Montanans earlier this year rallied against a proposal in Congress to sell public lands, perceiving the effort, introduced as part of the "big, beautiful bill," as an attack on their way of life.

In Montana, the open frontier is valued as an emblem of freedom and possibility. So Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as secretary of the interior during the first Trump administration, rallied others in Congress to kill the proposal .

"It's not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an American issue," Zinke said. "And once you sell land, you're not going to get it back."

Why selling public land was proposed

The federal government owns and manages about 640 million acres of American land, most of it in the West and Alaska. In some states, such as Nevada, the vast majority of the territor

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