I came across this story today, and it's the first I've heard of it but it just goes to show how young the Western United States really is.
I guess neither the US nor Nevada has ever settled the deal over that land that Bundy's ranch sits on. A lot of land was simply stolen from Native Americans but I guess that land was part of a reservation by treaty. Belonged to the Shoshone, or maybe the right word is belongs. There was a deal and paperwork if you know what I mean.
Now I'm not one to get all righteous about things that happened long ago, and everyone who had anything to do with the encroachment or who lost land is now long in the grave but it wasn't that long ago. And the US tried to pay off the Shoshone back in the 70s. The Shoshone didn't take the money, land wasn't for sale.
I often think of things in terms of what my dad or grandfather experienced, people I've met. Things that happened to my grandfather who was born in the 1800s don't seem so long ago. Well there are a couple of Shoshone women who passed in the 1980s who used to protest what was done on their land, and I was thinking these women who were in their 80s might well of known people from back in that time. Makes it seem not so long ago.
I'm certainly not one to blame the sins of the father and all that, Bundy didn't take anyone's land, guy who ranches next door is a Paiute as I remember reading, and all ranchers in the area have the same problems, but it sure make you think.
Disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I've never spent any time in this area. Most of my walking in Nevada was a couple hours due E of Vegas and a little bit around Ely. Don't know much about the people or land thereabouts.