Chapter 1

Winning by Threat of Force: The Bundy Family

Cliven Bundy has grazed livestock on federal land through the last three sagebrush rebellions. The story of the Bundy family ranch, northeast of Las Vegas, NV, illustrates the frustrations that many ranchers had with evolving federal land management over the last fifty years, as they went from being the dominant users of federal rangeland to one of multiple, competing users. It also illustrates some of the dominant ideologies and arguments that drove the last three conservative rebellions against federal authority, particularly those rooted in American civil religion and popular constitutionalism. And it encapsulates the evolution of western rebellion, from a regional, political challenge to federal authority to one that drew armed support from across the national. Having faced down federal law enforcement with armed militias, the Bundy family continues to graze livestock on federal land without authorization. Here are key milestones in the Bundy ranch story: