How old battles over land, power and identity continue to shape the West’s politics

A group of legislators, industry representatives, and local citizens gathered in 1980 to advocate for wresting control of millions of acres of Western public lands from the federal government. The movement evolved into a national force, with Ronald Reagan as a proponent, though the administration did not enact sweeping land ownership changes. Concerns over federal land management persisted. By 2016, this struggle became entangled in a right-wing anti-government movement championed by Donald Trump, which culminated in actions like the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and the gutting of protections for national monuments in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Local residents experienced tensions regarding land use, as seen with concerns over mining proposals and the designation of monuments, which highlighted existing economic decline and shifting identities within the region.

The narrative traces a trajectory where localized regional grievances over land management—rooted in economic transitions and shifting community identities—are mobilized into broader political ideologies. The initial friction surrounding public lands and resource extraction provided a foundation that was later co-opted by broader right-wing, anti-government narratives. This process reveals how abstract concerns about land ownership are actively refracted into specific questions of political identity, particularly concerning Indigenous relations, as illustrated by the profile of Markwayne Mullin and the tensions surrounding federal policies like the shrinking of Bears Ears. The persistence of these anxieties suggests that political change is not inevitable but is actively being determined in the present moment. A key pattern is the use of foundational "origin stories"—the historical grievances of the rebels—to frame contemporary political battles, often flattening complex regional dynamics into a binary struggle between established power and emergent resistance. The implication for agency is that understanding these historical roots is crucial for recognizing how current political maneuvers are deployed to shape community identity rather than simply reflecting an unfolding reality. What structures allow historical resentments to be continuously repurposed as potent drivers for present-day political action?