Bundys resemble Clanton

Mormon ranchers buried Joseph Isaac “Ike” Clanton in the summer of 1887, after being shot through the heart, on his horse by Detective Jonas V. Brighton, who was on his trail for cattle rustling.

Ike Clanton was present at the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona; however, he was unarmed, got scared and ran away. Ike was a member of a loosely associated gang of outlaws, known as “The Cowboys,” who had many scrapes with the law, at that time, to include Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, as well as Doc Holliday. “The Cowboys” had a reputation for theft, cattle rustling, thuggery, and scaring and instilling fear in the local townsfolk. Intimidating the local county sheriff was the main goal.

Sounds eerily similar to the Cliven/Ammon Bundy Bunch, trying to carry on the Ike Clanton version of frontier justice, known as profiteering, due to a landscape of accepted lawlessness and planned confusion of the same. Sophisticated weapons and an intricate intelligence network, well organized and able to mobilize and act, using social networks, to come to the aid of an injured comrade or anyone who has disdain for the legal authority of the U.S. government.

Ike Clanton’s relatives, about 20 years ago, attempted to have his remains exhumed and reinterred at the famous Tombstone Boot Hill graveyard; however, city officials weren’t interested. Angry, confused and self-righteous outlaws, in a civilized society, tend to wear out their welcome pretty fast.

James Perkins

Colville