Bundy’s battle not yet finished

By Amber Phillips

Monday, April 6, 2015 | 2 a.m.

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One year after the biggest Western standoff in recent history, the Battle of Bunkerville still is smoldering.

The citizen militiamen with guns and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags are long gone from Cliven Bundy’s ranch, where a federal attempt to round up the rancher’s illegally-grazing cattle went terribly wrong, but major questions remain.

Bundy continues to graze his cattle on federal land with impunity. He claims the desert scrub 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas is rightfully his. He still hasn’t paid the government the estimated $1.1 million he owes in grazing fees and interest. And the federal government, so far, has done nothing about it.

“We’re probably living in the freest place in the whole world,” Bundy recently told The Sunday. “We have not had any type of government interference.”

That could change. When the Bureau of Land Management decided last April to abort its roundup before someone pulled a trigger, officials in Washington promised to find a way to uphold the law. They handed the case over to the Department of Justice and FBI — what some insiders say should have happened in the first place.

The Department of Justice now is investigating Bundy and the dozens of militiamen who traveled from across the country to defend him. But it’s not clear what prosecutors will decide to do with the case, or when they will make a decision.

In the meantime, some say the government’s inaction has only emboldened Bundy and his supporters.

“It makes the BLM’s overall job more difficult when it appears they are unable to take effective measures against a scofflaw like Cliven Bundy,” said David Alberswerth, a historian and former BLM aide.

Last week, Bundy and a group of fans traveled to Carson City to support a Republican-backed bill that declares a swath of federal land in Nevada the “common property of the citizens of the state.” It prohibits the federal government from claiming water rights and owning any land in the state unless it’s for a military operation or approved by the Legislature.

Many wonder: Could another ugly confrontation be next?

What went wrong

BLM officials won’t speak publicly about what went wrong last April. Agency officials were caught off guard by the underground infrastructure that compelled dozens of people to load their rifles, pack their pickup trucks and drive — some from as far away as Massachusetts — to face off against the government threatening Bundy’s ranch.

“It’s not about the cows,” said Cliven Bundy’s cousin, Jake Fraught. “It’s about the freedom to make our own choices close to home.”

Former high-ranking officials have criticized the agency’s handling of the situation as clumsy. BLM agents didn’t need to bring so many law enforcement officers to the roundup, critics say, and could have coordinated better with then-Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.

Gov. Brian Sandoval and Sen. Dean Heller also criticized the BLM’s use of “First Amendment areas” for protesters as authoritarian and an infringement on the pickets’ constitutional rights.

Agents also didn’t help matters by one firing a taser at a protester and knocking a woman to the ground after a scuffle with the Bundy family. A 10-minute video of the incident was posted to YouTube and drew national attention.

“I do feel like it could have been handled differently, like with more reliance on local law enforcement,” former BLM chief Robert Abbey said.

Bundy and his supporters have filed more than 30 criminal complaints against the government.

The cattle roundup was supposed to be one of the final acts in a decades-long battle with Bundy over 150 square miles of federal land. The BLM was carrying out a 2012 court order requiring the agency to impound Bundy’s cattle because he refused to pay grazing fees.

Bruce Babbitt, former secretary of the Department of the Interior, said asking for the court order was the BLM’s first mistake. The agency should have asked for judicial cover to punish Bundy another way.

“A better way would have been to go to court and put a lien that would prevent the sale of the cattle,” Babbitt said.

The BLM also underwent a change in leadership right before the melee. The cattle roundup took place shortly after Elko native Neil Kornze took charge of the agency.

Kornze wouldn’t comment on the incident but recently told a House panel, “I think it’s important to clarify that grazing is not a right.”

Winning — for now

Bundy says momentum is on his side.

He points to a joint resolution that began in the state Senate that would give 7 million acres of federal land back to the state as an example of government “coming closer” to his view that states, not Washington, should govern the Nevada desert. Bundy’s family traveled to Carson City in March to champion the measure.

But Bundy is an anomaly in the Nevada ranching community — an embarrassment, even. The conservative Nevada Cattlemen’s Association won’t comment on him because President Ron Torell says the group doesn’t want to be associated with him in any way. The majority of ranchers in Nevada pay grazing fees on time and respect the government’s boundaries.

“Our best interest is for the betterment of the land, the resources,” Torell said.

Since the BLM was founded in 1946, there has been tension between the government and ranchers who resent federal authority. Federal land makes up more than 80 percent of Nevada, making the state ground zero for resistance.

Bundy is the latest iteration of such rebellion. He says he’s planning a one-year reunion for his supporters at the ranch. He expects speakers, music and reverie. Anyone who came to his defense is invited. And he has extended a good-will invitation to Sandoval and Clark County officials. Bundy plans to live-stream the event on his family’s blog.

“I felt like I was blessed” a year ago, Bundy said. “We didn’t have anybody get injured. We got our cattle back. The government got off our road and out of this area. We, the people, celebrated, and we’re going to celebrate again.”