The article contains inaccuracies and misleading information.
For instance it purposely conflates information about Bundy’s Ranch and the Bunkerville allotment.
*Early census records show Cliven’s maternal grandmother, Christena Jensen, was born in Nevada in 1901*
So from this we know that Bundy’s great-grandparents were settled in Nevada at least by 1901 and likely well before, whether that area was called Nevada or Arizona (see comment below).
*John was a Mesquite farmer.... the farm was near Main Street and a bridge over the Virgin River.*
Mesquite Flats was settled in 1880 by Mormons and flooded out three times by the Virgin River between 1880 and 1884. One of the few roads leading to Littlefield Village, AZ (Mt. Trumbull) orginates in Mesquite.
*Census records show that Cliven Bundy’s paternal great-grandfather, Illinois native Abraham Bundy, lived in Littlefield Village in Mohave County, Ariz., as early as 1900.*
from history of the Arizona strip: “In the extreme west on the Virgin River is the small settlement of Littlefield just off Interstate 15”
(as an aside, much of Clark county, NV was once part of the territory of Arizona but was sliced off by the gubment and given to Nevada, while the Arizona strip remained with Arizona)
So, from the two references given in the I-team geneological report, it’s a simple matter to independently substantiate that the Bundy ancestors were indeed, “up and down the Virgin River” for over a hundred years, just as Bundy claims his family was.
The US land management policy prior to 1946 was not on managing range, but on rapid disposal of public lands to private citizens. Section 5 of the Grazing Act of 1934 provided for free grazing on over 65 million acres of grazing districts, one of which appears to be the area claimed by Bundy.
(map of Taylor grazing districts is right on the BLM site, here: http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/field_offices/Casper/range/taylor.1.html )
When the Land Office merged with the BLM, it was several years before the BLM mission changed from disposal to active long-term management, and so several more years before the BLM got around to instituting grazing fees on lands that were outside Section 15 of the 1934 Grazing Act, that is, lands NOT originally designated at free grazing districts. Bundy’s claimed range does not appear to be outside the 1934 designated free grazing district.