American Zion: Cliven Bundy, God and Public Lands in the West

Abstract

American Zion, according to historian Betsy Gaines Quammen in her recent book of that title, is both a place and an idea central to understanding the Bundy family, their brand of ideology, and the actions they took at Bunkerville and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge less than a decade ago. Quammen's account of the historical, religious, and intellectual contexts in which the Bundys operate is clearly and accessibly written for a general audience unfamiliar with the interior American West and its diverse array of public lands.Produced by Torrey House Press, a publisher known for works that unapologetically promote environmental activism, American Zion takes seriously the thoughts and rationale of the Bundys but does not hesitate to condemn their actions. Quammen's book sits alongside a growing body of work on the Bundys and public lands by the likes of journalists and scholars such as Peter Walker, Michael J. Makley, James Pogue, Christopher Ketcham, John Temple, Anthony McCann, James R. Skillen, Jacqueline Keeler, and John L. Smith.Quammen's contribution is positioning the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members (Latter-day Saints or Mormons) at the center of the story. Outside of the region the western writer Wallace Stegner called Mormon Country, it is difficult for Americans to imagine how important Latter-day Saints, their church, and their faith have been to the development to the interior American West. Mormon settlers built irrigation structures, developed ranching operations, and populated mining towns with permanent residents in the geography between the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Plateau, and the Mojave Desert. Quammen, as well as the LDS church itself, readily recognizes that settlement directly displaced and dispossessed Indigenous peoples, but her focus is on the mindset of those settlers. The Mormons of the past brought with them into Zion, the place where they believed God had granted them a homeland, a grudge against the federal government, a stubborn endurance despite constant persecution by mainstream Americans, a belief in the dominion of humans over nature as evidenced by irrigation projects and ranch operations, and a gun-toting militancy born of self-preservation. These are the tenants of faith, according to Quammen, to which the Bundys and others like them adhere.Mainstream Latter-day Saint doctrine today exhibits few of these early characteristics, and Quammen does an admirable job parsing the differences between past and present. But her emphasis on the continuum of belief between early Mormon leaders and the church's deeply conservative faction, represented by Ezra Taft Benson and Cleon Skousen, tie these leaders to other Christian fundamentalists. Catholic Paul Weyrich and Southern Baptists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, along with Benson and Skousen, adhered to the same tenants: that God is an active participant in the lives of individuals who often undergo faith-promoting experiences; the Constitution is divinely inspired but few truly understand its power; evil is actively at work in the world, and the federal government is held hostage by it; and the apocalyptic war against evil is coming and God's chosen must defend their faith, family, and freedom. Quammen takes these beliefs seriously and details how they manifested in the actions of people such as Cliven Bundy.For some readers, American Zion will not resonate. Those more familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will likely chafe at the emphasis on the fringe aspects of the religion. However, Quammen does counterweight her examination of the deeply conservative elements with descriptions of other Latter-day Saints of influence, such as the historian Juanita Brooks whose history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre accurately laid responsibility at the feet of church leaders; Senator Reed Smoot, who co-sponsored the legislation that birthed the National Park Service and Zion National Park; and environmental writers such as Gina Colvin, Joanna Brooks, George Handley, and Terry Tempest Williams.Similarly, environmental historians of the American West will notice the absence of literature that would have provided greater nuance to her discussion of multiple use on public lands, the development of recreational tourism, and the consequences of working landscapes intersecting with recreational ones in the rural West. Notably missing are Hal K. Rothman's Devil's Bargains (1998), Art Gomez's Quest for the Golden Circle (2000), Evelyn Schlatter's Aryan Cowboys (2006), Joseph Taylor's Persistent Callings (2019), and my own The Size of the Risk: Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin (2015).However, Quammen did not write American Zion for those already familiar with the history of Mormonism and the American West. Her audience is outside Utah and outside this region, and the book's utility is in helping those unfamiliar with this place and its past see beyond the caricatures.