History and the Republic
🕵️ Idaho's Radicals and Extremists: Socialists, Communists, Nazis and the White Supremacist Movement, 1892 to 2026
The documented history of socialism, communism, Nazism and white supremacist organizing in Idaho, from the Coeur d'Alene mine wars of 1892 and the 1912 Debs vote, through the Wobblies, the Red Scare and Senator Glen Taylor, the Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake and The Order, to Patriot Front's 2022 arrests and the extremism cases of the 2020s, plus a full history of DSA, 50501 and the No Kings coalition, their people, money, philosophies and Idaho chapters, kept in their own category. Every claim is sourced and evidence limits are stated. White supremacy, white separatism and Nazism are defined and kept apart, and each lesson separates membership, voting, accusation and conviction. Two closing lessons let the people in the record speak, from every side, and follow the neighbors, police, prosecutors and human rights workers who answered.
How to read this module
Four words get confused in Idaho debates: socialist, communist, Nazi and white supremacist. They name different things, and a person can be accused of one without being any of them. Each lesson therefore separates what the record shows (votes, court judgments, government documents, the groups' own publications) from what was alleged. Where the evidence runs out, the lesson says so. Names of living people appear only where a court record, a public official's own act or the person's own public statement puts them in the story.
What this module does not do: it does not group Christian conservatives, the American Redoubt (two different things) or conservative political groups with extremist or nationalist movements, whose values and worldview are opposed to theirs. Reports from advocacy organizations (SPLC, ADL, ACLU) and progressive writing on race and hate are attributed, treated skeptically and checked against court records, government documents and sources from other points of view.
Status: built October 20, 2026 and expanded on October 27, 2026 with first and second hand accounts, corrections and lessons 15 and 16. Some Idaho archival items (state election canvasses, newspaper issues, a few reporter citations) have not yet been checked against the original images; each lesson lists what is still open.
- 1A Field Guide to the Labels: Supremacy, Separatism, Nazism, Socialism and CommunismIdaho's debates use six words as if they meant the same thing. This opening lesson defines white supremacy, white separatism, white nationalism, Nazism, socialism and communism separately, shows how each group in the module is classified by its own acts, and sets the labeling rules for every later lesson.24 min
- 2Mines, Mills and Martial Law, 1892 to 1907The Coeur d'Alene strikes of 1892 and 1899, the 1905 assassination of former Governor Frank Steunenberg and the 1907 Haywood trial set the pattern: a state that answered labor radicalism with troops, and a radical movement that learned to distrust the state. Adds Harry Orchard in his own words, the 1900 House inquiry and the union and company accounts, labeled by stance.32 min
- 3Socialists, Wobblies and the War Years, 1912 to 1920In 1912 more than one Idaho voter in nine chose Eugene Debs, and in 1917 two thousand four hundred North Idaho loggers struck. Idaho answered with criminal syndicalism arrests. This lesson separates the ballot-box Socialists from the Wobblies and shows what the numbers prove. Adds the governor, the sheriff, the employers and the organizers in their own words, and the correct account of how the strike ended.29 min
- 4Communists in Idaho: What the Evidence Shows, 1919 to 1945Idaho's documented Communist Party presence in the 1920s through 1945 is small and hard to measure. This lesson teaches how to count radicals without inventing numbers: votes, regional membership files, ballots and newspapers, and what each can and cannot prove. Membership figures are re-sourced to what the records actually support.19 min
- 5Nativism and the Klan Before the War, 1860s to 1930sIdaho's first organized hate movements were anti-Chinese conventions and a 1920s Ku Klux Klan with a dozen or so chapters. This lesson uses a historian's research and an archive's finding aid to show how much is documented and how much is still unresearched, including the 1930s question of Nazi sympathizers. Adds a Klan treasurer's diary entries, the 1924 Boise parade and how Black Idahoans responded.24 min
- 6Glen Taylor, Herman Welker and the Red Scare, 1944 to 1957Idaho's anti-communist politics ran on accusations, not hearings: a singing-cowboy senator who ran with Henry Wallace and was called a Communist dupe, and his Republican successor who claimed 87 communists in Idaho. This lesson separates what each man did, what was alleged and what was proved. Adds Taylor's and Welker's own words, their critics, the people who dealt with them and the Hunt accusation, attributed and unproven.27 min
- 7Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake, 1973 to 2001For nearly three decades a neo-Nazi organization held an annual congress on twenty acres near Hayden Lake. This lesson tells what Richard Butler built, who came, what its members did and how North Idaho answered, using court records, a police-and-prosecution paper trail and the community's own account. Adds Butler's 1988 sedition acquittal, the 1998 and 1999 parades and first hand accounts from the Task Force and from Butler.37 min
- 8The Order and the 1980s Violence, 1983 to 1987The Order's armed robberies and the murder of Alan Berg, the Order II's Idaho bombings of 1986 and the courts' response. This lesson keeps three organizations apart: the Aryan Nations compound, The Order and The Order II, and says what each court record shows. Corrects the convictions, the Whidbey Island standoff and the Order II roles, and adds the agents' and defendants' own accounts.30 min
- 9The Keenan Verdict and the End of the Compound, 1998 to 2005A car backfired, guards fired rifles, and a Kootenai County jury returned a $6.3 million verdict that ended the Hayden Lake compound. This lesson explains what the case actually decided, what happened to the property and why the legal theory mattered. Adds the judge's negligence ruling, the special verdict, the damages by defendant and the bankruptcy-court sale.26 min
- 10The New Generation: Patriot Front, Atomwaffen and the Courts, 2011 to 2026After the compound closed, Idaho's extremist activity became dispersed, mobile and online. This lesson covers what courts and agencies have documented since 2011: the 2022 Patriot Front arrests and their uneven prosecution, a federal case involving a Boise-linked neo-Nazi cell, hate-crime statistics and the ongoing debate about what is and is not extremism. Updated with the federal sentences of 2024, the appeal in the Rousseau case, the Idaho State Police 2025 report and the defendants' and officials' own words.49 min
- 11Democratic Socialists of America: History, Ideas and the Idaho ChaptersWhere DSA came from, what it says it believes, how it is organized and who pays for it, the factions and fights inside it, what critics from different political positions say, and what is documented about its chapters in Boise, Pocatello, Sun Valley and elsewhere in Idaho. Includes the October 2026 fake text blast. Corrected on the Idaho chapters and updated with the chapters' own statements.44 min
- 1250501: How It Started and Who Is Behind ItThe 50501 movement from the January 2025 Reddit post to Idaho 50501's rallies at the Capitol: what is known and unknown about its founders, its structure and money, its stated principles, the turnout counts and who made them, the claims opponents make and what fact-checkers found. Corrects the founder question and the national structure and shows the competing Idaho turnout counts side by side.30 min
- 13No Kings: The Coalition, the Money and the CriticismHow No Kings began on June 14, 2025, who organized it, the later days and their turnout counts, the coalition members verified and not verified, what the movement says it stands for, what is documented about money, what officials said and what fact-checkers found, the incidents in Salt Lake City and elsewhere, and the Idaho events. Updated with the published partner list, Idaho officials' statements, the October 2026 events and the organizers' own words.50 min
- 14Reading the Record: Labels Today and a Reporter's GuideThe module's closing lesson reviews what the evidence shows about each movement, how the words 'communist' and 'socialist' are used in Idaho politics now, how union decline and legislative memorials fit the picture, and a step-by-step guide to verifying a claim about an Idaho extremist group. Includes the corrected text of the 2021 legislative memorial.16 min
- 15Voices from the Record: First and Second Hand Accounts, 1892 to 2026Short, attributed excerpts from the movements' own publications and testimony, from their defenders and from investigators, prosecutors, journalists, historians and local officials, organized by era and labeled by stance and type. Includes a short guide to weighing a first hand account and a catalog of 40 verified sources with links.39 min
- 16How Idahoans Answered: Neighbors, Clergy, Police, Prosecutors and the Human Rights MovementThe Task Force on Human Relations, Father Wassmuth, Tony Stewart, the Keenan legal team and Judge Hosack, the police and sheriffs who handled the marches, the 2022 arrests and prosecutions, the 2024 federal sentences and the Idaho State Police hate crime count, with sourced person to person accounts and a timeline.31 min