Raymond Yowell

[Plane]

Yowell's 132 head of cattle had grazed for decades on the South Fork Western Shoshone Indian Reservation in northeastern Nevada until 2002, when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) -- the same agency at odds with Bundy -- seized them. The federal agency sold the cattle at auction and used the proceeds to pay off the portion of back grazing fees it claimed Yowell owed. Once the cattle was sold, the agency sent Yowell a bill for the outstanding balance, some $180,000. They've been garnishing his monthly Social Security checks since 2008 to satisfy the debt Yowell says he does not owe.



While Bundy is defying the federal agency over fees for grazing cattle on government-owned land, Yowell's cattle had roamed reservation land. But a 1979 Supreme Court decision held that even land designated for Indian reservations is held in trust for them, and thus subject to BLM regulation. Yowell says treaties that led to creation of the reservation granted him and other herdsmen the right to graze cattle on the land, which they did successfully for decades. The Western Shoshone say they have never relinquished their right to the territory.


"There’s a definite pattern in the West, beginning in the 1990s, maybe in the late '80s, of what I feel are illegal cattle seizures," Yowell said. "[Bundy's case] is the latest example of that pattern.”




“His feeling is that he’s acquired certain rights and now his rights are being violated by the Bureau of Land Management,” Yowell said. “But I have Indian rights, treaty rights that he doesn’t have.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/22/nevada-rancher-former-indian-chief-range-war-with-blm-predates-cliven-bundy/




   Mr. Bundy need not feel like the Lone Ranger, cases of even more egregious government behavior against ranchers are not rare.

    Mr. Bundy is fighting in a different way , appealing to the public rather than fighting in the court.

  This might be his best choice , the law isn't with him , but the people might be sympathetic.

   I am pretty sure that Mr. Bundy will loose in court, but there are also ranchers loosing in court who really should not be. The public might start working for them.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The government surely told him prior to the seizure that he owed them money.  There is a lot missing from this story.

[Plane]

Yes ,you are right.

Who is trustworthy to tell us the missing part?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Whoever posted this blurb, Yowell may not have told the whole story, either.

[Plane]

Yowell may not have told the whole story, either.

That is always a possibility.

The facts offered might have a few more facts somewhere to round out the picture , but I don't know about them .

The facts presented are that the Federal government charges a lot for grazing rights , even if the land is on a reservation.

So not only are we outlawing the cowboy way, we are doing a number on the Indians too.

[Xavier_Onassis]

If the cowboy is freeloading on government land, then they are outlawing the cowboy way.

My reaction to Yowell is that the story is too incomplete to take seriously. Probably it is abotu Indians grazing off the reservation.