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Large Crowd Greets Cliven and Ryan Bundy in Sanders County

‘Freedom and Property’ rally one of Bundy’s first public appearances after being released from jail

By Justin Franz
Cliven Bundy speaks during the "Freedom and Property" rally in Paradise on Jan. 20. Justin Franz | Flathead Beacon.

PARADISE — Cliven and Ryan Bundy, father and son cattle ranchers who made national headlines during two separate standoffs with federal law enforcement in Nevada and Oregon, railed against perceived overreach of the federal government during an hours-long rally in Sanders County on Jan. 20.

The Bundys were the main attraction at the “Freedom and Property” rally in Paradise organized by a group called the Coalition of Western Property Owners. The event was one of the first appearances by Cliven Bundy since he was released from jail earlier this month after a federal judge dismissed charges against the 71-year-old man because prosecutors failed to share evidence in the case with the defense.

Other speakers included Republican state Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, and Shawna Cox, one of the defendants in the armed occupation and standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon led by Ammon Bundy, Cliven Bundy’s other son.

Cliven Bundy led an armed standoff against federal agents trying to seize his cattle in 2014 after the Bureau of Land Management said he had been grazing his animals on federal lands without paying the proper fees. Bundy and his sons have stated they believe the federal government is mismanaging public lands in the West and have called for more state and local control of public lands.

“Many people want to call us anti-government, but that’s not true. We support the government when it acts properly,” Ryan Bundy said. “But the (federal) government is acting like an empire and it is not protecting our rights … It’s not what the founding fathers wanted.”

Ryan and Ammon Bundy led another armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 in response to the imprisonment of two area ranchers convicted of arson. The ranchers, Dwight and Steven Hammond, said they started the fires on federal land because they were trying to kill invasive plants. Ryan and Ammon were eventually arrested along with more than two-dozen other occupiers and charged with felonies. Both men were eventually acquitted at trial. Ryan and Ammon were also charged with crimes resulting from the 2014 standoff in Nevada along with their father, but those charges were dropped earlier this year due to due process violations.

More than 200 people packed the gymnasium at the Old Paradise School for the event, which stretched on for more than four hours. Roxsanna Ryan, mother of Jake Ryan, a Plains man who participated in the Oregon standoff and was eventually convicted of destroying government property, served as the emcee of the event. She helped organize the event in order to spotlight how “freedom is being robbed in the West.”

Fielder, a Republican first elected to office in 2012, said she believed the federal government was out of touch with most people in the West. In the past, she has supported efforts to transfer federal land to the state as a way to promote local control.

Ryan Busse, the national board chair of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and a Kalispell resident, said Fielder’s views are radical and that any land transfer could result in a loss of public access. Busse and a number of other public land advocates attended the rally and spoke out against the speakers during a question and answer period.

“These are twisted interpretations of American constitutional law,” Busse said during a break between speakers. “They’re twisting the law to cover up ongoing crimes and the outright theft of public land.”

Busse was particularly critical of Fielder’s presence at the rally.

“It’s shocking that a sitting state senator from a major political party would endorse the lawlessness of the Bundy family,” he said.

Most of the attendees at the event appeared to support the Bundy family and their criticism of the federal government. Terry Phillips drove from Corvallis to attend the rally. He said he is concerned about federal overreach occurring in Montana.

“The government is out to steal these ranchers’ lands,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Cliven Bundy was the final speaker of the night. Wearing a pin that said “Not Guilty,” Bundy said that in his view, the federal government’s only duties were to protect the United States from foreign threats and deliver the mail. In his opinion, local county and state governments are the only legitimate authorities in the West.

“The federal government can’t tell us how to graze, they can’t tell us how to cut our timber and they can’t tell us how to mine our mines,” he said.