First Advisor

Tim Alan Garrison

Term of Graduation

Spring 2008

Date of Publication

4-30-2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in History

Department

History

Language

English

Subjects

States' rights (American politics) -- 20th century, Political culture -- West (U.S.) -- 20th century, Human ecology -- Oregon -- History, Lumber trade -- Oregon -- History

Physical Description

1 online resource (3, iv, 238 pages)

Abstract

In the late 1980's and 1990's, many in Western rural communities, such as Grant County, Oregon, contended with a changing economy and environmental regulation that restricted their access to the federally-owned forests and grasslands that had provided their livelihood. Some responded by forming the county supremacy movement, which attempted to alter the nation's power structure so that individual counties, rather than the federal government, would be the primary jurisdictional entity. With counties in control, activists believed that local leaders would give them the right to use the resources that had been blocked by the federal government.

Through a variety of legal arguments and theories, county supremacy activists pursued their agenda, sometimes in concert with political allies on the extreme right. In their work, they echoed struggles through United States history that had questioned the boundaries of federal and state powers. Ultimately, similar to other historic fights for state and county rights, the legal and historical grounding of federal powers failed to affirm their goals. Their struggle nonetheless affirmed the culture of the West and the continuing American political tradition of fighting for local democracy and control.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44512

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