially created the Utah Territory in 1850, it covered a smaller area, although it still  included Nevada. A lot more areas were removed from the Utah Territory by Congress, including Nevada, before Utah finally became a state in 1896.

Ultra-conservative Mormons, like Bundy, believe their ancestors received a preemptive right from God to use all the lands in original State of Deseret, which was supposed to become their new Zion. But even though Bundy believes that the federal government has oppressed him, it hasn’t stopped him from invoking the U.S. Constitution in his defense.

The reality is that the BLM’s administration of livestock grazing on public lands was originally authorized by the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934. This law was promoted by Western ranchers who understood that public rangelands needed to be regulated in order to prevent overgrazing. It divided Western public lands into separate grazing allotments and grazing permits were issued giving individual local ranchers the privilege of grazing those allotments using best management practices. There are numerous subsequent federal court decisions confirming the BLM’s regulatory authority, including the fact that grazing permits are not a private property right of any kind – but a revocable privilege to be managed by the agency in the public’s interest.

Bundy has labeled his dispute with the BLM a “range war” and compared it to the deadly confrontations with federal officials that occurred in the past at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas. But despite his attempts to paint the BLM agents rounding up his trespassing cattle as outlaws, it’s clear to anyone willing to consider the facts that he’s the one who’s been ignoring the law. 

After years of legal wrangling, in July 2013 a federal judge ordered Bundy to remove of his cattle from BLM land within 45 days or the government would do it. He failed to comply again, so the BLM began rounding up his cattle on April 5, 2014. 

On April 12, 2014, the BLM backed down when they announced that the roundup of Bundy’s cattle was being ended due to the threat of serious violence.

Updates

On February 10, 2016, Cliven Bundy was finally arrested by the FBI at the Portland International Airport because of his instigation of the 2014 armed standoff with federal agents trying to round up the cattle he was illegally grazing on BLM land in Nevada. He was on his way to support the Malheur Standoff in Oregon, where right-wing militants, including his sons Ammond and Ryan, had seized the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to protest federal ownership of public land. 

On November 6, 2016, Arizona’s Mohave County Board of Supervisors voted to name a stretch of road after LaVoy Finicum, a Bundy supporter who was shot by police after pulling a gun on them when they tried to arrest him for participating in the unlawful seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.

On January 20, 2017, Pres. Barak Obama’s term in office ended, and the BLM still hadn’t implemented any measures to end Bundy’s illegal grazing.

On January 8, 2018, Federal District Court Judge Gloria M. Navarro dismissed the charges against Cliven Bundy and his sons, Ammon and Ryan for inciting the 2014 armed standoff at the Bundy ranch. Judge Navarro said federal prosecutors had withheld evidence that might have helped the defendants. Prosecutors explained in their court filings that fears of right-wing violence against government witnesses were part of the reason they chose not to release everything. The Bundys were subsequently set free without any determination of their guilt, and Cliven Bundy’s cattle were allowed to continue to graze on public land illegally.

On April 21, 2020, a federal judge ordered Cliven Bundy to pay the Center for Biological Diversity $92,586.02 in attorney fees and costs related to a failed court case Bundy had filed in 2018 to try and prove that Nevada’s 56 million acres of public land belonged to the state.

On May 29, 2020, a federal prosecutor urged a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a video conference hearing to allow the government’s case against Bundy and his sons to go forward, claiming that Judge Navarro’s decision was unjust.

On August 6, 2020, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to to resurrect the criminal case against Cliven Bundy and his cohorts stemming from the 2014 armed standoff with federal agents that were trying to round up cattle he was illegally grazing on BLM land.

On January 20, 2021, Pres. Donald Trump’s term in office ended, and the BLM still hadn’t implemented any measures to end Bundy’s illegal grazing.

On November 29, 2022, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and evidence tampering regarding his participation in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

On January 20, 2025, Pres. Joe Biden’s term in office ended, and the BLM still hadn’t implemented any measures to end Bundy’s illegal grazing. Later that day, Oath Keepers found Stewart Rhodes had his prison sentence commuted by newly sworn in Pres. Trump and he was released. 

On January 25, 2025, Cliven Bundy and son Ryan were seated in the VIP gallery behind the president during Trump’s political rally in Las Vegas, Nevada. Stewart Rhodes was next to them.