First an historical snippet of the white man in the US Southwest. 1847 “Brigham Young leads first company of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley, beginning the settlement of communities throughout the Great Basin. At the time, the territory was part of Mexico.”
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo :
It gave the United States the Rio Grande boundary for Texas, and gave the U.S. ownership of California, and a large area comprising New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of relocating to Mexico or receiving American citizenship with full civil rights; over 90% remained.
1864 (10/31/64) – Nevada admitted to the Union.
Third. That the people inhabiting said territory do agree and declare, that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within said territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States; and that lands belonging to citizens of the United States, residing without the said state, shall never be taxed higher than the land belonging to the residents thereof; and that no taxes shall be imposed by said state on lands or property therein belonging to, or which may hereafter be purchased by, the United States, unless otherwise provided by the congress of the United States.
1867 – NBC News report “Congress transfers the northwestern corner of the Arizona Territory to Nevada, including what is now Clark County.” (A state boundary and not an ownership change to federal lands.)
1877 – Bunkerville, NV established by Mormon polygamous pioneers from the Utah territory (not admitted to the Union until 1896). Pioneer leader Edward Bunker left in 1901 to establish a new Mormon colony, Colonia Morelos, Sonora, Mexico.
Cliven Bundy claims that his ancestors began ranching in and around Bunkerville shortly after it was founded. If there were any early Bundy ancestors in Bunkerville, I can’t find them. But his mother’s ancestors stretch back to Dudley Leavitt and James William Huntsman and they were there in Bunkerville’s early days. However, as his maternal ancestors had very large families and the Mormon culture is patriarchal, it’s difficult to accept that ranch land and homesteads were passed down through several generations of women to Cliven Bundy.
The Mormon Bundy clan seem to originate with Cliven’s great-grandfather was Abraham Bundy (1859 -1946 born in Illinois and died in Mt. Trumbull, AZ) married Ella Anderson (1865-1946 born Illinois; died St. George, Utah)
His grandfather (Abraham’s son) was Roy Bundy (1885-1959 – born Willow Island, Dawson, Nebraska. Married Doretta Iversaon (1987-1977 born and died in Utah) Grandma Doretta Bundy recorded her memories.
[visited Bunkerville for dances]…
About that time (1901) many people moved to Old Mexico Abraham Bundy moved his family down there. A few years later, Martin my older brother, followed them and married Lillie Belle Bundy and brought her back to Arizona. Then in about two years Roy Bundy came up to see his sister and his old stomping ground. I was eighteen at that time. … Roy and I exchanged letters during the next two years, and in the fall of 1907 on September 5, we were married in the St. George Temple, and moved to Mexico.[1912]…the U. S. Government gave all the refugees transportation any where in the U. S. that they wished to go to, we moved to Oregon, too, but only stayed there a couple of months before deciding to move to Kaolin, Nevada. …
From there they moved to Mt. Trumbull, AZ in 1916 where Cliven’s father David Ammon Bundy was born. And where they seemed to have stayed until sometime in the 1940s. David Bundy (1922-1997; buried Bunkerville, NV) married Margaret Bodel Jenson.
What’s with all these rightwingers parsing the US and Nevada Constitutions to support Cliven Bundy’s phony ancestral claim? Perhaps we could consider what some of his ancestors may have been doing before 1880?
By 1870, native resistance had been largely quelled by Mormon paramilitary action, the “Treaty of Mount Trumbull” and the establishment of several Paiute reservations.
Update #1 – Validation of my call: Bundy’s Ancestral Rights Come Under Scrutiny.
…Clark County property records show Cliven Bundy’s parents moved from Bundyville, Arizona and bought the 160 acre ranch in 1948 from Raoul and Ruth Leavitt.
Water rights were transferred too, but only to the ranch, not the federally managed land surrounding it. Court records show Bundy family cattle didn’t start grazing on that land until 1954.
Note: Mt. Trumbull and Bundyville are the same place.
There’s more about Cliven Bundy’s bs in the above linked 8NewsNow report. It also fleshes out the true ancestral land issue:
The local Paiute Indians were forced into reservations by federal troops in 1875. Two years prior, the tribe was promised the same land Cliven Bundy now grows his melons ,and until recently, grazed his cattle.
