Archive: "The Great Republican Land Heist"

"Cliven Bundy and the politicians who are plundering the West"

"Cliven Bundy, the notorious scofflaw cattle rancher from Bunkerville, Nevada, was taking his midday nap when I arrived at his spread. One of his daughters — he has fourteen grown children, and they all seemed to have mustered at the ranch — told me that the nap was “very important” and our two o’clock appointment for an interview would have to wait for “whenever he wakes up.” I passed the time in the shade of the trees in his yard and talked with his militiamen, who looked miserable in the heat. They were awaiting an ambush by agents of the federal government, whose most oppressive arm, they assured me, was the Bureau of Land Management, a branch of the Department of the Interior. From across the country the militia had come to “make war” on the BLM, which manages more public land than any other federal agency."

Christopher Ketcham reports for The Atlantic in the February 2015 issue.

SEE ALSO:

"Oregon Refuge Standoff Opens Another Front In Old ‘Sagebrush Rebellion’" (McClatchy)

"Modern Sagebrush Rebels Recycle Old Western fantasies" (High Country News)

"Bundys Fuel 'Round Two' Of Sagebrush Rebellion" (Greenwire)

"Sorry, Ranchers, You’re Actually Big-Time Government Moochers" (Politico)