they'd been refusing to remove their cattle from public land near bunkerville, nevada. and owed over a million dollars in fees and fines. for 20 years, the government had been trying to phase out ranching in bunkerville to deal with development and environmental issues. some ranchers shut down, others took buyouts, but ammon's father, cliven bundy, refused. >> my dad said no. and when they come and said they're going to take it anyway, he said, "hell no! you're not going to take away what my grandfathers passed down to me." he said no. >> the issue with the bundy family started more than 20 years ago. >> narrator: steve ellis was a deputy director of the bureau of land management, the blm, which grants permits to ranchers to graze their cattle on public land. >> the u.s. government is a huge landlord in the west. inherently there's going to be conflicts and challenges for us in making decisions. blm was making a change in mr. bundy's permit. mr. bundy rejected that and stopped paying his grazing fees and that started the whole thing. >> the blm was threatening to decrea