American Zion
Cliven Bundy, God & Public Lands in the West
Betsy Gaines Quammen
What happens when members of an American religion, one built in the nineteenth century on personal prophecy and land proprietorship, assert possession over western federal lands with guns and a certainty that God wants them to go to war? The answer is an ongoing and dangerous feud between Mormon ranchers, the federal government and the American public.
American Zion is an exploration of an incendiary land-use war, launched from Bunkerville, Nevada, an hour’s drive from Las, Vegas, by a man named Cliven Bundy and his large Mormon family. The Bundys are engaged in open conflict with America, a conflict traceable back to that time when the Latter-day Saints came west, bringing militant beliefs, some legitimate grievances, and their certainty of claiming a God-promised homeland. This homeland they called Zion. They found it and constructed it in the Great Basin, where Bundy’s ancestors and others claimed Native lands as their own. During their early years in the West, some Mormon people spilt blood defending their lands. And as evidenced by Cliven Bundy’s crusade, some are willing to do the same today. This book takes the reader through the early history of the Mormon church, the persecution of its members and a pervasive bitterness that became embedded, for the Mormon pioneers, in the very idea of Zion. These early convictions have endured, helping to fuel armed conflicts in Nevada and Oregon and a growing relationship between Mormon ranchers and the American militia movement.
Environment historian, Betsy Gaines Quammen, raises questions about various “truths” regarding public lands, our 640 million acres of national parks, monuments, refuges, forests and wilderness that we as Americans share. She takes the reader on a journey through the New West, one still haunted by nineteenth century white settlement, violence and an enduring sense of entitlement. Talking to folks in casinos, roadside diners, living rooms and on horseback, Quammen has come to understand that where Native people see sacred homeland, and others see playgrounds, the Bundys and their followers see proprietorship. By exploring the rights of Native people, the role of the Mormon church, the legend of the cowboy, the state of public lands and the women and men who depend upon them, Quammen demonstrates that Cliven Bundy’s war, one based on religious zealotry, is contributing to an ongoing lawlessness in the West. His is a campaign adding to the on-going degradation of our greatest asset, public lands, and one that could lead to more bloodshed—getting people killed over mythologies and freeloading cows.
“American Zion is a magnificent portrait of complexity, interrogating the collision between frontier thinking and the rising consciousness toward the climate crisis on public lands. Betsy Gaines Quammen has written a brilliant and electrifying story of how the historical settlement of Mormons in the rural west has evolved over time, gaining ground as a movement of resistance against federal lands, and threatening violence as a strategy. Gaines Quammen’s voice is bright, engaging, and smart. She listens. She is fair. But is not seduced by cowboy mythology. American Zion is more than a thesis on religion, it is an exploration of revolution. Her vision calls for an ecological wisdom that can govern our communities, both human and wild, with reverence and respect.”
—Terry Tempest Williams, author of Erosion
“Betsy Gaines Quammen has taken a deep, fascinating dive into a uniquely American brand of religious zealotry that poses a grave threat to our national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and other public lands. American Zion provides essential background for anyone concerned about the future of open space in the western United States. It also happens to be a delight to read.”
—Jon Krakauer, author of Under the Banner of Heaven
“What J. D. Vance did with Hillbilly Elegy to explain small–town Appalachian angst, Gaines Quammen has done with American Zion to help people understand the long and convoluted issues in the American West. With shades of Terry Tempest Williams, Barbara Kingsolver, and Ed Abbey, Gaines Quammen provides an in–depth and broad view of where America finds itself today.”
—Thane Maynard, co–author with Jane Goodall of Hope for Animals and Their World
“Every story of the West is ultimately a story about land. And to truly understand one of the most vivid stories of the contemporary West — that of Cliven Bundy — you have to read American Zion. Betsy Gaines Quammen has accomplished something I thought impossible: combining a rich historical account of the Mormon push West and the accompanying conception of “Zion” with clear-eyed reporting on the Bundys, including extensive first-hand access to the Bundy family. This book is like a skeleton key, unlocking so many complicated, and largely unquestioned, myths of the West. ”
—Anne Helen Petersen, senior culture writer, BuzzFeed News
“A fascinating primer on the twisted and nefarious legacy of theology, entitlement, conquest and patriarchy in the American West. Gaines Quammen offers indispensable reading for anyone who cares about the fate of the nation’s public lands.”
—Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix
“Historian Betsy Gaines Quammen recounts the history of Mormons in America to help us understand how a painful abyss has formed between some of that religion’s believers and management of national public lands in southern Arizona, Oregon, and Utah. Such understanding is essential for those of us working to cross that divide.”
—Mary O’Brien, author of Making Better Environmental Decisions
“A creative, deeply thoughtful work on the origins, dynamics, and consequences of the Bundy legacy.”
—Jedediah Rogers, author of Roads in the Wilderness
“I find the author’s sense of the tribal perspectives spot on and sensitive. I enjoyed American Zion immensely—Betsy is a great storyteller!”
—Walter Fleming, department head and professor of Native American Studies, Montana State University
“An empathetic and clear–eyed account of the intersections of faith, conservation, and Native rights in the skirmishes over Western public lands.”
—Andrea Avantaggio, Maria's Bookshop
“Well–researched and compelling…required reading for anyone seeking to understand the complicated contemporary American West. Gaines Quammen is a natural storyteller.”
—Ariana Paliobagis Country Bookshelf