Just a few days after an Oregon Trooper took the life of Lavoy Finicum, of the Occupy Oregon movement, the media has painted Finicum and many who joined the fight for public land rights, as radical terrorists. This popular depiction of the occupiers was shattered during an interview of Adrian Sewell, a rancher from New Mexico, on the James T. Harris show last week.
Sewell, who referred to the late Finicum as “Dad,” told Harris that the occupation finally gave ranchers “a voice.”
Sewell described himself as a rancher, who left his home state of Texas to live out his dream of living on a remote ranch. He and his wife and began living their dream when they found their perfect spot in New Mexico.
Before they could start truly enjoying the fruits of their labor, they were showered by the countless issues faced by ranchers all across the west. It didn’t take long, after signing a contract with the U.S. Forest Service for a grazing allotment in the Gila in southwest New Mexico, for Sewell to realize the full measure of the power of the federal government and stifling its regulations could be.
“I was born in Texas and raised there,” explained Sewell to Harris. “After I was married my wife and I decided that we wanted to get away and live further out, remote, and so we started looking for ranches in the west. We found our dream ranch and started living our dream James, and suddenly we are bombarded by all these issues that face all ranchers in the west. So we began to scratch our heads – I guess – and thought maybe we bought into the wrong dream. And so we started ranching and bought in to an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to a grazing allotment in the Gila in southwest New Mexico. As these issues started arising I just thought I couldn’t sit back and watch my livelihood stripped away. I just got started on this endeavor. So that is when I started becoming proactive.”
After Sewell looked into the plight of ranchers, and watched ranchers be bullied off of the land,” by the federal government, he was led to Finicum.
Finicum was a trustworthy God-fearing person, who seemed to best express the plight of ranchers, according to Sewell. Part of that plight is the looming threat of removal from their land; an end to their livelihood and way of life.
“So when I reached out to him and when I finally met him eventually in Oregon I saw that all those things and all those opinions that I had formed of him were more. And that he was actually more than that. First of all, God was first and foremost in his life. Second would be family.” Sewell detailed what he took away from Finicum, “Lavoy played a special role in all of this and he sacrificed as we learned today, the most. And I am honored to be taking up and trying to push forth the trail that he was blazing ahead and I know that all he ever wanted was for young men and women or whoever to be able to ranch and farm and live their dream and be protected under the law and be able to do that.”
Finicum would not be a man who would taunt or goad those who opposed his way of thinking, according to Sewell. “He was uplifting and moving to be around. Just his charisma shined through. His smile, his posture. He wasn’t screaming or taunting or provoking anything. In fact, I only ever saw him carry an old cowboy six shooter. That’s all I ever saw Mr. Finicum with. He wasn’t calling for any violence at all. In fact if you watched his social media it is the exact opposite. He wanted peace. He wanted the people that are on the land to be able to exercise their multiple uses. Whether that be hunting, hiking, grazing, fishing. It doesn’t matter. And that is what the protest was about. It’s public land and everybody has a hobby and it is for multiple use”
Sewell said he hoped people would try to understand what it is like “when you’ve been regulated off of something that you have the right to and you have a contract.” He hoped people would understand why people would start to get upset when their property is getting threatened.”
Sewell said protests are not something he and other ranchers, who are generally the stoic types who grin and bear life’s ups and downs. He was surprised by the portrayal of the ranchers by the media as wild-eyed radicals because he said he found just the opposite in Oregon. “In fact, I saw, and met, and prayed, with ranchers that went back and forth. Ranchers from Idaho and people from Oregon and people from Harney County. And they would come and go and visit and all for the same reason that I did and that was to see what is the message? And its multiple use. Its public land. And no one is trying to take that away. And other ranchers in that community, they support it 100 percent.”
He explained that he cancelled his U.S. Forest Service contract, as a statement of protest. “In fact, the night that I signed to cancel my contract a local rancher Tom Davis came right in and signed his and also that same night seven ranchers from Utah and one from Arizona signed the same commitment I did to cancel their contract. So this isn’t just me, this isn’t just a few people. This is the ranching community. This resonates with them and they are such a small community that this finally gave them a voice. They don’t have a voice! I mean how does a rancher like me get on a radio show? I wouldn’t be on here today if it wasn’t for Mr. Finicum and Ryan and Ammond Bundy taking a stand.”
Many in the ranching community believed that Finicum and the others were lured to their death. The video of his final moments shows little detail, yet despite this many have already decided that it was either justified or murder.
While the media tries to avoid the story, and the humanity of the occupiers’ altogether, the point of the occupation is ignored as well.
“I think the message is that we want to send to everybody is about freely using public land. There is not any rancher saying that they want to lock down land or stop people from recreating, or hunting, or whatever the case may be. I just think everybody should know that we especially do not want any violence whatsoever. That is the last thing on anybody’s mind. To be painted as a terrorist is pretty disheartening.”
Sewell quoted Madison in a statement he released when he cancelled his U.S. Forest Service contract: “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.”
Given the biases against the people of the west, it could be that the goal of the ranchers’ is misunderstood. When Madison wrote of the end, he was not referring to the end of the federal government, but of what its goal should be; justice. Justice should be the end goal of government. In the end one must hope that the people of the west will have their day in court, and that justice will be served.
Until then, it is only fair that the public and the media reserve judgment on LaVoy Finicum until all of the facts of that fateful day are known.