In Montana, An Unease Over Extremist Views Moving Out Of The Woods

[mahatmakanejeeves]

In Montana, An Unease Over Extremist Views Moving Out Of The Woods

November 29, 2016·4:56 AM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

The day after the election, Jen Stebbins-Han's kids came home from school and posed a question that before this year, she says, she might have laughed off. ... "My kids came home and asked us if their dad was going to be deported," she says. "I don't know where they heard that because it wasn't from us."

Stebbins-Han's husband is Korean-American. Jen is white. The couple has three young biracial kids. ... "There is a part of me that's afraid because I don't know what somebody's going to do because they feel emboldened to be able to," she says.

Stebbins-Han grew up in northwest Montana's Flathead Valley, a pristine area wedged between the snow-capped mountains of Glacier National Park and the glacier-fed Flathead Lake.

Like a lot of people here with the means, she moved away as a young adult. Five years ago, she returned with her husband so he could take over her dad's orthodontist practice. The couple's kids go to the same little country school Jen and her father and grandfather attended. ... But she says the valley she came back to seems different now. ... "What I've noticed is ... I didn't realize how OK with blatant racism so many people are," Stebbins-Han says.

I am sure I saw a DVD years ago about hate groups around Whitefish and Kalispell. I'll ask the librarian what its name was.

I'll bet it was about this:

A move to the right

Long before the 2016 election, rural northwest Montana had a reputation as a haven for anti-government extremists and white supremacists. According to numerous interviews with longtime locals, this used to get shrugged off. These were the fringe types, the locals said, holed up in remote cabins in the woods of northwest Montana and the Idaho panhandle.

Then things started bubbling up to the surface. Controversy erupted in 2010 when a group calling itself Kalispell Pioneer Little Europe began screening Holocaust denial films at the library in Kalispell, Flathead Valley's largest city. Then, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer moved to the lakeside resort town of Whitefish.

[montanacowboy]

1. Shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone

Lived in the area 20+ years and it has always been that way. Probably more so now with the new Dictator taking over. People that you think are reasonable and informed turn out to be so ugly inside. Sad, our country is so fucked.

[abbeyco]

2. I saw this when visiting the area a few years back.

Driving along the lake to go stay up near Glacier, there were hanging effigies of President Obama, crudely spelled and curse-laden signs bordering the road. Even at some of the fruit stands along the way - a couple seemed mighty proud to be serving 'whites only'. While it's a beautiful area, it was the most sickening 3 days I've ever spent and was glad to leave a place so full of hatred.

[jalan48]

3. I lived in the area in the 60's for a short time and the Birchers were very active.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Hate in the Last Best Place

Culture » August 15, 2011

Hate in the Last Best Place

Nazis, ‘patriots’ and the Moral Majority take refuge in Montana.

BY Larry Keller

....
Montana has the highest concentration of hate groups in the nation, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. If Montana is the center of the hate group belt, then the Flathead Valley is its buckle. This long sliver of scenic land near Glacier National Park, in the state’s northwest corner, is where {Chuck Baldwin, once a preacher at the Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fla.}, along with vociferous neo-Nazis, white nationalists and antigovernment zealots, has settled.

One Flathead resident is Stewart Rhodes, a lawyer and founder of Oath Keepers, a national conspiracy-minded organization composed of veterans, active-duty military and law enforcement officers. Last summer, in Bozeman, Mt., Oath Keepers hosted the “world premiere” of the documentary Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America.

Another resident of the valley is antigovernment zealot Randy Weaver, a longtime hero of the “patriot” movement. After Weaver refused to appear in court on weapons charges in 1989, U.S. marshals visited his remote property in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, unannounced. Weaver’s dog, son and wife were killed in ensuing shootouts.

More recently, former militia leader David Burgert is alleged to have fired shots at sheriff’s deputies on June 12 on a logging road in a national forest. He has been a fugitive since. Burgert spent eight years in prison on weapons charges before being released in 2010. On June 18, a “patriot group” that Burgert belonged to called Flathead Liberty Bell held a ”Preparedness Expo” near Kalispell, Flathead Valley’s largest city, that offered workshops on various survival skills. Speakers at the expo included Chuck Baldwin and Stewart Rhodes.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. "Hate in America" A Town on Fire (TV Episode 2016) - IMDb

Hate in America (2016– ) A Town on Fire