Cliven Bundy wasn't born before his family entered into the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act permit or lease for the old Bunkerton allotment.
After he quit paying grazing fees to the BLM, and the BLM went to court in 1998 to terminate his lease for nonpayment of grazing fees, Cliven Bundy tendered a payment to Clark County for eighteen head of cattle, not the 900-1,100 he was grazing. Clark County rejected the payment because they were not authorized to accept grazing fees on BLM grazing lands.
If you have evidence or specifics on the oft-repeated "pre-dating the BLM" claim, which undercuts the Bundys' "we bought the grazing rights in the late 1880s" claim, I would sincerely be interested in seeing it.
But the rancher who did write it said that in 1993 Mr. Bundy was one of those whose NUMBER OF CATTLE allowed to graze was unfairly, drastically cut. And if the number of cattle using the water rights dropped the water rights (state) would be lost. The cuts would have put him out of business.