When Hate Inhabits Space:
The Aryan Nation’s use of Free Space in Idaho
and the State’s Refusal to be defined by the White Power Movement
Kathleen Powers
History 400
University of Puget Sound
Professor Doug Sackman
May, 13, 2011
1
In the mid 1900’s the Northwest United States was seen as a spacious, fertile, and
tranquil land. While many people revered the area for its natural beauty and open spaces, there
were also those who valued the region for its low level of inhabitation, and in particular, its
relatively homogeneous, Caucasian, population. The majority of individuals who valued the
Northwest for these culturally and racially focused reasons were part of the White Power
Movement, a group that believes in the superiority of the white race and is continually waging an
underground war of ideology that espouses the complete power of the white race. As expressed
by a prominent leader of the movement by the name of Richard Butler, members of the White
Power Movement believed that, “if we’re going to live as a people, we must return back to the
discipline and to the life law, which was given only to us, it was not given to Africa, it was not
given to Asia, it was not given to the Mongols of the earth, it was given to the noble people.”1
The noble people in this case were the “pure Aryan” members of the White Power Movement,
who felt entitled to use the Northwest United States to reclaim their “discipline and life law”.
Beginning in the 1940’s, white power activists began to migrate to the Northwest to
utilize the largely uninhabited tracts of land as secure bases from which to practice and promote
white supremacy. These places, in which individuals gather and use space for the promotion of
racist activism, are commonly referred to as Aryan free spaces. Criminologist and sociologist,
Pete Simi and Robert Futrell use the term free space as a way to describe these settings, in which
marginalized groups gather to express beliefs, which may stray from, and be considered
unacceptable, in mainstream society.2 This classification of space, as a place in which to form
1
Aryan Nations, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, “Aryan Nations Congress”
(1994: Hayden Lake, Idaho) University of Chicago Library. VidCass F 755.A1C55 1994 c.1 Film
2
Pete Simi and Robert Futrell, American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movements
Hidden Spaces of Hate (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2010), 2.
2
collective identity, is an integral part of sustaining the White Power Movement and has played an
especially important role in the history of the movement in the Northwest.
In the past the White Power Movement in the Northwest has been maintained through
supporters of the Christian Identity Movement. The Christian Identity Movement is based on
theological justification for white superiority through interpretation of the Bible. People of the
Christian Identity Movement feel that nonwhites, including Jews, blacks, Latinos, Asians, and
other non-Caucasian peoples are not fully human, and further, that they are the ultimate evil on
earth. In the 1970’s, prominent Christian Identity representatives started to settle in Idaho
because its rural areas offered safety from police surveillance and isolation from mainstream
culture. In addition to the geographic benefits that the area possessed, members of the Christian
Identity Movement were also drawn to the state because the increasing population of White
Power activists in the area offered the promise of moral support and mutual aid. In 1971 Richard
Butler, an extremely committed and influential individual involved in the White Power
Movement, established the Church of Jesus Christ Christian and moved his congregation to
Northern Idaho. In Hayden Lake Idaho, Butler formed the Aryan Nations compound on 20-acres
of previously uninhabited land. Butler and members of his congregation lived at the compound
and welcomed fellow White Power and Aryan Nations supporters to worship and practice their
unique beliefs with them in a space which was relatively free from the outside influence of
government, non-whites, and mainstream culture. At its pinnacle, the Aryan Nations included
eighteen official “state offices”, with chapters in additional states and a following of thousands.3
3
Anti-Defamation League, Aryan Nations/Church of Jesus Christ Christian,
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/aryan_nations.asp (Accessed April 23, 2011).
3
For a period of time the Hayden Lake compound also held yearly “World Congress” gatherings
for white supremacists from across the United States and Europe.
From 1970-2001 the Aryan Nations compound served as an Aryan free space in which
members could congregate and express their beliefs openly without fear of the repercussions that
their ideology threatened to evoke in the mainstream culture. However, the presence of the
Aryan Nations compound extended its influence beyond the circle of its supporters and began to
have a great impact on the community of Hayden Lake, Idaho. From 1974 to 2001, inhabitants
of the Aryan Nation compound threatened and physically harmed members of the Hayden Lake
community as they carried out acts of racism and bigotry that ranged from defilement of property
to the bombing of the federal court building in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Idaho faced an influx of
white supremacist residents and with them an increase in hate crimes and a general sentiment of
growing racism. As the Aryan Nations influence became more prominent, the people of Idaho
had to confront the growing image of their state as an Aryan homeland that permitted racism and
bigotry to run rampant.
Although Butler and the Aryan Nations compound functioned as an Aryan free space for
several decades, the Hayden Lake community made a continuous statement that the White Power
Movement’s ideology and acts of hatred would not be permitted in the state without
repercussions. Through the acts of individual community members, the Kootenai County Task
Force (KCTF), and legislation enacted by the state government, Idaho was eventually able to
force the demise of the Aryan Nations and hold its individual members responsible for acts of
terrorism that had been committed throughout the years. By eliminating the infrastructure of
the Aryan free space embodied by the Aryan Nations compound, the people of Idaho were
able to effectively reduce the acts of hate and bigotry in their community, reclaim their
4
state’s reputation and reduce the support of the White Power Movement in the Northwest
United States. In doing so, the Hayden Lake community also transformed itself from a
region that passively supported the White Power Movement, into a community that
embraces diversity and equal rights for people of all races, nationalities, and faiths.
This paper will document the rise and fall of the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden
Lake Idaho, and will analyze how Richard Butler’s use of free space was an effective way in
which to strengthen the Aryan Nations as an active extremist organization. I will then discuss
how this effective use of free space allowed Richard Butler and various members of the Aryan
Nations to carry out acts of hatred and racial harassment in the Hayden Lake community. I will
analyze how the Kootenai County Task Force, and concerned individuals in the Hayden Lake
community, made the determined decision to fight back against the Aryan Nations and refused to
let Idaho become defined by the White Power Movement. Lastly I will explain how the actions
of these individuals have had a lasting impact in the State of Idaho and throughout the United
States.
White Power Movement
Racism and White Supremacy are concepts ingrained in the history of the United States,
however they are usually thought of as problems of the past, which no longer warrant concern in
our society. The issues and events most commonly associated with racial inequality and
prejudice in our country are those such as colonization, slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement.
However, in focusing solely on issues of the past, Americans neglect to see the influence that
white supremacy and racism have had over the past several decades and that they continue to
have in society. The White Power Movement, although relatively invisible, has remained active,
and continues to influence race relations in the United States.
5
Over time, the White Power Movement has transformed from the general ideology of
white supremacy into a social movement with concrete beliefs regarding race relations in the
United States. Members of the White Power Movement hold a common ideology and believe
that they are in a struggle for power of the government and mainstream culture in the United
States. In their essay “Overview of U.S. White Supremacist Groups”, political scientists, Chip
Berlet and StanislavVysotsky explain how social movements are based on narratives that are
created to teach members and prospective members “what is to be admired and what it is to be
opposed.”4 The White Power Movement is made up of many different groups, however, Berlet
and Stanislav assert that each of these groups is organized by a common framework that relies on
the three broad concepts of conspiracism, dualism, and apocalypticism. Conspiracism is the idea
that the majority of history and the present have been shaped by conspiracies that benefit elite
groups; these elite groups are, in the eyes of white supremacists, members of society who are
non-white and/or of a faith other than Christianity. Because these groups have different values
and ideologies, they are seen as evil groups of the world that seek to oppress and control the
members of the White Power Movement. Dualism stems from this idea and holds that the world
is divided into good and evil, the good being white, heterosexual, Christian men and women, and
the evil being anyone who differs from this mold. Apocalypticism is the theory that there is to
be an inevitable confrontation between these forces of good and evil. This confrontation will
change the nature of the world and bring about the truths, which have always been evident to
white supremacist individuals.5
4
Stanislav Vysotsky, and Chip Berlet, “Overview of U.S. White Supremacist Groups"
Journal of Political and Military Sociology 34, no. 1 (2006): 12.
5
Vysotsky and Berlet, 13.
6
Though each of the sects of the White Power Movement have differing beliefs and
ideologies, the majority of them are based on this general framework which emphasizes the
collective identity of the Aryan race and white supremacists. This collective identity serves to
protect individuals from the alienation and victimization that can be an imagined or real
consequence of openly belonging to the White Power Movement in the United States. Many of
the groups that make up the White Power movement also rely on a strong religious faith to
support and justify their beliefs and subsequent actions. One such subsection is the Christian
Identity Movement, whose members believe that nonwhites are evil incarnate and racial violence
is an act of God. Simi and Futrell explain this deep seated racism: “They see blacks, Latinos,
Asians, and other nonwhites as lower-order subspecies of ‘pre-Adamic mudpeople’ and,
therefore, not fully human.”6 The history of the Christian Identity Movement dates back to the
early 1900’s and is closely associated with the Ku Klux Klan. The movement was modernized
by Wesley Swift, who, in the 1940’s, established a church and radio broadcast in California,
from which he was able to preach the importance of white supremacy and have his message
heard by large audiences.7 When Swift passed away in 1971, his church was taken over by
Richard Butler, who established the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, which he claimed to be the
successor to Swift’s doctrine.
After taking over the church, Butler moved his congregation to Northern Idaho were he
established the Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake. Butler, along with a group of
members of his congregation, lived on the compound and followed the Aryan Mantra, otherwise
6
7
Pete Simi and Robert Futrell, American Swastika, 12.
Center for Studies on New Religions, full text of the FBI Report “Project Megiddo”,
http://www.cesnur.org/testi/FBI_006.htm#Anchor-III-43266 (November 3 1999), (Accessed March 20, 2011).
7
known as the 14-words, which states “We must secure the existence of our people and a future
for white children.”8 This idea that the white race must be kept pure dates back to the early
1900’s, a time during which many Americans were preoccupied with miscegenation and the
possibility that interracial marriages and reproduction would jeopardize the future of the white
race. In Peggy Pascoe’s book, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of
Race in America, we can see an idea that is similar to the Aryan mantra in the views of Walter
Plecker, a physician working for the Virginia Bureau of Vital Statistics. Plecker comments on
the intermixing of races and “mulatto” children, saying, “the future of the white race and its
civilization in America, and the welfare of our children are in the keeping of this generation.
Shall we rise to the situation and save our country from the terrible calamity which awaits us if
we are indifferent?”9 Butler and the members of the Aryan Nations believed that Americans had
already failed in this mission to ensure the future of the white race and had allowed the United
States to become impure and controlled by a Zionist occupied government. By recruiting
followers, the Aryan Nations believed that they could regain control of the country and instill
white supremacy in the United States once again.
Richard Butler chose Hayden Lake as the ideal place for his compound due to its relative
seclusion from mainstream culture and the safety that it offered from interaction with nonwhites.
In a 1989 interview for Idaho Public Broadcasting, Barbara Pulling asked Butler, what has
compelled native Idahoans to join the Aryan Nations? Butler replied “preservation of their
people. You take anybody who has ever left Idaho and went to any other part of the country,
8
9
Simi and Futrell, 17.
Peggy Pascoe, What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 141.
8
New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, they come back here and
say, ‘Boy, it’s pretty nice to be back in a white man’s country again’.”10 From 1974-2001 the
Aryan Nations compound was home to Butler and a number of his followers who worshipped
and planned recruitment strategies to build their following.
The compound itself was rather unimpressive and derelict in appearance. The settlement
was set back from the main highway in a sheltered stand of pines. The physical structures
consisted of a farmhouse, an office, a visitor’s bunkhouse, a work shed, a watchtower, and a
chapel. At any given time, Butler and no more than a dozen people lived at the compound, while
several other individuals may have been visiting or passing through.11 The physical state of the
compound and the small number of permanent residents may have lulled the surrounding
community into a false sense of safety and the assumption that the Aryan Nations members were
harmless individuals. However, as Eckard Toy states in his article “Promised Land or
Armageddon? History, Survivalists, and The Aryan Nations in the Public Northwest,” “Although
their memberships are small and their immediate threat to public order exaggerated, groups like
the Aryan Nations and its allies constitute a dangerous social malignancy. Their potential for
violence is real, and they proclaim a ‘theology,’ Thus [sic] a view of history, that denies
democracy and equates race with religion.”12 While the Aryan Nations compound may have
seemed unthreatening and inactive, Richard Butler and his followers were in fact carrying out a
10
Butler, G. Richard. “IEPBS/History of Idaho #112”. Barbara Pulling. Idaho Public Broadcasting
Country: Proceeding on Through Beautiful country. December 5, 1989.
11
12
Simi and Futrell, American Swastika, 106.
Eckard Toy, "Promised Land or Armageddon? History, Survivalists, and The Aryan Nations in the
Public Northwest" Montana; the magazine of western history 36, no. 3 (1986): 80.
9
large-scale recruitment campaign from which they sought to gain millions of followers to join
the White Power Movement.
The compound became a home and retreat for individuals who were already active in the
White Power Movement and frequently drew in new recruits. The compound also attracted
drifters who were simply travelling through and looking for support, as well as temporary
shelter. Butler referred to the Hayden Lake compound as “the international headquarters for the
white race” and effectively marketed his compound as a space in which members of the
Christian Identity Movement could gather to discuss their believes and be reassured that they
were not alone in their feelings of contempt for non-white individuals.
Free Space
The use of a secluded space such as the compound in Hayden Lake was an astute move
on Butler’s part that served to gain support and offer refuge for the White Power Movement.
Designating private space for group functions, such as this, is a strategy that is frequently used
by leaders of social movements to build support and form alliances. Pete Simi and Robert
Futrell explain free space as a metaphor used by social scientists to describe settings in which
marginalized groups meet and confer to discuss their ideology and overcome the isolation that
they feel within mainstream culture. “Aryan free spaces are settings where white power
members meet with one another, openly express their extremist beliefs, and coordinate their
activities” Simi and Futrell explain, “free spaces provide relatively powerless groups
opportunities to safely articulate the aggression and hostility they feel toward the powerful.”13
13
Simi, Pete, and Robert Futrell, “Free Spaces, Collective Identity, and the Persistence of U.S.
White Power Activism.” Social Problems 51, no.1 (2005): 2.
10
The majority of white power activists perceive themselves to be greatly repressed, and they fear
that if they are exposed as white supremacists they face losing their jobs, being alienated by
mainstream culture, and even living under surveillance or the threat of possible arrest.14 If white
power activists wish to express or act on their beliefs in any way, they must do so individually
and covertly, or they must find a group of people that share their beliefs and desire to
disassociate with the non-white peoples of the world. Free spaces are the places in which these
individuals find community and support; they act as refuges from the real world that is usually
not openly accepting of the ideology of the White Power Movement. Though individuals may
desire meeting one another in person, these spaces do not have to be physical meeting spaces or
large-scale conventions.
Free spaces can range from virtual spaces, such as online chat rooms, to private homes, or
survivalist camps in the country. The function of these free spaces differs with their unique
structures, such that online chat rooms may provide individuals with social support, education
and an outlet for anger and frustration, while gatherings in private homes provide these same
benefits on a more personal and active scale. The most influential and apparent types of free
spaces are the private physical communities established by the White Power Movement. These
spaces are able to fill the purposes of smaller scale free space gatherings by offering education
and access to information, while also offering the support of physical numbers and a centralized
location that allows for group activism. Whether they are virtual or physical, the free spaces
initiated by white power activists provide support for the existing movement and fuel for growth
of the movement through expanded activism, and member recruitment. Simi and Futrell explain
that, “the hidden spaces of Aryan hate provide members with the social support they need to
14
Simi and Futrell, American Swastika, 19.
11
sustain their radical commitments… Together they keep alive the vision of a future world where
blacks, Jews, and other racial enemies are vanquished or destroyed. The vision nourishes
violence, destruction, and death.”15 Free spaces are vital to the White Power Movement, and
function as the structure through which the ideology and spirit of a movement is fostered. As
with any social movement, the ability to foster an ideology, within a community free of
opposition, is what keeps the White Power Movement alive.
The physical aspects of free space have been particularly important in the history of the
American West as a haven for right-wing extremists. The West is commonly seen as frontier
land, and is characterized by the myth of the white, self-reliant, American male, or as more
modern tales will have it, the West is a place for “white guys with guns.”16 Evelyn Schlatter
describes the aspects of this myth, which have drawn these “characters” to the area, describing
the West as “a symbol of freedom, an opportunity for conquest, and an escape from the
conditions of life in modern industrial society.”17 Many residents of the West believe in a
regional identity that classifies the area as type of free space in which they can live
unencumbered by the oppressive power of the federal government. However this hatred of
government provides a strong juxtaposition to the idea of freedom in the area, because in practice
the federal government has a relatively strong presence in the West. Federal regulation of land
and environmental practices in the West is fairly common, mostly due to the abundance of
national parks. In the article The Current Weirdness in the West, Richard White, former president
15
16
Simi and Futrell, American Swastika, 120.
White, Richard “The Current Weirdness in the West.” Western Historical Quarterly 28, no. 1
(Spring, 1997): 6.
17
Schlatter, Evelyn A., Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the Search for a New Frontier 19702000, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006), 64.
12
of the Western History Society, explains how federal government regulations are exactly what
the Republican right-wing dislikes, yet are numerous in the region, “the West has federal dams
and military bases. It has Los Alamos and Hanford. If you want to hate the federal government,
the West provides a smorgasbord of targets.”18 The free space that these right-wing individuals
seek in the West is in all reality non-existent. The land that they hoped to use to recreate the
mythical past of a masculine, all white, agrarian culture, is actually highly regulated and an
individual’s use of the environment, private property, and firearms, is not determined by free
will.
This challenge to the mythic West and the presence of free space is what drives many
individuals to become even more extreme in their hatred of the federal government and modern
society. Schlatter, describing how this repercussion applies to the White Power Movement
explains, “in the face of this challenge some white men found a sense of mission and purpose in
white supremacist groups like The Order and Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations. The ideology and
rhetoric of these groups lay claim to a frontier heritage that is embedded in ideas about American
“character”.”19 Groups such as the Aryan Nations offer these individuals the setting and support
which they need to pursue their vision of the mythic past, in a region which may not be as
hospitable to extremists as the expanse of wide open land would make it appear to be. However
this regional identity of the West as a frontier land, and proving ground is still mythic and the
effort to create this vision can have negative effects for the mainstream society of the region.
White describes this phenomena saying, “the disadvantage of invented histories is that people
actually believe them and act on them. In the West some people are trying to return to a past that
18
White, 9.
19
Schlatter, 83.
13
either never existed or was exactly what people alive then were seeking to escape from.”20 The
Aryan Nations was one such group made up of individuals, who believed in this mythic past and
were prepared to actively pursue their ideal vision of the white man’s frontier.
Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake Idaho was one such private
community of the West in which the ideas of the White Power Movement were fostered and
practiced. As one of the most prominent Aryan free spaces, the Aryan Nations served a number
of purposes and was established in Hayden Lake for the specific qualities that the area offered
the White Power Movement. At the time that Richard Butler established the Aryan Nations
compound, the population of Idaho was particularly homogenous and the rural areas of the state
were much less diverse than that of larger cities when it came to race. When PBS interviewer
Barbara Pulling asked Butler “When you set up the Church of Jesus Christ Christian here in
Hayden Lake did you look for one of the whitest places around?” Butler replied strongly, saying,
“oh yes, this is the Northwest, the far corner, this is where a lot of southerners came after the
Civil War, if you are aware. And this is white man’s territory.”21 Because Hayden Lake had
little diversity in the 1970’s and the population of minorities was not increasing, Butler knew that
he would not be up against any strong opposition in establishing his compound on the outskirts
of the rural town. In labeling Idaho as one of “the whitest places around”, Butler was not greatly
exaggerating. According to U.S. Census data for 1970, 98.1% of the state population was
reported as white, and in Coeur d’Alene, the largest city in Kootenai County, 99.02 % of the
population were white individuals. In choosing Hayden Lake as the specific location for his
compound Richard Butler had found a town in which 99.7 % of the population was white; in
20
21
White, 10.
Idaho Public Broadcasting
14
other words, only 3 people were identified as being any race other than white.22 Hayden Lake,
and the Pacific Northwest in general, had exactly what Butler wanted, a secluded country area
free of non-whites. He planned to capitalize on this fact to recruit members to the White Power
Movement and to eventually establish what he referred to as the “Promised Land”.23
Butler’s vision of the “Promised Land” was to be an area of the United States that would
be “the headquarters of a new self-governing republic that will be an all-white, decidedly nonJewish, martially-run eugenically ordered and utterly enclosed fiefdom.”24 This racial state
would encompass the States of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming and would
require all citizens to hold a passport.25 The “Promised Land” would be a pure, large-scale form
of free space, a space in which white power activists could make their own rules and achieve the
racial isolation that they desired. Butler drives home this point when he said, as quoted in a 1987
article “all genetically impure residents – all niggers, kikes, wops, slopes, and the rest, who
pollute the fine cities of Cheyenne, Missoula, Seattle, Boise and Portland – will be summarily
deported. Those who resist will be taken out by helicopter and dropped therefrom, as a sign of
Aryan displeasure.”26 Butler’s “Promised Land” would be a completely self-sustaining nation
and would be isolated from the influence of the rest of the United States. In an article from a
1986 issue of Montana: the magazine of Western History, Robert Miles, of the Mountain Church
of Cohoctah, describes why the Pacific Northwest is the ideal location for the “Promised Land”,
22
U.S. Census, 1970.
23
Simon Winchester and Steven Lerner. "Idaho's Half-Baked Messiah: In Richard Butler's "Vacant
Quarter," only white volk need apply." Present Tense 14, no. 4 (1987): 6.
24
Winchester and Lerner, 6.
25
Schlatter, 64.
26
Winchester and Lerner, 8.
15
“It has all we want. Space that is not jammed already with hostiles, indifferents, or aliens. It has
a sea coast. It has mountains. It has water. It has a border, which is definable. It has the warmth
of the temperate zones but the cold which our folk require in order to thrive.”27 The Pacific
Northwest was the perfect place for Butler and his followers to expand their dominion and they
felt that with the establishment of the Aryan Nations compound they were well on their way to
making the dream of a promised land a reality.
The Aryan Nations compound at Hayden Lake may have appeared rather small and
defunct, yet through his use of the area as a place for members of the White Power Movement to
gather and encourage activism, Butler was drawing more white power activists to Idaho and
making a case for the Pacific Northwest as the perfect place for white supremacists to live in
peace with their beliefs. An Aryan Nations activist speaking about Northern Idaho in 1997
supported this trend saying, “This part of the country is still white and we’re trying to keep it this
way. We appreciate the tranquility. These are God-fearing people who don’t live like the rest of
the country, like a sewer. You come up here and you thank God there are still a few places like
this…”28. While not everyone in the region shared these racist beliefs, the social environment of
Northern Idaho offered little challenge for the White Power Movement, simply because its
inhabitants had not previously suffered the consequences of hatred run rampant.
The relative ideological support that Idaho offered the White Power Movement, made
Hayden Lake an even more fitting place for Butler to establish his dominion. According to
Butler the Aryan Nations was born in Boise Idaho in the 1950’s as the church of the Anglo-
27
Toy, 81.
28
Simi and Futrell, Free Spaces, Collective Identity, and the Persistence of U.S.
White Power Activism. (AN activist speaking about areas of northern Idaho, 7/9/97): 28.
16
Saxon Congregations.29 Because many individuals in the region had been followers of this
church, or were simply not exposed to diversity in any form, they were not wholly
unsympathetic to the White Power Movement. Butler even claims to have had 300 local
followers among his congregation during the compounds early years. Although the Kootenai
County community may not have openly supported the White Power Movement and the
presence of the Aryan Nations they passively aided and abetted the movement through their early
disregard for the compounds presence. In 1989 Butler even goes so far as to state that the Aryan
Nations found the community to be particularly accepting of the compound, he says, “well,
overall we’ve found the people very cooperative, very nice and so forth. Never have the people
of Hayden Lake, Coeur d’Alene, or Post Falls or any place else ever given us a bad time.”30 The
small amount of opposition to the Aryan Nations compound that did exist in the early years,
though carried out with good intentions, may have also acted as a catalyst for the growth of the
movement. In the essay "The Rise and fall of the Aryan Nations: a Resource Mobilization
Perspective", Robert Balch explains that a moderate amount of tension between a social
movement and the external environment can contribute to the success of the movement. Balch
explains that Butler chose a favorable setting because “Media coverage was generally
unfavorable, but even the worst publicity sparked surges in calls and letters requesting
information, and Butler faced little organized opposition.”31 As the Aryan Nations compound
gained support throughout its early years, it became a prominent gathering spot for those who
29
Butler, Proceeding Through Beautiful Country, 3.
30
Butler, Proceeding Through Beautiful Country, 4.
31
Robert W. Balch, "The Rise and fall of the Aryan Nations: a Resource Mobilization
Perspective." Journal of Political and Military Sociology 34, no. 1 (2006): 98.
17
were dedicated to the movement. In 1980, with the confidence gained from the Aryan Nations
early success, Butler decided to further expand his dominion by extending an invitation to
committed white supremacists to attend the first Aryan Nations World Congress at the Hayden
Lake compound.
The Aryan Nations World Congresses were held yearly at the compound from 19802000, and usually drew up to 500 activists from across the country. The majority of people in
attendance were from the United States, but with increased publicity, the congresses began to
draw individuals from several European countries as well. These annual gatherings served as a
time in which Butler could disseminate his propaganda and draw more people into the
movement, while also reaffirming the ideology of those activists who already staunchly believed
in the superiority and entitlement of the white man on earth. The congresses, which were multiday events, included speeches, workshops, church services, cross burnings, and training in
survivalist and guerilla warfare. Video footage of the 1994 World Congress exhibits the
extensive speeches and preaching that took place during the congresses, as Richard Butler,
followed by a number of prominent White Power activists, spoke to those in attendance during a
gathering at the compound chapel. Butler began the congress by espousing the ideology of the
Christian Identity Movement and encouraging his followers to remember “Jewry is responsible
for pornography, with every type of licioutness [sic], with every type of vile instinct that can be
brought to the mind of man or woman.”32 Butler then went on to remind his followers that they
must remain united as a “brotherhood” and work for their common cause, the mission that they
32
Aryan Nations, Church of Jesus Christ Christian, “Aryan Nations Congress”
(1994: Hayden Lake, Idaho) University of Chicago Library. VidCass F 755.A1C55 1994 c.1 Film
18
were given by God to “execute justice and vengeance.”33 The speeches continued for hours and
were filled with racial slurs and discriminatory phrases and occasional interruptions with shouts
of “heil victory!”34 The speeches were extremely animated and effectively evoked an angry and
vengeful response from the audience, which seemed thoroughly motivated to take on their
designated enemy.
While the speeches were very telling of the Aryan Nations doctrine at the compound, the
most influential parts of the congress that could be witnessed were the training workshops and
cross burning. These proceedings were unique to the annual world congress gatherings and were
very effective in drawing crowds because large-scale ceremonies such as this cannot be
replicated in public areas, or in smaller areas of free space, such as online chat rooms and private
homes. To prepare for these rituals the attendees of the congress, including children, gathered in
a field at the compound to construct large crosses, which were then doused in gasoline, and
burned later that evening. In the cover of complete darkness hundreds of men, women, and
children filed into a field at the compound where they gathered in a large circle, awaiting the
directions of several men holding large torches and dressed completely in white Ku Klux Klan
regalia. When everyone was gathered, one of the white clad men began the ritual stating
“burning crosses is not a satanic process, the darkness you see around you tonight is the darkness
that seems to lie in some men’s souls.”35 The individuals with torches were then instructed to
light the massive crosses on fire while they began to chant “what do we want, white power, what
33
Aryan Nations, “Aryan Nations Congress” 1994.
34
Aryan Nations, “Aryan Nations Congress” 1994
27
Aryan Nations, “Aryan Nations Congress” 1994
19
do we need, white power, what will we have, white power!”36 These highly ritualized and
extreme ceremonies are examples of Butler’s use of free space at the Hayden Lake compound
and effectively foreshadow future events in Kootenai County, as Aryan Nations members would
become bold enough to replicate their rituals outside the perimeters of the compound.
The World Congresses of the early1980’s were a new and extremely bold way for Butler
to spread his doctrine. The World Congresses offered active involvement for individuals who
had always felt that they could not express their beliefs openly. Simi and Futrell explain that
“according to Butler the gatherings are one of the few places where White Power Movement
members openly enact and experience what they perceive as their essential whiteness.”37 Butler
exhorts the gatherings saying, “the congresses allow us to be true white men. We can say nigger
and not have to worry about losing a job and having someone scream racist.”38 As the gatherings
gained popularity in the white power community, more people traveled to northern Idaho to
experience the solidarity and support that the Aryan Nations compound offered. Drawing on
observation of and interaction with White Power Movement members, Simi and Futrell were
able to gain an understanding of the importance that the Hayden Lake compound held for Aryan
Nations members because of its relative isolation and situation within a less diverse community.
During an interview that took place in the summer of 1999, Simi and Futrell asked Charlie, an
Aryan Nations member, how he felt about being isolated from the outside world at the
compound. Charlie commented on the importance of the compound to himself and fellow
members, stating, “Right now we’re here together as a people and, you know, that’s what’s
36
Aryan Nations, “Aryan Nations Congress” 1994
37
Simi and Futrell, Free Spaces, Collective Identity, and the Persistence of U.S. White Power Activism, 33.
38
Simi and Futrell, Free Spaces, Collective Identity, and the Persistence of U.S. White Power Activism, 33.
20
going to allow us to defeat the Zionist Occupied Government. These congresses help us build
our solidarity and bring people together. It gives us time away from everything else.”39 This
feeling of solidarity offered Aryan Nations members hope that they could eventually establish
the “Promised Land”, and consequently they began to more actively pursue the establishment of
the Pacific Northwest as a pure Aryan area of the United States.
When confronted with the issue of growing acts of racism in the Hayden Lake
Community, Bill Wassmuth, pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Coeur d'Alene from 19791988, described the increasing acts of racism as a problem that developed because Butler and his
followers believed that if they could drive minorities out of the community, then the “Promised
Land” could be founded. For the majority of people in Kootenai Country the idea of the
“Promised Land” was preposterous and unimaginable, however for Aryan Nations members, the
idea of a territorial imperative was entirely achievable, and the Hayden Lake compound was the
first step in the right direction. Therefore Richard Butler and his followers acted in accordance
with their plan by preparing the community of Hayden Lake for the coming of a pure racial
state.40
Community Relations
Throughout the 1970’s, Richard Butler and his followers lived at the Aryan Nations
compound and carried out their daily lives, with little influence from the outside community. The
community in turn saw little reason to preoccupy themselves with the presence of the compound.
Law enforcement officers and residents felt that so long as members of the Aryan Nations were
keeping to themselves, they were quite harmless and had as much of a right as anyone to reside
39
Simi and Futrell, American Swastika, 110.
40
For Our Times CBS broadcast, Bill Wassmuth.
21
in Hayden Lake. However, in early 1981 Kootenai County Idaho began to witness an increase in
public acts of racism, which began with the vandalism of the restaurant of Sid Rosen, a local
Jewish business owner. Rosen arrived at his restaurant early one January morning to find the
words “Jewswine” and “KKK”, as well as a large swastika, painted on the front of his building.41
Rosen reported the vandalism of his restaurant to the local authorities and also disclosed that he
suspected that he was being followed by individuals unknown to him. In early February 1981,
members of the community met to discuss the recent act of bigotry and decided that “whomever
spray-painted Sid’s restaurant, or is following him, needs to understand that the community will
not tolerate or support this sort of bigotry and prejudice.”42 Community members were well
aware of the presence of the Aryan Nations compound outside the town and decided that they
needed to act immediately to prevent any further acts of racism in the community. Once the
decision was made that the community needed to take a stand, the Kootenai County Task Force
on Human Relations (KCTF) was formed.
The original task force was made up by a diverse group of individuals from the
community including Sid Rosen, Sheriff Merf Stadler, Undersheriff Larry Broadbent, a local
activist Dina Tanners, several pastors from different faiths, and members of private and public
legal offices of the county. In creating the task force, the involved community members
envisioned a non-partisan group with four main goals: 1) Providing support to people victimized
by racial and religious harassment, 2) Promoting legislation that dealt with reducing racist
activity, 3) Providing educational material that promoted positive human relations for
41
Tom Alibrandi and Bill Wassmuth. Hate is my Neighbor. Idaho Human Rights Series.
(Moscow: University of Idaho Press, 1999), 13.
42
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 13.
22
community use, and 4) Monitoring racist activity and documenting incidents.43 The KCTF had
ambitious goals, yet ones that would prove invaluable in the near future - because the
vandalizing of Rosen’s restaurant was only the beginning of the acts of racism that were to come.
Over the course of the next several months, acts of racist terrorism in the Hayden Lake
community increased with the bombing of a Jewish Synagogue, the harassment of an African
American couple in their home, and the victimization of a sixteen year old biracial couple at the
local skating rink. To deal with these instances of harassment, the KCTF set up a victimization
hotline. But all of the callers who reported incidents of religious and racist harassment were too
afraid of provoking the vengeance of the Aryan Nations to press charges. Without victims who
were willing to defend themselves in court, the KCTF could not yet play a significant role in
responding to actions of Aryan Nations members. Because of the lack of publicity and legal
action surrounding these issues, the community at large remained rather unconcerned with the
presence of the compound and its white supremacist inhabitants.
However, with increasingly alarming incidents of harassment, the community was forced
to take notice of the actions and attitudes of Butler and his followers. In 1982, Aryan Nations
members began to repeatedly target certain individuals and families in an effort to intimidate and
drive out the minority members of the community. Connie Fort and her bi-racial children
received the brunt of this endeavor, which began when Keith Gilbert, an Aryan Nations member
and convicted felon, confronted Lamar, Connie’s 8-year old son, near their home and called him
a number of racial slurs. Later Lamar and his younger sister Neisha were walking to school
when they were accosted by 2 uniformed men yelling obscenities at them from a passing truck.
The Fort family continued to be harassed for several months, receiving hate mail and threats on a
43
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 59.
23
daily basis. The breaking point for Connie Fort was an incident in which Scott Willey, Connie’s
18-year old son, was out riding his bike when Keith Gilbert stopped him, called him a “nigger,”
and threatened to kill him.44 Eventually Fort decided she no longer wanted her children to have
to bear the burden of the racial harassment that they endured repeatedly in their town, so she
turned to the services offered by the KCTF to pursue the safety and peace of mind that would
come with legal action. Though initially reluctant, Fort was the first patron of KCTF’s hotline
who agreed to face a member of the Aryan Nations in court. With the support of the KCTF,
Connie agreed to press charges against Keith Gilbert and the Aryan Nations. Keith Gilbert was
consequently taken to court and charged with verbal assault. He was sentenced as guilty of a
misdemeanor, and received a 50-dollar fine and 75 days in county jail.45 This was one of the
most severe sentences ever given in Kootenai County in regards to a misdemeanor assault
conviction and the KCTF hoped that this judgment would set the standard for an increasingly
diversity tolerant community.
However, as the months passed, Aryan Nations members continued to harass and threaten
members of the community. In mid 1983 the Human Rights Commission of Idaho reported that
incidents of racial harassment in Kootenai County had grown 550 percent since 1980. Kootenai
County Prosecutor Glen Walker said, “it’s a powder keg, no doubt about it, it could be five years
or it could be five days, but people around here will get killed.”46 The volatile conditions that
were brewing in Kootenai County could also be seen throughout the Pacific Northwest as several
Aryan Nations members became increasingly violent towards fellow members of the movement.
44
Joshua Hammer, “The Trail from Three Racial Slayings Leads to a Ring of Neo-Nazi Fanatics in Idaho,”
People, vol. 20, No. 9 (August 29, 1983): http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085790,00.html
45
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 73.
46
Joshua Hammer, online resource.
24
On May 27th in the backcountry of Idaho, Richard Kemp and Randy Duey, members of the
Aryan Nations, murdered Walter West, a fellow member, for his tendency to publicly brag about
the classified actions of the Aryan Nations members.47 Though not directed at the Hayden Lake
community, this event further increased the urgent need for the community to actively address
the escalating violence. As evidenced by the increasing violence, Richard Butler’s program of
propaganda and recruitment were seeing success in the Pacific Northwest, and the Aryan
Nation’s use of free space to act upon their beliefs was slowly extending into mainstream culture.
With the increasing violence, the image of northern Idaho as peaceful, beautiful country
was fading quickly and members of the KCTF realized that they needed to change their tactics
and come down hard on acts of racial harassment in the community so that Northern Idaho did
not gain the reputation of being a haven for white supremacists. Marshall Mend, a local real
estate agent and member of the KCTF, saw the conflict from 2 points of view, such that ,the
increase in violence was a threat to the minorities of Hayden Lake, but it was also resulting in a
decrease in population growth, and a negative image for the community itself. As he began to
see newspaper articles that portrayed Hayden Lake as a community of White Supremacists and
backcountry extremists, Mend began to understand that something needed to be done to restore
the reputation of Northern Idaho. Mend felt that to do this, the KCTF would need to bring Butler
and the Aryan Nations to the forefront of attention with increased negative publicity. Mend
expressed this concern, saying, “Butler and his Nazi thugs had to be exposed for what they were.
The past few months proved that keeping quiet was not going to make the problem go away.
47
Mark S. Hamm, Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City to Al-Qaeda and Beyond, (New York: New
York University Press, 2007), 133.
25
Nor would it improve national and international perceptions about northern Idaho.”48 The KCTF
realized that they needed to increase publicity of the effort to fight back against the Aryan
Nations.
With this idea in mind, the KCTF planned a community meeting with Bill Wassmuth as
the newly appointed chairman of the KCTF. The KCTF hoped to draw a diverse gathering of
community members and ran an advertisement in the local paper stating that the meeting was
open to anyone “interested in combating the hate and prejudice existing in their community.”49
The night of the meeting Wassmuth addressed the crowd that had gathered, emphasizing the
need for the community to come together as one to respond to the presence of hate groups and to
create positive ways of addressing the negative image that the media was giving Northern Idaho.
In asking the people of the community to join the task force in creating a safe place for people of
all races and religions, Wassmuth’s call to the people was as follows:
The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations must respond to this negative
publicity by speaking out in a public voice about the richness of diversity of those living
in our community. We must educate others about the positive changes brought about by
the civil rights movement. We must publicly reaffirm the dignity and worth of every
human being who resides in Kootenai County. We must oppose bigotry and work to
eliminate prejudice, for injustice done to one of our citizens is an injustice done to all of
us.50
Wassmuth and the KCTF addressed the Kootenai community in a way that made the problems
of hate and prejudice a common issue, and challenged each individual to act immediately, rather
than standing idly by while their friends and neighbors were threatened and terrorized.
Wassmuth and the members of the KCTF realized that Butler and the Aryan Nations
were using the compound in Hayden Lake to organize and garner support for the White Power
48
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 87.
49
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 98.
50
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 99.
26
Movement, and they were determined to counter this effort at every level possible. Amidst the
continuing incidents of racial harassment, the KCTF initiated an ongoing effort that contributed
to the passage of laws established to combat hate crimes and promote human rights throughout
Idaho. These laws included the “Anti-Malicious Harassment Law (criminal and civil penalty
provisions), Domestic Terrorist Control Act (anti-paramilitary training and actions),
Uniform/Bias Crimes’ Reporting Act, Explosive Devices Act, Anti-Common Law Court’s Act,
and False Lien Act.”51
In addition to working for increased legislation, the KCTF continued to work within the
community to combat hate and promote a climate of diversity and acceptance in northern Idaho.
In the summer of 1986 the task force planned the “1986 Coeur d’Alene City Park Human Rights
Rally”, which directly coincided with that summer’s World Congress at the Aryan Nations
compound. The human rights rally drew hundreds of people and was an important step in
publicizing the community’s mission to combat the presence of white supremacy in their state.
During his speech at the rally, Wassmuth declared, “saying ‘yes’ to human rights is the best way
to say ‘no’ to prejudice.” The crowd reacted with a resounding chant of
“Yes….Yes…Yes…”.52 Though Butler and the Aryan Nations established their compound in
Hayden Lake to gain support for the White Power Movement, their presence, in a community
previously unconcerned with issues of diversity and human rights, was having the opposite
reaction. The People of the Hayden Lake were not joining the Aryan Nations, but in fact were
51
Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights, The History of the Kootenai County Task Force on
human Relations Policies, Programs, Activities and, and Partnerships to Promote Human Rights in the Pacific
Northwest (1981-Present), http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/footnote.html (Accessed April,
2011)
52
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 139.
27
becoming increasingly aware of issues of human rights violations and had begun to openly
embrace and fight for diversity in their community. Though the Aryan Nations were holding
their own rally for support several miles away, the people of Idaho were joining with the KCTF
in the determination to take back their land from the hands of malicious white supremacists who
had taken up residence in the northern part of the state.
Despite the KCTF’s increased publicity, the Aryan Nations were not easily discouraged.
On September 15, 1986 an unsuspecting Bill Wassmuth returned to his house after a late evening
jog only to be surprised by the explosion of a pipe bomb in the rear of his house. Wassmuth
walked away from this incident unharmed, but badly shaken and with the knowledge that
Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations weren’t going to back down without a fight. The direct
attack on Wassmuth was a vicious escalation in violence on the part of Aryan Nations members,
yet it was also only the beginning of a publicly violent campaign that Butler and his followers
were beginning to carry out in northern Idaho. While Wassmuth, the KCTF, and the Hayden
Lake community were holding meetings to discuss peaceful measures with which to address the
Aryan Nations, David Dorr, the Aryan Nations’ chief of security, was busy at the compound
planning his strategy to carry out a robbery of a local bank and the National Guard Armory.53
On the morning of September 29 1986, only 2 weeks after the attack on Bill Wassmuth’s
house, 3 bombs were consecutively detonated throughout downtown Coeur d’Alene. The bombs
that exploded at the Federal Building, which housed several shops, and Jax Restaurant, were
planted by David Dorr and the Bruderschweigen Strike Force II, a new militant arm of the Aryan
Nation, as distractions for the robberies that were to take place at the same time. An undetonated
bomb was also found on the roof of the Armed Services Recruitment Offices Building. For
53
Alibrandi and Wassmuth, 175.
28
unknown reasons, the robberies that had been planned were never carried out, yet the detonation
of the bombs alone left the people of Coeur d’Alene shaken but unwilling to let the Aryan
Nations control their community. Although this latest violent outburst was the most drastic attack
carried out by the Aryan Nations yet; it was also the beginning of the end of the Aryan Nations
reign of terror in northern Idaho. Shortly after the September 29th bombings, FBI agents arrested
4 individuals of the Bruderschweigen Strike Force in connection with bombings of downtown
Coeur d’Alene and Bill Wassmuth’s house.
The failed attempt to carry out a double robbery in Coeur d’Alene, along with the capture
of the Bruderschweigen Task Force, dealt a strong blow to the organization. The Aryan Nations
still had their compound and the support of thousands of followers, yet they were rapidly running
out of funds with which to support the compound. Without a monetary base they would soon
have no way to carry out their production and circulation of white supremacist propaganda,
which was one of the main functions of the Aryan Nations compound as a free space. Faced
with the internal problems of economic troubles, a lack of competent staff, and Butler’s inability
to control his core group of followers, the Aryan Nations faced an uncertain future.54 Despite
these obvious weaknesses, the Aryan Nations compound continued to act as refuge for white
supremacists and the presence of these individuals was still felt in the Hayden Lake community.
Incidents of hate crimes and racial harassment continued in the Hayden Lake area over
the next several years, however the actions of the KCTF, and one determined woman, Victoria
Keenan, pulled the final thread from the unraveling structure of the Aryan Nations compound in
northern Idaho. In July 1998 Victoria Keenan and her son Justin were targeted while driving
past the compound. They were shot at and terrorized at gunpoint, while being accused of being
54
Balch, 100-104.
29
part of a conspiracy organized by “Jewish enemies of the Aryan Nations”.55 With the arrival of
neighboring landowners, the Aryan Nations men (later identified as Jesse Warfield, John Yeager,
and Shane Wright) fled.
Keenan’s initial reaction to the attack was not to press charges, but rather to lie low and
hope that Butler’s men wouldn’t come after her family. In the weeks following the attack,
Keenan lived in fear, yet questioned her own decision to avoid confrontation with the Aryan
Nations. Keenan’s internal struggle continued until her mother-in-law, Jean Wallace, convinced
her to take action. As quoted in the September 2001 of Readers Digest Jean said “you cannot let
them get away with it, how will you feel if you read in the paper that they’ve killed someone
else?”56 When Keenan thought about the fact that others might be submitted to this same
violence and terror, she knew that she had to take a stand. Once Victoria Keenan made the
decision to press charges, she went to the Task Force for support and guidance in beginning the
legal process, which would eventually bring about the downfall of the Aryan Nations in Idaho.
While a local Idaho court found Warfield and Yeager guilty of aggravated assault and handed
them both jail sentences, Keenan’s attorney was busy pursuing a case that would target Butler
and the Aryan Nations directly. With the help of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law
Center, an organization based on the use of court action to combat hate groups, in January of
1999 Victoria Keenan filed a civil suit against Butler and the Aryan Nations compound.57
According to Dees, the calamity that came upon Victoria and her son, though not committed by
55
Southern Poverty Law Center, Aryan Nations on Verge of Collapse Following Judgment, Intelligence
Report, Fall 2010, NO. 100. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-allissues/2000/fall/aryans-without-a-nation (Accessed March 22, 2011).
56
Charles Hirschberg, "If Not Me, Who?: An Idaho Mother Takes on the Neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and
Puts the out of Business." Readers Digest, September, 2001, 122.
57
Hirschberg, 123.
30
Butler, was a direct result of the actions taken by Butler as the leader and owner of the Aryan
Nations compound. As acting organizer of the compound, Butler had allowed Warfield, a man
with a criminal record, to act as a security guard and had “used his property as a breeding ground
for racist thugs.”58 In early September of 2000, the Keenan’s case against Butler came to a close
when jurors found Butler “negligent in selecting and overseeing the security guards who
assaulted Victoria and Jason Keenan.”59 The lawsuit was a success for the entire community of
northern Idaho, and as expressed by Marshall Mend, “It’s a small step for human rights, one
giant step for Idaho.”60 Not only did Keenan’s lawsuit bring justice for Keenan and her son, but
the 6.3 million dollar civil judgment against Butler and his followers led to the bankruptcy of the
group and the their subsequent loss of the Aryan Nation Compounds land.61
In keeping with the focus on tolerance and diversity for Kootenai County, Victoria
Keenan sold the Aryan Nations compound land to Greg Carr, a philanthropist and human rights
activist from Idaho, who tore down the buildings on the land and made it into a “Peace park”
before donating the land to North Idaho College. Carr also provided funds for a human rights
center in Coeur d’Alene, an Idaho Human Rights Education center, and the Anne Frank Human
Right Memorial. In the years following the downfall of the Aryan Nations, Kootenai County and
the entire state of Idaho continued to establish human rights organizations, centers, educational
programs and increased legislation dealing with hate crimes in the state. To this day Idaho has
58
Hirshberg, 123.
59
Southern Poverty Law Center, online resource.
60
Wiley, John, K.. "Idaho Aims to Shed Hateful Reputation $6.3 Million Assault Judgment
Against White Supremacist Aryan Nations Called Turn around." The Associated Press: Pittsburgh Post Gazette
(2000): A. 6.
61
Hirshberg, 123.
31
some of the toughest “anti-malicious harassment” laws in the nations, and the state’s “zero
tolerance” attitude is used as a model for many communities throughout the United States when
dealing with hate crimes and malicious harassment issues.62 In addition to increased legislation
the Kootenai community has come to embrace diversity through actions including, but no limited
to, enacting a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr./Human Rights state holiday, co-sponsoring the
Washington Inter-Faith Community P.E.A.C.E. (People Everywhere Are Created Equal) Camp
for Spokane and Kootenai Counties’ high school students, and funding of an extensive
advertising campaign including “Idaho Is For Everyone” posters, “Idaho The Human Rights
State” billboards, brochures, newspaper ads, etc.63 The KCTF’s campaign to increase publicity
of the Aryan Nations and their acts of hatred was highly effective and following the demise of
the compound the community has continued to actively support diversity and education
surrounding issues of human rights in the state.
For thirty years northern Idaho risked losing its reputation of peace and beauty to Richard
Butler and the Aryan Nations and their ideology of white supremacy, hatred, and intolerance.
For a short period of this time Butler was able to carry out an extremely successful campaign of
terror and hatred that originated within his Hayden Lake compound and leached out to affect the
entire community. As historian and anthropologist Evelyn Schlatter eloquently states:
And so the compound once stood, a lone outpost on the ideological frontier of white
supremacy, where soft white men could transform themselves into hardened Aryan
warriors and their Aryan women could stay at home churning out future Aryans. Life at
Aryan Nations became a prep course for rough, violent conditions that would coincide
with the millennium’s end.64
62
63
64
http://idahoptv.org/outreach/diversity/idhrfacts.html: Idaho Public Television Outreach- Diversity.
Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights, online resource.
Schlatter, 72.
32
Butler’s use of free space in Hayden Lake allowed him to gain support and recognition within
the White Power Movement, as fellow members and recruits joined him in his haven of hatred
and seclusion to scheme ways in which to spread the ideology of the Christian Identity
Movement. Despite Butler’s ability to terrorize the Kootenai County community, his eventual
dream of a Pacific Northwest promised land was never realized. Due to the actions of the KCTF,
courageous individuals such as Victoria Keenan, and the Kootenai County community at large,
Butler’s grand plans were spoiled and, with the destruction of the Aryan Nations compound in
Hayden Lake, the White Power Movement in the Pacific Northwest was dealt a great blow.
By eliminating the infrastructure of free space that the Hayden Lake compound provided,
the Kootenai County Community was able to ensure that hatred and racism had no place in their
community and that the White Power Movement would no longer flourish in their state. Once
again northern Idaho became a place known for its requisite beauty and spacious country, a place
where residents and tourists alike could relax in peace, without the worry of encountering hatred
or racism, and a place in which any instances of such intolerance would be immediately and
strictly punished. The rise and fall of the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho may have been a
tumultuous and undesired course of events, however in coming together as a community to
combat hate Kootenai County and the state of Idaho emerged as a more tolerant, diverse, and
educated area of the Pacific Northwest which now serves as an example for communities
throughout the United States striving to embrace diversity and tolerance through community
action.
33
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