Bundy’s Federal Feud: Timeline of Events
1946
■ Cliven Bundy is born April 29, 1946, in Las Vegas.
■ The Bureau of Land Management is established by President Harry Truman on May 16, 1946. The BLM’s functions include replacing the U.S. Grazing Service, which was formed in 1934.
1951
■ Bundy’s parents move their family into the newly constructed Bunkerville ranch house.
1954
■ Cliven’s father, David Ammon Bundy, starts grazing cattle with his 8-year-old son on the Bunkerville allotment near the farm he purchased in 1949. Cliven’s mother, Bodel Jensen Bundy, had settled land near Mesquite. David and Bodel Bundy had moved their family from Mount Trumbull, Arizonz, where David was born in 1922.
1973
■ Cliven Bundy pays grazing fees to the BLM for the next 20 years.
1993
■ The BLM modifies Bundy’s grazing permit by reducing the size allowed for his herd to 150 and restricts where his cattle can graze in the Gold Butte area. He refuses the permit and stops paying grazing fees. The BLM cancels his permit.
1994
■ The BLM issues an order requiring Bundy to remove his cattle.
1995
■ The BLM issues another order requiring Bundy to remove his cattle.
1996
■ Nevada Legislature and voters, seeking to take control of federal land in the state, repeal the so-called Disclaimer Clause of the state’s 1864 constitution that had declared people in the territory “disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands.”
1998
■ U.S. District Court of Nevada issues an order to stop Bundy from grazing cattle on the Bunkerville allotment.
1999
■ The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the District Court’s permanent injunction.
2000
■ Cliven Bundy, whose grandparents, Abraham and Ella Bundy, settled in the Parashant area in 1877 near Mount Trumbull on the Arizona Strip, voices concern for President Bill Clinton establishing Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. He says it’s a land grab, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “The terrible thing about it is there is private property, customs and lifestyles” at stake.
2008
■ The Interior Board of Land Appeals hears Bundy’s appeal of the BLM’s cancellation of his range improvement authorizations and affirms the BLM’s decision.
2011
■ The BLM sends a cease-and-desist order to Bundy and a notice of intent to gather his cattle.
2012
■ The BLM conducts aerial surveys of the Gold Butte area and prepares to round up 500 to 900 cattle but suspends the operation indefinitely in April 2012 out of safety concerns for people involved with the roundup.
2013
■ The U.S. District Court of Nevada in July orders Bundy to remove his cattle from public land within 45 days and says the U.S. can seize and impound any remaining cattle.
■ The court reaffirms in October that Bundy has no legal right to graze the federal land and, again, directs him to remove his cattle within 45 days, ordering Bundy not to interfere with an impoundment action.
2014
■ The BLM issues a notice of intent to impound unauthorized livestock grazing on BLM and National Park Service lands on March 19.
■ Cliven Bundy’s son, Dave, is arrested April 6 by federal agents along state Route 170 and cited for misdemeanor refusing to disperse and resisting arrest. He is jailed then released the next day.
■ Militia members from across the United States converge on the Bundy ranch after Cliven Bundy’s son, Ammon Bundy, is shot with a stun gun April 9 during a scuffle with BLM rangers. No one is seriously hurt, and no arrests are made.
■ More than 300 cattle that had been rounded up and held in a corral are released April 12. The operation is canceled by the BLM out of safety concerns for employees. To avoid violence and restore order at the scene, officials in charge of the roundup decide not to stop the demonstrators’ release of the cattle.
2015
■ The Bundys hold a weekend barbecue and “Liberty Celebration” April 11 to mark the one-year anniversary of the standoff and release of their cattle.
■ Shots are fired June 5 near public land surveyors in Gold Butte. The FBI and Las Vegas police investigate the incident. Cliven Bundy says he and his son Ryan were hauling hay and talked to government contractors at Dudd Spring but denied he had anything to do with shots fired near the group’s campsite later that night. The BLM later tells its employees and contractors to stay out of the area.
2016
■ On Jan. 2, Ammon Bundy and his brother, Ryan, lead an armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns, Ore, to support two neighboring ranchers and protest the federal government’s management of millions of acres of wild lands.
— LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
