NOW is the time for any who are NOT slave to the Oppressors to educate themselves and others in the History of the Dept. of the Interior —and the BLM —and the principles
these peaceful protesters were motivated to defend.That has been deliberately ignored as the Government and their lapdogs wanted this to be about “anti- Government” men with guns at a wildlife refuge. Ignoring the fact that the ONLY siege engine— the Only ones who denied the people any access—were the men with assault weapons and dressed in Combat uniform dress -who manned NAZI style checkpoints -and abused the people—and pushed
a white SUV into a kill Zone Ambush where they murdered an unarmed man who hands were up. until he was shot. Who shot him seven times and as he lay dying made obscene gestures — all because some evil woman said
these were NOT Patriots—but domestic Terrorists. Who invoked Terror— I suggest the armed men in black —not
the Patriots. Who killed someone who was NOT armed ? Oh yes that was the FBI—or maybe the OSP. Who treated those seeking a negotiated—and peaceful settlement with such contemptuous disrespect— Oh yes that would again be the FBI— and Government agents that besieged the community.Time to educate yourself America— or die an unarmed slave.
You are correct and here is a good article that explains a small part of what these ranch families have been through.
Up Front Spindled & Mutilated
By C.J. Hadley
Editor, Range Magazine
Hage. Gardner. Dann. Yowell. Colvin. Bundy. Tomera. Filippini. Borba. Hammond. Good hadleyranchers all, cowboys and Indians who had private property rights on federal land in the American West. All have been abused by federal agents of the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or the National Park Service. Some cattle have been taken at gunpoint, some ranch families have been destroyed, and the abuse was not earned.
The Hages—who have historic grazing preferences and property rights dating back to the 1860s in central Nevada—have been defending themselves against the government since 1979, and in court (Hage v. United States) since 1991. There have been major decisions in their favor. Judge Loren A. Smith, of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., ruled in 2010 that the government owed the Hages $14 million (including interest) under the “takings clause†of the 5th Amendment. Three members of the family have died since the case started and when it’s time to pay up, the Department of Justice brings out a new crop of highly paid lawyers to harass the Hages again. One Forest Service ranger said in the early ’90s: “Hage can’t win. We have more money and more lawyers.†Paid for by honest taxpayers! (Go to rangemagazine.com and click on Special Info/Hage at the bottom of the Home Page.)
In a recent trespass case brought by BLM and FS against the Hages, Federal District Court Judge Robert C. Jones ruled in favor of the family, noting that two agencies of the federal government entered into a “literal, intentional conspiracy to deprive the Hages not only of their permits but also their vested water rights. This behavior shocks the conscience of the Court.†DOJ appealed and the 9th Circuit overruled Judge Jones on Jan. 15, 2016. Next step: the Supreme Court.
But it isn’t just Hage. The Bundys in Bunkerville, Nev., were the last family standing after federal agents used the “endangered†desert tortoise to pressure 50 Clark County ranch families off their ranges. Cliven Bundy’s forebears had been running cattle on that southern desert since the 1800s and in 1991 he refused to sign a BLM grazing permit that would have destroyed his livelihood. Bundy was willing to pay fees but not commit ranch suicide. Sadly, BLM would not accept his fees without a signed permit and since that time BLM has euthanized excess desert tortoises.
But don’t forget the Hammonds in Oregon. Decades of relentless harassment by federal agents have put Dwight Hammond, 74, and son Steven, 46, in federal prison for five years each for “domestic terrorism.†Their crime? A controlled burn to improve the resource and a backburn to save their ranch and range from a lightning fire. While the Hammonds accidentally burned about 140 acres of public land in both fires and damaged nothing, federal agents burned millions of acres, destroyed homes, barns, fences and range, and killed livestock, horses and wildlife, with no reprimand or jail time.
BLM and FWS want the Hammond Ranch. The agencies have blocked the family’s stock waters and access roads to their high-country grazing land, canceled their legal grazing permits, and seem determined to destroy ranch and family so that they can add that private land to the 187,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (see map). Besides being locked up in California, the Hammonds had to pay $400,000 by Dec. 31, 2015, for destroying federal land and were forced to give first option on their ranch to the BLM—the agency working to destroy them.
At press time, Bundy sons, Ammon and Ryan, with armed friends, were protesting the Hammonds’ sentence, holed up in the refuge visitor center “until the Hammonds are set free.†Meanwhile, President Obama has released 195,900 felons early (some guilty of homicide, rape and kidnapping) while two good ranchers are languishing in prison.
CONTACT: C.J. Hadley, Editor, RANGE magazine,
P.O. Box 639, Carson City, NV 89702 1-775-884-2200 1-800-RANGE-4-U
edit@rangemagazine.com www.rangemagazine.com
BLM was created in 1947 by merging the Grazing Service with the General Land Office. That all changed with Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which defines how all the federal lands are managed.
Other Acts of Congress also come into play, for example: the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, to name a few.
On one hand, since passage of FLPMA, the number of grazing leases has been reduced, the number of acres being grazed has been reduced, and federal oversight of grazing has increased.
OTOH, since passage of FLPMA, there are a lot more recreational sites, coal and natural gas leases, wilderness areas and wilderness study areas, & archeological sites, to name a few.