Apparently, the Federal Goverment does not have a clue. Why am I not surprised. I feel sorry for the land owners that must pay attorney fees to fight to keep what is theirs and possibly lose.

This is in the local news down here quite a lot. Everyone is very sympathetic to the families along the 116-mile stretch of the river that is in question. Imagine how it must feel to have the government with its deep pockets (of taxpayer money) and endless resources coming after your land, especially when the land was deeded to your family decades ago and you have paid taxes on it all this time. As near as I can remember, this current battle has been going on for at least a couple of years now. I've followed it in the newspapers, on news media websites and in reporting done by publications like Texas Monthly magazine.

They may be picking a fight with the wrong state. Speaking as a native Texan, I know from experience that Texans (proudly) can be ornery and cantankerous and don't like being pushed around. Many people in Texas distrust the feds strongly and will not let themselves be steamrolled. Texas was once an independent nation before it became a state and that independant spirit still runs through Texan's souls like a hidden birthright.

The state of Texas likes to stand up to federal agency power plays and now that the state attorney general's office is officially involved in this, the families have the backing and support of the state, which I think is a good thing. No matter what happens in the next round of court hearings, I suspect this fight over the land will go on for many years, unless the BLM drops this ridiculous nonsense.

We Okies need to keep an eye on this. If the BLM can come in and take land from Texans based on the premise that it once was Indian land that could not/should not have been deeded to the families that bought it, what does that mean for the many Oklahomas who live on land that was tribal land at one time? Will the BLM randomly come after land in Oklahoma, or Kansas, or New Mexico, or whatever, if they win in Texas?

This sort of behavior by the BLM is nothing new. In a complicated legal matter that involved Indian land deeded over to OK counties for cemetaries, the payment of oil royalties from oil pumped out from under that land, the BLM and local county governments, the BLM sent lawyers down here decades ago to try to "clean up" the titles of land deeded to each Oklahoma county for burying grounds. No one in the BLM cared that the counties had title to that land until oil was discovered and royalties were being earned. Then the BLM came and tried to come back and finagle the titles to the land in a somewhat secretive or underhanded manner so the BLM could get the oil royalties. I'm proud to say that our then County Attorney, the Honarable Ken Bacon (later an Oklahoma judge) didn't fall for it, wouldn't sign the BLM documents and did not let the BLM steal our oil royalties. If local legend is correct, ours was the only county that didn't roll over and play dead and let the BLM hoodwink it out of land and money that rightfully belonged to the county, and that money from the oil royalties carried our county coffers through some otherwise very lean years. I'm hoping that the Texas landowners and the state of Texas have someone with Mr. Bacon's smarts and gutsiness to help them successfully stand up to this land grab and win this round with the BLM.

Maybe we can find a fast-talking Texas shyster who can convince the BLM lawyers that they are at the wrong Red River and that they need to go to the Red River of the north, and not the Red River of the south.

Just one more reason why the Federal gubmint shouldn't be allowed to own land that doesn't have a military base or agency building on it.

You know what. It wasn't the BLM in the county oil royalties case. It was the Bureau of Indian Affairs, so I wanted to correct that. Same problem, though. Coming back decades after the fact and trying to take away something they think is or should be theirs even though it isn't.

osuengineer, I agree with you. I always thought the IRS was the most-hated govt agency, but as I've gotten older, it seems like the BLM beats them by a mile. It thinks it can come and take away anything it wants from anyone it wants. This is just so wrong.

Dawn

All,

I'm a little smarter now. (;-)

Johnny

Jealousy pits those without such land acreage to reason justification for BLM's murderous trail. Only when these experience the hand of the bullying feds will we ever have a chance to take back our country and its land.