Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens: The Endless War over the West's Public Lands
Autor John L. Smithen Limba Engleză Hardback – 9 mar 2021 – vârsta ani
The grazing rights battle between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government, resulting in a tense, armed standoff between Bundy’s supporters and federal law enforcement officers, garnered international media attention in 2014. Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens places the Bundy conflict into the larger context of the Sagebrush Rebellion and the long struggle over the use of federal public lands in the American West.
Author John L. Smith skillfully captures the drama of the Bundy legal tangle amid the current political climate. Although no shots were fired during the standoff itself, just weeks later self-proclaimed Bundy supporters murdered two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian. In Eastern Oregon, other Bundy supporters occupied the federal offices of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and one of them died in a hail of bullets.
While examining the complex history of federal public land policies, Smith exposes both sides of this story. He shows that there are passionate true believers on opposite sides of the insurrection, along with government agents and politicians in Washington complicit in efforts to control public lands for their wealthy allies and campaign contributors. With the promise of billions of dollars in natural resource profits and vast tracts of environmentally sensitive lands hanging in the balance, the West’s latest range war is the most important in the nation’s history. This masterful exposé raises serious questions about the fate of America’s public lands and the vehement arguments that are framing the debate from all sides.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781948908900
ISBN-10: 1948908905
Pagini: 342
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 36 mm
Greutate: 0.7 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: University of Nevada Press
Colecția University of Nevada Press
ISBN-10: 1948908905
Pagini: 342
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 36 mm
Greutate: 0.7 kg
Ediția:1
Editura: University of Nevada Press
Colecția University of Nevada Press
Recenzii
“Beginning with a vivid account of the standoff at the Cliven Bundy ranch in 2014 over Bundy’s trespassing cattle, author John L. Smith takes readers across the West to learn about recalcitrant ranchers, Sagebrush rebels, and patriot militias. . . . Smith handles a difficult and diverse subject well, mixing in wry humor. This is a valuable and timely book describing a fringe movement that is still gaining ground.”
—New Mexico Historical Review
“In this timely and compelling work, John L. Smith skillfully engages the numerous and diverse factors at play in what he appropriately refers to as the endless war over public lands in the American West. . . . Smith knows the topic and his subjects well, which is a significant strength of the book.”
—Utah Historical Quarterly
“This thoroughly researched book provides thoughtful insight into a controversial issue that doubtless will continue for years to come.”
—Thomas Mitchell, Elko Daily Free Press
“Smith’s accounting of the standoffs and the Bundy trials are particularly poignant because Smith witnessed these events, reporting on them as they unfolded. His account contains details and explanations that are largely absent from other works on the subject.”
—Leisl Carr Childers, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
“This is a lot to unpack in Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens, but it is well worth the effort. Rather than reducing the story to a simple cause and effect, Smith has woven a complex narrative, operating on multiple scales of analysis and tracing a myriad of forces and influences. The result is a compelling read that warns us against trusting monocausal explanations for extremism in America.”
—Christopher Herbert, Pacific Northwest Quarterly
“Smith’s work is significant because it weaves historical context into key events of the last ten years, giving readers an early interpretation of recent history. . . . Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens has several strengths. It keeps the past close to the present, showing the historic roots of recent events. Smith excels at giving the reader clear and concise contextual information.”
—Mette Flynt, The Journal of Arizona History
“Smith is fair and accurate. Like the rest of Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens, the reporting indeed is balanced. I write this, not with tongue in cheek but with great applause for Smith’s content and his prose.”
—Bookin’ with Sunny
"What this author brings to the table is a deep understanding of Nevada history and the political rivers running through it. Unlike other writers, he understands the state and the players as well as anyone."
—Geoff Schumacher, author of Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia and Palace Intrigue
—New Mexico Historical Review
“In this timely and compelling work, John L. Smith skillfully engages the numerous and diverse factors at play in what he appropriately refers to as the endless war over public lands in the American West. . . . Smith knows the topic and his subjects well, which is a significant strength of the book.”
—Utah Historical Quarterly
“This thoroughly researched book provides thoughtful insight into a controversial issue that doubtless will continue for years to come.”
—Thomas Mitchell, Elko Daily Free Press
“Smith’s accounting of the standoffs and the Bundy trials are particularly poignant because Smith witnessed these events, reporting on them as they unfolded. His account contains details and explanations that are largely absent from other works on the subject.”
—Leisl Carr Childers, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
“This is a lot to unpack in Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens, but it is well worth the effort. Rather than reducing the story to a simple cause and effect, Smith has woven a complex narrative, operating on multiple scales of analysis and tracing a myriad of forces and influences. The result is a compelling read that warns us against trusting monocausal explanations for extremism in America.”
—Christopher Herbert, Pacific Northwest Quarterly
“Smith’s work is significant because it weaves historical context into key events of the last ten years, giving readers an early interpretation of recent history. . . . Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens has several strengths. It keeps the past close to the present, showing the historic roots of recent events. Smith excels at giving the reader clear and concise contextual information.”
—Mette Flynt, The Journal of Arizona History
“Smith is fair and accurate. Like the rest of Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens, the reporting indeed is balanced. I write this, not with tongue in cheek but with great applause for Smith’s content and his prose.”
—Bookin’ with Sunny
"What this author brings to the table is a deep understanding of Nevada history and the political rivers running through it. Unlike other writers, he understands the state and the players as well as anyone."
—Geoff Schumacher, author of Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia and Palace Intrigue
Notă biografică
Nevada native, John L. Smith is a freelance writer, journalist, and author of more than a dozen books, including The Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice. He writes an award-winning weekly column for The Nevada Independent, and is a contributor to Nevada Public Radio’s “State of Nevada” and a wide range of publications. An award-winning columnist, in 2016 he was inducted into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. In the same year, Smith and his colleagues were honored with the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism, the Ancil Payne Award from the University of Oregon, and the Society of Professional Journalists Award for Ethics.
Extras
PART ONE
We Join the Revolution Already in Progress
Notice is hereby given that a temporary closure to public access, use, and occupancy will be in effect for the dates and times specified in this Notice on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Southern Nevada District Office, Las Vegas Field Office, within the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the northeastern portion of Clark County, Nevada. This temporary closure is necessary to limit public access, use, and occupancy during an impoundment of illegally grazing cattle to ensure the safety and welfare of the public, contractors, and government employees.
By the time the BLM’s official notice of federal land closure for the purposes of impounding Cliven Bundy’s cattle was made public, the rancher had already prepared and distributed official notices of his own. He was well-practiced, having typed notices and proclamations for years in his long dispute with a federal government that, according to his view of the world and reading of the U.S. Constitution, essentially didn’t much exist.
Formally notified on March 14, 2014, that the impoundment was imminent, within 24 hours he’d told a reporter he was “ready to do battle” with the BLM and promised to do “whatever it takes” to defend his interests. It was a veiled threat he’d repeat often in the ensuing weeks in an effort to do-si-do on the fine line separating constitutionally protected free speech and a criminal threat of violence against federal officers and government contractors.
He had known a storm was coming. One missive he had typed was dated three days earlier than the government’s notice. It declared, “RANGE WAR EMERGENCY” and made a “DEMAND FOR PROTECTION” from a long list of Nevada elected officials headed not by the state’s congressional delegation, but by Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie. Bundy added in all caps that a “NOTICE OF CATTLE RUSTLING AND ILLEGAL SEIZURE BY CONTRACT COWBOYS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BLM, IS IN PROGRESS ON BUNDY’S RANCH, CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA.” His demand was signed and notarized, calling for action from the county sheriff and state officials because, as he repeatedly claimed, the federal government held no jurisdiction over the land or his herd.
That same day, Bundy also asserted a lien against officials of the Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc., of Nephi, Utah—a family outfit often used by the BLM to gather stray cattle and wild horses and burros from federal public land and Indian reservations. The gatherings were commonly controversial and occasionally litigated by animal rights groups and members of Nevada’s Paiute Tribe. The Cattoor company was among the most experienced in the business.
Other contractors were anxious to go to work, including Sun J Livestock, Sampson Livestock, ‘R’ Livestock, and Sky Hawk Helicopter Service, a company contracted to spot and direct cattle from the air. The BLM had budgeted approximately $1 million for the cattle impoundment, and had no shortage of willing contractors. That is, until the companies began receiving official notices of lien threatening them with “appropriate legal remedies” and even the “filing of criminal complaints with the proper jurisdictional authorities.” The notifications ended with, “Cliven Bundy will do whatever it takes to protect his property and rights and liberty and freedoms and those of, We the People, of Clark County, Nevada.”
Going after the government contractors, some of them fellow church members, was part of a multi-pronged approach the rancher used to foul the impoundment. It was no secret plan. He made his intentions clear with every missive. Legalistic letters were enough to make some potential contractors think twice. The tactic had worked repeatedly in 2012, the last time the government had scheduled an impoundment before postponing it in part out of a concern for employee safety. That time, at least one livestock contractor said he felt “intimidated” by the family, understandable after Bundy said he’d defend his cattle with the help of armed ranchers from throughout the region.
Two years later, Bundy was back at the keyboard producing notices of lien and liability against a new group of cooperators with the federal enemy. After ‘R’ Livestock Connection LLC, a cattle auction based in Monroe, Utah, placed the sole bid for a $78,000 contract to sell off Bundy’s cattle, it received a visit from Ryan Bundy, one of Cliven’s fourteen sons, and others associated with the rancher’s cause. Signs announcing “Stolen Cattle Sold Here” were posted. A government indictment would later describe Bundy’s angry rhetoric as a threat of “force, violence and economic harm.” Bundy’s son, in fact, had accused the company’s owner of selling “his soul to the devil for a few stolen cattle.”
Threats aside, it wasn’t as if locating and gathering his ornery stock was in itself a daunting task for the BLM, US National Park Service (NPS), and private contractors. Their numbers, kept secret as a safety precaution, were spread out across approximately 600,000 acres of federal public land, closing sections as needed for the roundup. By the end of the first week of April, 322,000 acres, most of it administered by the BLM or NPS, but some even belonging to the US Bureau of Reclamation, were shut off from public access.
The government set up its incident command post just off Interstate 15 in Toquop Wash about six miles from Bundy Ranch. It was a heavily guarded but homely piece of drainage that crossed the busy highway beneath two concrete bridges. In a major flash flood event during the late-summer monsoons or a downpour of biblical proportions, Toquop might send water all the way to the Virgin River. Command trailers and a corral were set up; a perimeter fence was guarded and monitored by surveillance cameras with
the cut of the wash and the two highway bridges placing the impoundment site at a strategic disadvantage in the unlikely event of a confrontation. But given the intimidating firepower on display, heavily armed federal law enforcement in military garb and flak jackets, such a thing seemed like long odds.
The odds shifted though, when Bundy began to use the government’s might against itself. He calmly gave press briefings that often turned into winding speeches about ranching and government overreach. Wherever the talks started, they always ended up with a lesson in the constitution’s divine providence. By the time the last of the banners and bunting were draped and flag unfurled, Bundy was giving speeches from atop a makeshift stage flanked, for the first time, by armed security guards.
We Join the Revolution Already in Progress
Notice is hereby given that a temporary closure to public access, use, and occupancy will be in effect for the dates and times specified in this Notice on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Southern Nevada District Office, Las Vegas Field Office, within the Gold Butte, Mormon Mesa, and Bunkerville Flats Areas in the northeastern portion of Clark County, Nevada. This temporary closure is necessary to limit public access, use, and occupancy during an impoundment of illegally grazing cattle to ensure the safety and welfare of the public, contractors, and government employees.
By the time the BLM’s official notice of federal land closure for the purposes of impounding Cliven Bundy’s cattle was made public, the rancher had already prepared and distributed official notices of his own. He was well-practiced, having typed notices and proclamations for years in his long dispute with a federal government that, according to his view of the world and reading of the U.S. Constitution, essentially didn’t much exist.
Formally notified on March 14, 2014, that the impoundment was imminent, within 24 hours he’d told a reporter he was “ready to do battle” with the BLM and promised to do “whatever it takes” to defend his interests. It was a veiled threat he’d repeat often in the ensuing weeks in an effort to do-si-do on the fine line separating constitutionally protected free speech and a criminal threat of violence against federal officers and government contractors.
He had known a storm was coming. One missive he had typed was dated three days earlier than the government’s notice. It declared, “RANGE WAR EMERGENCY” and made a “DEMAND FOR PROTECTION” from a long list of Nevada elected officials headed not by the state’s congressional delegation, but by Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie. Bundy added in all caps that a “NOTICE OF CATTLE RUSTLING AND ILLEGAL SEIZURE BY CONTRACT COWBOYS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BLM, IS IN PROGRESS ON BUNDY’S RANCH, CLARK COUNTY, NEVADA.” His demand was signed and notarized, calling for action from the county sheriff and state officials because, as he repeatedly claimed, the federal government held no jurisdiction over the land or his herd.
That same day, Bundy also asserted a lien against officials of the Cattoor Livestock Roundup, Inc., of Nephi, Utah—a family outfit often used by the BLM to gather stray cattle and wild horses and burros from federal public land and Indian reservations. The gatherings were commonly controversial and occasionally litigated by animal rights groups and members of Nevada’s Paiute Tribe. The Cattoor company was among the most experienced in the business.
Other contractors were anxious to go to work, including Sun J Livestock, Sampson Livestock, ‘R’ Livestock, and Sky Hawk Helicopter Service, a company contracted to spot and direct cattle from the air. The BLM had budgeted approximately $1 million for the cattle impoundment, and had no shortage of willing contractors. That is, until the companies began receiving official notices of lien threatening them with “appropriate legal remedies” and even the “filing of criminal complaints with the proper jurisdictional authorities.” The notifications ended with, “Cliven Bundy will do whatever it takes to protect his property and rights and liberty and freedoms and those of, We the People, of Clark County, Nevada.”
Going after the government contractors, some of them fellow church members, was part of a multi-pronged approach the rancher used to foul the impoundment. It was no secret plan. He made his intentions clear with every missive. Legalistic letters were enough to make some potential contractors think twice. The tactic had worked repeatedly in 2012, the last time the government had scheduled an impoundment before postponing it in part out of a concern for employee safety. That time, at least one livestock contractor said he felt “intimidated” by the family, understandable after Bundy said he’d defend his cattle with the help of armed ranchers from throughout the region.
Two years later, Bundy was back at the keyboard producing notices of lien and liability against a new group of cooperators with the federal enemy. After ‘R’ Livestock Connection LLC, a cattle auction based in Monroe, Utah, placed the sole bid for a $78,000 contract to sell off Bundy’s cattle, it received a visit from Ryan Bundy, one of Cliven’s fourteen sons, and others associated with the rancher’s cause. Signs announcing “Stolen Cattle Sold Here” were posted. A government indictment would later describe Bundy’s angry rhetoric as a threat of “force, violence and economic harm.” Bundy’s son, in fact, had accused the company’s owner of selling “his soul to the devil for a few stolen cattle.”
Threats aside, it wasn’t as if locating and gathering his ornery stock was in itself a daunting task for the BLM, US National Park Service (NPS), and private contractors. Their numbers, kept secret as a safety precaution, were spread out across approximately 600,000 acres of federal public land, closing sections as needed for the roundup. By the end of the first week of April, 322,000 acres, most of it administered by the BLM or NPS, but some even belonging to the US Bureau of Reclamation, were shut off from public access.
The government set up its incident command post just off Interstate 15 in Toquop Wash about six miles from Bundy Ranch. It was a heavily guarded but homely piece of drainage that crossed the busy highway beneath two concrete bridges. In a major flash flood event during the late-summer monsoons or a downpour of biblical proportions, Toquop might send water all the way to the Virgin River. Command trailers and a corral were set up; a perimeter fence was guarded and monitored by surveillance cameras with
the cut of the wash and the two highway bridges placing the impoundment site at a strategic disadvantage in the unlikely event of a confrontation. But given the intimidating firepower on display, heavily armed federal law enforcement in military garb and flak jackets, such a thing seemed like long odds.
The odds shifted though, when Bundy began to use the government’s might against itself. He calmly gave press briefings that often turned into winding speeches about ranching and government overreach. Wherever the talks started, they always ended up with a lesson in the constitution’s divine providence. By the time the last of the banners and bunting were draped and flag unfurled, Bundy was giving speeches from atop a makeshift stage flanked, for the first time, by armed security guards.
Cuprins
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE Back Road to Gold Butte
PART ONE We Join the Revolution Already in Progress
PART TWO You Don’t Need a Reason to Start a Revolution
PART THREE Ghost Dancing Through Deseret
PART FOUR Saddle Born
PART FIVE The Senator from Searchlight
PART SIX When the Cows Come Home…to Roost
EPILOGUE Lonesome Bull
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
PROLOGUE Back Road to Gold Butte
PART ONE We Join the Revolution Already in Progress
PART TWO You Don’t Need a Reason to Start a Revolution
PART THREE Ghost Dancing Through Deseret
PART FOUR Saddle Born
PART FIVE The Senator from Searchlight
PART SIX When the Cows Come Home…to Roost
EPILOGUE Lonesome Bull
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Descriere
Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens tells the fascinating history of the battle over Nevada’s lucrative public lands through the lens of the April 2014 armed standoff between Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy and armed militia allies against federal officers attempting to provide security for a court-ordered cattle impoundment.