Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake, 1973 to 2001

Idaho's most famous association with Nazism was a compound on twenty acres of farmland. Aryan Nations was not a political party, did not run candidates and had no members in the Idaho Legislature. It was a religious and paramilitary organization whose leader, Richard Girnt Butler, wanted a white homeland in the Pacific Northwest, with North Idaho as the starting point.¹

Butler comes to Idaho

The sources give two different years. Wikipedia reports that Butler moved the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian from California to Idaho in 1973 and founded Aryan Nations as its paramilitary wing.² The Spokesman-Review's 2004 obituary of Butler also says June 1973, after he retired at age 55 from an engineering career at Lockheed, and says he had followed the Christian Identity preacher Wesley Swift since 1961; it dates the founding of the church and of Aryan Nations to 1977.³ The SPLC's 1998 profile, an advocacy source, says he retired and moved in 1974, and a 2010 Spokesman-Review retrospective says the Aryan Nations sign went up on Rimrock Road in 1977.⁴⁵ An NPR report of June 2022 on Idaho's history with white supremacist groups, carried by WAMC, gives the date of the 20-acre purchase of farmland in Hayden as 1974, and says he set up a neo-Nazi compound and organization there.¹ Without the Kootenai County deed, this lesson writes "in the 1970s" and cites each source for its own year.

Wikipedia places the compound in Kootenai County, 1.8 miles north of Hayden in one passage and about 2.75 miles north of Hayden Lake in another; the two distances are given in different sections and are not reconciled here.²

The Wassmuth Center's commentary says Butler adapted Christian Identity teachings, which he took from the preacher Wesley Swift, into a doctrine that, in the commentary's words, brought several groups together, and that the compound included a guard tower and a chapel decorated with swastikas.⁶ Christian Identity is a theology; the swastikas and the group's own name are the group's choice. That is why this module calls the Aryan Nations neo-Nazi: the group displayed the Nazi symbol on its property.

The world congresses

Beginning in 1981, according to the Spokesman-Review obituary, Butler held yearly gatherings at the compound that he called the "Aryan Nations World Congress." Wikipedia agrees on 1981, and the SPLC's 1998 profile places the first congress a month after a church bombing it dates to 1981; one SPLC timeline cited in the research notes gives 1982 and could not be re-found. This lesson uses 1981 attributed to the newspaper.²³⁴ The gathering drew Klan members and neo-Nazi skinheads from across the country, according to the NPR account.¹

In December 1980, before the first congress, swastikas and graffiti were painted on Chef Rosen's, a restaurant in Hayden that NPR describes as Jewish. The owner was Sid Rosen, who died in 2011, according to a 2025 Coeur d'Alene Press column.⁷¹ Members of the Task Force on Human Relations later attributed the vandalism to the Aryan Nations circle, but none of the sources read for this lesson names anyone who was convicted of it. This lesson therefore reports racist graffiti, attributed by the Task Force to the Aryan Nations circle, and assigns it to no named person.⁸

Wikipedia states that at a 1983 congress Louis Beam and other white-power leaders declared war on the United States government. No other source read for this lesson supports that statement, so it is not repeated here as fact. The Spokesman-Review obituary says instead that Butler's followers attended a June 1983 rally in Spokane, where Robert Jay Mathews was reportedly inspired. Mathews formed The Order that autumn with men from the Pacific Northwest white-supremacist circle (lesson 8).²³ Wikipedia also records that Buford O. Furrow Jr., who was later convicted of the 1999 Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting, had worked as a security guard at the compound, and the Seattle Times obituary of Butler describes him the same way.²⁹

Coeur d'Alene and the bombings of 1986

In 1986 and 1987, Wikipedia reports, bombings targeted the homes of local human rights activists. Afterward, the city and the group "left each other alone."² The Wassmuth Center commentary records that Father Bill Wassmuth's home was bombed in 1986, that the Aryan World Congress was held that summer, and that nearly 200 Northwest cities issued proclamations supporting human dignity, while Coeur d'Alene held a "Good Neighbor Day" on the same day.⁶

The date of the Wassmuth bombing is September 15, 1986, shortly before midnight, according to the Seattle Times obituary of Wassmuth and the Christian Science Monitor in January 1987; Wikipedia says September 16. Accounts differ on where the pipe bomb went off: the Seattle Times calls it his home, High Country News describes the rectory's kitchen door with Wassmuth in the living room, and others say the back of the house. This lesson writes "at the rectory." The Monitor reports further bombs elsewhere in town on September 29, 1986.¹⁰¹¹¹² Wassmuth said afterward that the bomb was "an attempt to remodel my house," according to the Coeur d'Alene Press, and he was not intimidated.¹³

The Order II was a separate group in Idaho. Wikipedia says it was led by David and Deborah Dorr and calls them former Aryan Nations members. Other records are more careful. UPI reported on October 9, 1986 that David Dorr led the group, alongside Edward Hawley, Olive Hawley and Robert Pires of Maryland, and that Deborah Dorr was not charged. UPI called David Dorr an Aryan Nations security officer, while Butler said the Dorrs were not "official members" of his church, according to the Seattle Weekly.¹⁴ The Idaho Court of Appeals, in State v. Dorr, describes the defendants as members of "Bruder Schweigen," which it calls a splinter of Aryan Nations, and records that in April 1989 David Dorr and Edward Hawley pleaded guilty to three counts of explosion of a building for pipe bombs they built and set off in Coeur d'Alene in September 1986.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ Lesson 8 gives the details. The record does not show that the Dorrs were ever convicted of the bombing at Wassmuth's home, and this lesson does not assign any specific bombing to a named person beyond what the court opinion states.

The Fort Smith sedition trial, 1988

Butler faced a federal charge once, and he won. In April 1987 a federal grand jury indicted him with other white-supremacist leaders, including men connected to The Order, on a charge of seditious conspiracy. The trial ran in Fort Smith, Arkansas, from February 16 to April 7, 1988, before U.S. District Judge Morris Arnold. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the government called 113 witnesses and the defense called 79, the jury was all white, and on April 7, 1988 the jury acquitted 13 defendants. Charges against one defendant, Robert Smalley, had been dismissed in March.¹⁸ Butler was among those acquitted; the Spokesman-Review obituary reports him using the words "nonsense" and "Jewish lies" about the case, which are his words and are reported here only as his statement.³ Judge Arnold told the jurors the case was about acts, not beliefs, according to UPI (lesson 8).¹⁹

The acquittal matters for how the compound is described. The government's best-known case against the movement's leaders did not produce a conviction of Butler, and the group's own supporters pointed to it. The convictions that did stick were of individuals for specific crimes, in other cases. Reporters should therefore not write that Butler was "convicted" of anything in a criminal court. The Keenan verdict (lesson 9) was a civil judgment.

People and personalities

This section collects what the sources record about how particular people behaved and how others dealt with them. Each item is attributed. Attending a march or a congress is not membership in a group, and a label is the opinion of whoever applied it. Living private individuals are not named unless a court record or a news report names them in connection with a public act.

Richard Butler

Richard Girnt Butler was born on February 23, 1918, in Bennett, Colorado, and died on September 8, 2004, in Hayden, according to the Spokesman-Review and the Seattle Times obituaries. He had been an aircraft engineer and was 80 at the time of the 1998 parade.³⁹ Accounts of his wartime service differ: the Spokesman-Review says he never left the United States, and the Seattle Times says he served in the Army Air Corps in India. This lesson does not state either.

At the 1998 parade a reporter watched him ride in a convertible Jeep driven by a longtime friend, and he told the Spokesman-Review afterward, "There will be many more parades."²⁰ A year later a Salon writer who visited the compound found him sitting in a lawn chair on the back of a truck, and he quoted the anthropologist Margaret Mead on what small committed groups can do.²¹ The SPLC reports that his wife, Betty, who died in December 1995, said of him that he "wouldn't spank a puppy dog"; the same profile quotes Butler saying of the Order's founder Mathews, "I wish I had been with him when he died."⁴ On the witness stand in the Keenan trial in 2000, as CBS reported, he said that as head of the church he held "absolute authority" at the headquarters, called his movement "a war of ideas" and defined a racist as someone who loves his race.²² Butler used an antisemitic insult against Wassmuth, according to High Country News.¹¹ He ran for mayor of Hayden in 2003 and received about 50 votes out of roughly 2,100; the Seattle Times and the Spokesman-Review differ slightly on the total.⁹³ His finances came up at the 2000 trial, where the Spokesman-Review reported that the Aryan Nations took in about $80,000 a year in $5 monthly memberships and other contributions, and that Butler said his property had been assessed at more than $200,000 about six years earlier.²³

Butler's lawyer in the Keenan case, Edgar Steele, was later convicted in an unrelated murder-for-hire plot against his wife and mother-in-law, sentenced to 50 years and died in prison in 2014; the plot had nothing to do with Aryan Nations, and prosecutors cited insurance and a relationship as the motive.²

The compound circle

Michael Teague, whom trial coverage called Butler's chief of staff, appointed Edward Warfield as security chief in March 1998, and Butler acknowledged approving the appointment, according to a Spokesman-Review trial report. He marched in regalia in 1999 with his wife and daughters, and his wife invited the Salon reporter into the compound.²¹ The Keenan jury later assigned 10 percent of the fault to Teague (lesson 9). Residents of the compound told the Salon writer about rules on hair, diet and drugs, and a proposed constitution that would have limited voting, public office, arms and property to white people. That is the reporter's summary of what residents said, not a document the reporter reproduced.²¹

The guards in the Keenan incident were Warfield, John Yeager and a third man, Shane Wright, who was never found; lesson 9 covers their pleas. Buford Furrow, who had worked as a guard, was later convicted of the 1999 shooting described above. Several other men are named in the sources as visitors, supporters or financiers; because attendance and friendship are not membership, this lesson does not list them.

The Task Force founders

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations held its first meeting in February 1981 in the basement of the First Christian Church. Five or six Aryan Nations men stood at the back of the room and stared; the meeting went on, according to Marshall Mend, the Fig Tree profile of the Task Force, and the Coeur d'Alene Press.⁸²⁴⁷ Dina Tanners, whom the Fig Tree calls "mother of the task force," called the first meeting, and a local pastor was its first president; the surname is spelled "Morse" in one source and "Morris" in another, so it is not printed here.²⁴

Tony Stewart, a political science professor at North Idaho College from 1970 to 2008 and a founding member, set a rule with attorney Norman Gissel that the group would never attend anything the Nazis did and would never stay silent; counter-events were held elsewhere, such as in Spokane.²⁵ Stewart received two threatening late-night calls and gave both to the police. When the compound's members stood by as a building was cleared after a bomb threat against a play at the college, Stewart told the audience that hate would not stop the play; Butler and about five associates were present, according to Stewart's 2007 interview.²⁶

Father Bill Wassmuth (died August 27, 2002, aged 61) was pastor of St. Pius X in Coeur d'Alene. Mend says that in 1983 he and a chamber of commerce member asked Wassmuth to lead the Task Force; the Fig Tree and the Idaho Capital Sun date his chairmanship to 1984. This lesson writes "1983 or 1984." After the bombing he went on to lead the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment in Seattle and co-wrote the memoir Hate Is My Neighbor (1999).⁸²⁴¹⁰

Marshall Mend, a real estate agent and one of about 100 Jews living in the area at the time, according to the Seattle Times, found swastikas and horns drawn on his for-sale signs. He says 27 signs were defaced. At a Sandpoint event Butler asked him whether he hated him, and Mend answered, "I'm not a hater," according to Mend's own account in the Fig Tree.²⁷⁸

Police, prosecutors and officials

Undersheriff Larry Broadbent and county prosecutor Glen Walker attended early Task Force meetings and were later told by others in the group to tone down their involvement, according to Mend; this is a single-source account.⁸ In February 1981, according to the same source, an Aryan Nations member harassed a single mother and her four children, two of them of mixed race; the city attorney prosecuted, the man served 60 days in jail, and the case led the Task Force to seek a local ordinance. Broadbent told the Christian Science Monitor in 1987 that "if there's a nonresponse to their activities, they see it as implied consent," and that about 35 people were then at the compound.¹² Stewart arranged a Popcorn Forum debate between Butler and Walker; afterward Butler complained that he had been "sandbagged" and wanted another debate.²⁶

In February 1998 the newly elected mayor, Steve Judy, 28, received the group's request for a permit for an April 20 march, the anniversary of Hitler's birth, and city attorney Jeff Jones advised him that there was no constitutional way to deny it, according to the abstract of a Harvard Kennedy School case study. This is a single-source summary of a paid case that was not read in full.²⁸ At one of the marches, Christie Wood, then a young patrol officer, walked beside the marchers to keep the two sides apart; there were arrests on both sides and no serious injuries, according to the Christian Science Monitor.²⁵

Neighbors

The Seattle Times interviewed residents in August 2000. One woman who had lived in the area for 27 years said a skinhead told her she would be "perfect" for target practice. The paper also interviewed a Native American resident with a mixed-race family. County Commissioner Ron Rankin called the group a "magnet" for media, and an economic development official, Bob Potter, described the cost to the area's image.²⁷ The sources show neighbors divided in their reasons, some arguing about free speech, others about safety, and others about the effect on business; they do not support a single description of "the community."

The 1998 parade and 'Closed to Hate'

The march took place on Saturday, July 18, 1998. The Ninth Circuit's later opinion in Edwards v. City of Coeur d'Alene confirms the date, and the SPLC counted about 90 marchers. The Spokesman-Review's eyewitness report, by Bill Morlin, gives no head-count.²⁹⁴²⁰ In 1998, the Wassmuth Center commentary reports, Butler's followers held a parade in Coeur d'Alene. Businesses displayed "Closed to Hate" signs, and residents pledged donations per minute of the parade through a "Lemons to Lemonade" campaign that raised money for human rights education.⁶

The total is reported four ways. The Idaho Capital Sun commentary says $35,000. Tony Stewart told the Christian Science Monitor in 2017 that about 27 minutes of marching produced about $34,000, and this lesson uses "about $34,000." A 2004 Spokesman-Review opinion piece says "more than $30,000." The Fig Tree says $10,000 went to human rights groups and $24,000 to teacher diversity grants.²⁵²⁴⁶ The next section sets the numbers side by side.

Wikipedia adds that the city had approved a permit for the downtown march and declared a public holiday that day, so downtown businesses were closed.² That a permit request was made and the march went ahead is documented by the city attorney's advice described above, the Ninth Circuit opinion and the newspaper. The "public holiday" claim rests on Wikipedia alone: no other source read for this lesson mentions it, so it is not repeated as fact. Residents did turn the closing of downtown into a public statement.

The protesters' suits and the settlement

The policing of the 1998 march was contested from both directions. Five protesters arrested that day sued the city. A Spokesman-Review editorial of November 14, 1999 says Kootenai County paid $80,000 to the five. The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Edwards arose from the arrest of one protester, Gary Edwards, who refused to give up the wooden handle of his sign. On August 21, 2001 the court reversed the district court and held that Section 1(D) of Ordinance 2920, which banned signs on sticks and handles at parades and public assemblies, was an invalid time, place and manner restriction. It found the ban content neutral but not narrowly tailored to the city's public safety interest, and it did not leave open ample alternative ways to reach an audience; it did not reach the vagueness claim. The city passed the ordinance after Edwards's arrest, and no ordinance banned sign supports on the day of the march. The opinion does not name Butler.³⁰²⁹ The case shows that the city was criticized for enforcing too much as well as too little.

The 1999 march and the federal court order

In 1999 the group asked to march again. According to High Country News, the city proposed a route on Ramsey Road, toward the dump, and the group, represented with the ACLU of Idaho, won a federal judge's approval of a march on Sherman Avenue shortly before July 10, 1999; the ACLU release and the research notes identify the judge as Edward Lodge and the date as July 9, 1999 (the release could not be reopened for this check). The ACLU, an advocacy group that argued for the Aryan Nations' right to march, issued a press release the same day.³¹³² The march took place on July 10, 1999. The same magazine reports about 400 spectators, about 20 blockaders, four arrests among the blockaders, and a rally at North Idaho College attended by Governor Dirk Kempthorne. The city hired outside counsel for $40,000 to defend its position.³¹

Magic Valley cross lightings, 1984 and 1986

Aryan Nations was not only a Kootenai County story. Contemporaneous reporting in the Twin Falls Times-News, digitized by the Twin Falls Public Library, described cross lightings in the Magic Valley in January 1984 and October 1986. B. Freund's report, "Cross flames over hayfield," ran on January 16, 1984, about a ceremony held the previous day; J. Robison's "20 gather for Aryan Nations cross burning; Media cadre covers event" ran on October 19, 1986, about a ceremony on October 18 at which Butler was among the people named. A second article in the same 1986 issue, "Crowds show their support for all creeds," reported counterdemonstrations in Twin Falls.³³³⁴ A letter from a Magic Valley ministers' association, printed a week earlier, rejected racial discrimination, according to the research register used for this module.

This paragraph is a lead, not a finding. The module author has not independently re-read the newspaper pages; the descriptions come from the author's research register, which records that the original scans were inspected. The articles name local individuals as participants. Those names are not repeated here, no membership or conviction is inferred for anyone, and the reports describe events as of 1984 and 1986 only. A reporter who wants to use them should open the digitized pages and read the articles in full.

In their own words and in the record

Each item below says who wrote or spoke, when, and which side of the story it comes from. Quotations are short and attributed. Items marked "not read" are listed so a reader knows they exist, not because this lesson relies on them.

From Aryan Nations and its supporters

• Testimony in court (self-describing, sworn). On the witness stand in August and September 2000, Butler said, as CBS reported on September 2, 2000, that he held "absolute authority" at headquarters, that a guard handbook said so, and that he had told the guards "to watch." CBS reported that a passage from newsletters he wrote said, "Hatred is our law. Revenge is your duty." He called his movement "a war of ideas."²²
• Remarks to a newspaper (his own words, reported by the Spokesman-Review). After the 1998 parade he said there would be "many more parades."²⁰
• Remarks reported by an advocacy group. The SPLC's 1998 profile quotes his wife on his gentleness and Butler on the death of Robert Mathews. These are the SPLC's selections from interviews and should be checked against other accounts.⁴
• Oral history (first hand, held by the state historical society). The Idaho State Historical Society holds a December 5, 1989 interview with Butler, conducted by Barbara Pulling, on two cassettes with a 35-leaf transcript. It is the best first-hand source on his own account of his life and has not yet been read for this module.³⁵
• Printed matter (self-published by the organization). Libraries hold the group's flyers (a University of California, Davis collection of 18), its newsletters (The Way and Calling Our Nation at Washington State University) and records in the University of Washington library (collection 4031). None were opened for this lesson. The title "Aryan Nations Newsletter" has not been confirmed.
• Defense lawyer. Edgar Steele argued the Keenan case for Butler; his closing arguments and later columns are summarized in lesson 9. His own columns on Butler were not read.

From people who investigated, reported on or opposed the group

• A founding Task Force member (first-hand, told to a faith-community newspaper). Marshall Mend describes the 1981 meeting, the defaced signs and his exchange with Butler.⁸
• A founding Task Force member (first-hand interview). Tony Stewart describes the threats, the debate with the prosecutor and the play bomb threat. He is a participant, not a neutral observer.²⁶
• A priest's memoir. Hate Is My Neighbor (1999), by Tom Alibrandi with Bill Wassmuth, is a first-hand account by a man who was bombed. It was not read for this lesson.³⁶
• Reporters who were there. Bill Morlin (Spokesman-Review, 1998), Stephen Lyons (High Country News, 1999), Amy Benfer (Salon, 1999) and Stuart Eskenazi (Seattle Times, 2000) wrote from the street, the compound or the neighborhood.^20312127
• Court record. Edwards v. City of Coeur d'Alene (Ninth Circuit, 2001) is a neutral court document on the 1998 march.²⁹
• Counsel for the marchers' right to march. The ACLU of Idaho's July 1999 release explains why the group that argues for civil liberties sided with Aryan Nations on the route.³²

Reading across both lists, notice who is missing. Few of Butler's followers gave interviews that have been preserved in public archives, so the record of what members believed they were doing comes mostly from their printed matter and from testimony forced by litigation. That is a limit of the record, not a finding about the people.

Where the sources differ

Several basic facts about this story are reported differently by reputable sources. Rather than choose silently, this lesson shows the conflicts.

Question	What the sources say	How this lesson writes it
When did Butler move to Idaho?	June 1973 (Spokesman-Review obituary); 1973 move and 1974 compound (Wikipedia); 1974 (SPLC 1998 and NPR, which gives 1974 for the land purchase)	"In the 1970s," with each source cited
When was the first World Congress?	1981 (Spokesman-Review, Wikipedia, SPLC 1998 profile); 1982 (one SPLC timeline, not re-found)	1981, attributed to the Spokesman-Review
When did Wassmuth begin chairing the Task Force?	1983 (Marshall Mend); 1984 (Fig Tree 2011, Idaho Capital Sun)	"1983 or 1984"
When was the Task Force founded?	February 1981 (Mend, Fig Tree, Coeur d'Alene Press, Christian Science Monitor 2017); 1982 (Christian Science Monitor 1987)	February 1981
How much was pledged in 1998?	$35,000 (Idaho Capital Sun); about $34,000 (Stewart, 2017); more than $30,000 (Spokesman-Review opinion, 2004); $10,000 plus $24,000 (Fig Tree)	About $34,000
How many votes did Butler get for mayor in 2003?	50 of about 2,100 (Seattle Times); 50 of 2,122 (Spokesman-Review)	About 50 of roughly 2,100
Did Wikipedia's "public holiday" and "1983 declaration of war" happen?	Wikipedia only; no other source read	Not stated as fact

Differences are in the secondary sources; county deeds, election canvasses and original documents would settle several of them.

Why the response worked, according to the sources

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, founded in February 1981 to counter the group's hate and terror, and chaired by Wassmuth from 1983 or 1984 (the sources differ), took part in parades and the county fair, held public events and symposiums, and produced a short television series.¹⁶ Wassmuth went on to head the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment in Seattle, which helped establish more than 150 task forces, and he called his approach "sandcastle theology."⁶ The NPR report adds that the task force, now chaired by Coeur d'Alene council member Christie Wood, has also pushed back on efforts, which NPR describes as far-right, to take over the North Idaho College Board of Trustees.¹ Lesson 9 explains how a lawsuit finished what the community's campaign started.

What 'neo-Nazi' means, and does not mean

• Means: a group that adopts Nazi symbols, ideas of racial hierarchy and antisemitism, as Aryan Nations did with its swastikas and its theology.
• Does not mean: that the group was affiliated with the German government of 1933 to 1945, or that every critic of immigration or Israel is a Nazi. Use the group's own symbols and statements, and attribute the label to the source that applied it.

Source notes for reporters

• Confirm the compound's acreage and founding year against the Kootenai County deed records and the SPLC case file on Keenan v. Aryan Nations.
• The Wikipedia text gives 1973 for the move and 1974 for the compound; NPR and the SPLC give 1974; the Spokesman-Review obituary gives June 1973. Write "in the 1970s" or "1973 or 1974" unless the deed settles it.
• Do not attribute any specific 1986 bombing to a named person without a court record. The Idaho Court of Appeals opinion in State v. Dorr is the record for the Coeur d'Alene pipe bombs.
• Do not write that Butler was convicted of anything in a criminal court; he was acquitted at Fort Smith in 1988.
• Treat the Magic Valley cross-lighting reports as a lead until the newspaper pages have been read.

Learn more

• Keenan v. Aryan Nations (SPLC): The case file; read it before writing about the compound's end.
• Wassmuth Center for Human Rights: The Boise center named for the priest who led the Task Force.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Aryan Nations: A second general reference for cross-checking.
• Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Fort Smith Sedition Trial of 1988: The trial in which Butler and 12 others were acquitted.
• Edwards v. City of Coeur d'Alene (Ninth Circuit): A court opinion arising from the 1998 march.

Notes

1. "Idaho's fight against the far right, then and now," NPR, June 27, 2022 (carried by WAMC). Read it online. ↩
2. "Aryan Nations," Wikipedia, on Butler's move to Idaho, the world congresses, the 1983 declaration, the 1986-87 bombings and the 1998 permit. Read it online. Verify each date against a primary source before quoting. ↩
3. Jim Camden and Bill Morlin, "Richard Butler, founder of Aryan Nations, dies at 86," Spokesman-Review, September 9, 2004. Local newspaper obituary, on Butler's June 1973 move, his years with Wesley Swift, the 1977 founding, the first congress in 1981, the June 1983 Spokane rally and the 1988 acquittal. Read it online. ↩
4. "Aryan Nations Leader Richard Girnt Butler in Final Days of Life," SPLC Intelligence Report, September 15, 1998. The SPLC is an advocacy organization; its profile is attributed, and facts are checked against other sources where possible. Read it online. ↩
5. "Scourge of hatred," Spokesman-Review, February 7, 2010. Local newspaper retrospective, on the Rimrock Road sign in 1977, the Rosen restaurant in 1980 and the Task Force. Read it online. ↩
6. "Refusing to let hate have the final word: the hidden history of human rights in Idaho," Idaho Capital Sun, January 8, 2025 (commentary). Read it online. ↩
7. "Huckleberries: Sweet as Rosen," Coeur d'Alene Press, January 12, 2025. Local newspaper column, on Sid Rosen and the December 1980 graffiti. Read it online. ↩
8. Profile of Marshall Mend, The Fig Tree, May 2016. A first-person account by a founding Task Force member, told to a faith-community newspaper. Read it online. ↩
9. Jonathan Martin, "Richard Butler, who led Aryan Nations, dies in Idaho at 86," Seattle Times, September 9, 2004. Newspaper obituary, on his death on September 8, 2004, the 2003 mayoral race and Furrow. Read it online. ↩
10. "Bill Wassmuth: Rights activist took on Aryan Nations," Seattle Times, August 29, 2002. Newspaper obituary, on the September 15, 1986 pipe bomb. Read it online. ↩
11. Rocky Barker, "Idaho seeks a reputation and a reality free of hate," High Country News, September 30, 2002. Magazine report, on the bombing and on Butler's remark about Wassmuth. Read it online. ↩
12. "Idaho town fights back," Christian Science Monitor, January 13, 1987. Contemporaneous national newspaper report, on the September 1986 bombings, the Task Force rally and Undersheriff Larry Broadbent. It dates the Task Force to 1982, which other sources contradict. Read it online. ↩
13. "Bomb blast reverberates 35 years later," Coeur d'Alene Press, September 17, 2021. Local newspaper retrospective on the Wassmuth bombing. Read it online. ↩
14. "He was not following orders," Seattle Weekly (c. 1999; the page date is uncertain), on David and Deborah Dorr and Butler. Read it online. ↩
15. "The Order (white supremacist group)," Wikipedia, on The Order II in Idaho and the Dorrs. Read it online. ↩
16. "A small band of white supremacists arrested," UPI, October 9, 1986. Wire report of the arrests in the Idaho bombing investigation. Read it online. ↩
17. State v. Dorr, 120 Idaho 441, 816 P.2d 998 (Ct. App. 1991). An Idaho Court of Appeals opinion (primary record), on the guilty pleas to explosion counts. Read it online. ↩
18. "Fort Smith Sedition Trial of 1988," Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Reference entry, on the trial dates, the witness counts, the jury and the acquittals. Read it online. ↩
19. "Jury seated in sedition trial," UPI, February 17, 1988. Wire report from the opening of the Fort Smith trial. Read it online. ↩
20. Bill Morlin, "A few old racist friends join Butler, 80; Aryan leader calls parade a success," Spokesman-Review, July 19, 1998. Eyewitness newspaper report of the July 18, 1998 march. Read it online. ↩
21. Amy Benfer, "Inside the Aryan compound," Salon, July 15, 1999. A reporter's first-hand account of a visit to the compound. Read it online. ↩
22. Stephan Kaufman, "Aryan Leader Admits He's Top Dog," CBS News, September 2, 2000. National news report of Butler's testimony in the Keenan trial. Read it online. ↩
23. "Defense begins its case in Aryan assault case," Spokesman-Review, September 6, 2000 (republished by a North Idaho newspaper). Trial report. Read it online. ↩
24. Profile of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, The Fig Tree, September 2011. Faith-community newspaper, on the first meeting, the Lemons to Lemonade totals and the 1984 chairmanship. Read it online. ↩
25. "The Idaho community that drove out hate," Christian Science Monitor, August 31, 2017. Retrospective drawing on Tony Stewart and Christie Wood, who were participants. Read it online. ↩
26. "Q&A with Tony Stewart," Spokesman-Review, June 10, 2007. An interview with a Task Force founder; he is a participant in the events he describes. Read it online. ↩
27. Stuart Eskenazi, "Fighting back against hate groups," Seattle Times, August 30, 2000. Newspaper report quoting neighbors and county officials. Read it online. ↩
28. Howard Husock, "Mayor Steve Judy of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and the Parade Permit Request by Neo-Nazis" (Case 1574.0), Harvard Kennedy School Case Program, 2000. Only the abstract was read for this lesson. Read it online. ↩
29. Edwards v. City of Coeur d'Alene, No. 00-35537 (9th Cir. Aug. 21, 2001). A court opinion (primary record); it concerns an arrest at the July 18, 1998 march and does not name Butler. Read it online. ↩
30. "Aryan protesters test our patience," Spokesman-Review editorial, November 14, 1999. Opinion piece, on the protesters' suits and the county settlement. Read it online. ↩
31. Stephen Lyons, "An ugly message marches down an Idaho street," High Country News, August 16, 1999. First-person magazine essay by an eyewitness, on the July 10, 1999 march. Read it online. ↩
32. "Upholding free speech rights for unpopular views, Idaho court allows Aryan Nations to march," ACLU press release, July 9, 1999. The ACLU argued for the group's right to march; this is an advocacy source describing its own case. Read it online. ↩
33. B. Freund, "Cross flames over hayfield" (headline continues with the name of a Magic Valley town), The Times-News, January 16, 1984, front page photograph and pages A5 and A6. Digitized by the Twin Falls Public Library. Cited from the module author's research register; the module author has not independently re-read the pages. Read it online. ↩
34. J. Robison, "20 gather for Aryan Nations cross burning; Media cadre covers event," The Times-News, October 19, 1986, pages A1 and A2; and Robison, "Crowds show their support for all creeds," same issue, page B1. Digitized by the Twin Falls Public Library. Cited from the module author's research register; the module author has not independently re-read the pages. Read it online. ↩
35. Butler oral history interview, December 5, 1989, Idaho State Historical Society (interviewer Barbara Pulling). Listed in the library catalog; not read for this lesson. Read it online. ↩
36. Hate Is My Neighbor, by Tom Alibrandi with Bill Wassmuth (1999), a memoir by the Task Force priest, listed in book catalogs; not read for this lesson. Read it online. ↩