Erica Ritz reports at The Blaze:

Cliven Bundy, the last remaining rancher in Clark County, Nev., stands at the center of what has become a national controversy over the private use of federal land. He is focused on one big issue, he said in a radio interview with Glenn Beck on Monday: He doesn’t believe the land belongs to the federal government.

"I think this is very clarifying to people," Beck said. "Your stance is, 'I do not recognize these lands to be federal . . . I am staking out my claim that the United States government does not have any jurisdiction, and any rights to the land that [I am] now grazing on'."

"That’s right," Bundy said. "It's Nevada land."

"Bundy said he has 'no contract with the United States government,' and the federal government has 'no jurisdiction or authority' on his grazing rights, water rights, access rights, ranch improvement rights or anything else that 'belongs to "we the people" of Clark County'," the Blaze reports.

"The rancher took his argument back to the 19th century, when Nevada became a state," the Blaze continues. "According to him, the federal government did, in fact, control the land when Nevada was a territory. But, he claimed, when the territory became a state, the government turned that land over to the sovereignty of the state of Nevada, and thus the federal government lacks the power to control it today."

"At the moment of statehood, what happened?" Bundy is quoted as asking. "At the moment of statehood the people of the territory become people of the United States with the Constitution, with equal footing to the original 13 states. They had boundaries allowing them a state line. And that boundary was divided into 17 subdivisions, which were counties. Which I live in one of those counties, Clark County, Nevada."

"As a citizen of that county, I abide by all the state laws," Bundy said, according to The Blaze.