Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations Scrapbooks 2001

-REVIEW

SPOKES ON OF

TBE~-Rf,VlEW. NEWS ONLINE:

FEBRUARY 20 . 2001 •

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ators were livid and some pushing for the change in law worried their cause might be set back by the spectacle.

BOISE - Debate over whether to extend Idaho's minimum-wage law to farm workers reached a crescendo Monday when a group of protesting college students disrupted the Senate and bad to be carried out by police.

Sixteen people were arrested, sen-

"I don't sympathize with this demonstration, but the issue is a just one," said Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, who has a bill up for hearing Thursday to end the agricultural exemption in Idaho's minimum-

Farm workers, he said, "ought to be paid the same as everybody (else)." But, he said as senators milled around nervously after the demonstration, "I don't think it helped my bill, my chances."

At hearings held in the last three years, hundreds of people from around the state have called for repealing Idaho's agricultural exemption in the minimum-wage law.

But an interim committee that

wage law.

studied the issue last summer de-

Group seeks minimum wage for farm workers

By Betsy Z. Russell

cided instead on a bill matching Idaho law to federal statutes, which already apply. The result may be more enforcement by state agencies for farm workers who already are covered, but the change wouldn't bring any additional workers under the minimum-wage law.

While North Idaho has fewer farm workers than some agriculture-heavy parts of the state, their numbers Continued: Protest/A4

50 CENTS

The Spokesman-Review

From the Front Page

Protest: Critics .

say exemption hurts state image Continued from A1

are gr wing. Idaho ha approximately 45.000 farm worker statewide man of them Hj panic. The Panhandle' Hi panic population has doubled ince 1990 and no total more than 4.000. ace rding to the U. . Censu.

Prop nent of ending the exemption a it contribute to Idaho' poor image a a haven for bigot .

H wever, only 11 tate cover farm lab re under their tate m.inimumwage law. ' I think the public pr bably i in favor of removing the exemption,' aid Rep. D ug Jone , R-FiJ r, who chaired the interim c mmittee and pon ored HB 71 the bill the com-· mittee produced. But he aid h thought ii was a big tep for farm group to endor e thi bill, when they'd earlier vigorou ly oppo ed any change. '' It come in tep . Mayb next year, we'll g l another tep, another piece," Jone aid.

Olhers aw it different! . Humber-

Associated Press

A pair demanding that Idaho's minimum-wage law apply to fa~m workers sat on the Senate floor on Monday as protest pamphlets rained down from the gallery.

to Fuentes, executive rurector of the Idaho Migrant ouncil, aid, "Idahoan are finally getting tired of not b ing Ii tened to by the legi lator .· The S nate had b n about to tart a mem rial ervice for former lawmaker who have died when two tudents in T- hirt fe tooned with logan ran into the center of the chamber at down cra ed their arm and leg and tarted chanting.

Others in the baJcony above, the enate public gallery dumped redand-black confetti and enlarged phony dollar bill over the rail blanketing the floor and de ks below and ome nator .

'The machine will be prevented from working at aJI. Ju tic for all farm worke now! houted a young, bearded prate ter eated on the floor of !he chamber.

Senator quick! cleared out of th

chamb r while p lice b gan arre ting Lhe prate ters both there and above. Some were carried out. Two, itting back t back, I eked their necks togetber with bike I cks and had to be carried out together.

The prote ter , mo ·Uy B · e State Univer ity tudent , were charged with tre pa ing and public oui aoce.

At a raJJy on the Capitol tep an hour after the demon tration Boi e tat Univer ity pr fe or Richard Baker aid hi anaJy i of ldah ' m.irumum-wage exemption point to in tituti nalized raci m - becau e mo t of Idaho' farm worker are Hi panic.

"The governor i concerned about white farmer and i going to give them financial a istance " Baker aid. ' But not Hi panic farm workers.'

The Hou e ha a tax-cut bill up for debate today thaL would give farmer 19 million in tax break next year.

Baker quoted Martin Luther King Jr.' comm nt that it' time f r nonviolent civil di obedience wh n r guJar political mean fail.

But at a later rally ponsored by the Idaho Community Action et· work that dre a numb r f farm workers and former worker , activist limited themselve to backing Schroeder' bill and oppo ingJone '.

At lh end f I.heir rally, everal met

with J hn McGee, a policy adviser to Gov. Dirk Kempthome, to voice their concern .

McGee aid he d pa the information along to the governor.

Terry terling, a network board member, said he under tand the tudent · "[ru tration in not being heard by the p oplc who repre ent u ," but aid, ' We prefer to u e voice rather than thr wing object ." en. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alen , aid hortly after the Senate demon tration 'I was very ru appointed. Today' our enate memorial ervice. It certainly didn't add anything to the oiemnne of the occa ion.''

"I hope they don't give 'em any publicity, becau e that what the want ' added en. Robert Lee, R-Rexburg.

Tony tewart of the Kootenai aunty Task orce on Human Relation aid equal treatment on economic is ue i an important part of human right .

'It ound like from what i d velping in the· Legi lature that en.

Schroeder bill would be an effective bill, and the counterpart in the House," he aid. Buth added, "We would not in any way upport the tactic u ed by the tud nt in taking over th enate floor .... There are proper way and improper way of expre. ing you elf, and that would be improper."

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BOISE - Human rights activists demanded an apology Monday from St. Maries Rep. Dick Harwood, after I larwood said Jews are "sharp bargainers" who "take pride in that they don't pay the market price."

The Republican lawmaker was explaining his vote against a bill to remove lhe word "squaw'' from Idaho place names, saying what matters most is not words but how they're meant. He drew a parallel between the issue and his own use of the phrase "Jew Harwood 'em down" in lhe State Affairs Committee a week earlier.

"When I said 'Jew 'cm down,' ... it was never meant (as) anything derogatory toward the Jewish people in any way," Harwood said in an interview.

"The Jewish people are sharp bargainers, aren't they, and they take pride in that," he said. "I've known two or three Jewish folks, and they take pride in that they don't pay the market price. There's maybe some that ain't that way."

But, he added, "My heart was in the right place.·· Tony Stewart, a founding board member of the

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Remark: It doesn't help Idaho's image Continued from A1 Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said, " We who are involved in human rights organizations condemn the use of such language by a political leader. It is derogatory and discriminatory. It is just as offensive as using the 'N' word."

Stewart added, "He owes the Jewish people of this state and this country an apology."

North Idaho College sociology instructor David Cohen, who helped form the task force two decades ago after a Coeur d'Alene restaurant owned by a Jew was defaced, said, " It just seems to give support to the North Idaho image of being a haven for bigots and racists. And Mr. Harwood should know better, being a representative to the state Legislature."

Cohen said, " I've never heard a person say 'Catholic somebody down,' or 'Presbyterian somebody down,' or ' Mormon somebody down.' But he seems to feel quite comfortable using a re ligion that's he's not familiar with at all."

Brian Goldberg, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League's Pacific Northwest region, said the phrase is derogatory and negative ..

"If you're Jewed down, it's like somehow you were cheated and someone has gotten a deal unfairly."

Harwood's explanation of bis comment only made the insult worse, Goldberg said. " I don't know anybody that doesn't take pride, in an American capitalist society, in getting a bargain," be said.

To suggest that that desire is unique .to Jews, be said, "is just antiSemitic, it's prejudicial, it's very typical and it's discriminatory."

When Harwood first made the comment, it was during a discussion of an unrelated bill that referred to negotiations. Harwood said he simply asked whether that meant "you're going to be able to Jew 'em down?"

Anot he r committee member passed him a note asking if he also intended to "Christian 'em down," and Harwood said he was later "kinda reprimanded" for using the

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"It just seems togive support to the North Idaho image ofbeing a haven for bigots and racists. And Mr. Harwood should know better, being a representative to the state Legislature. " David Cohen, North Idaho College sociology instructor phrase. " It's not what you say, but how you say it," he said in his defense.

Harwood said he thought about bri nging up the "Jew 'em down" comment during Monday's debate over the squaw place-names bill, because be felt the same way about both issues. " I'm not being derogatory," be said. "We're not racist because we keep Squaw Peak or Squaw Bay." Idaho Lt. Gov. Jack Riggs, who was filling in as acting governor Monday, said Harwood was probably not malicious in his use of the term. However, Riggs added, " I think we all need to work very hard to avoid stereotypes, and to avoid any traditional phrases that may

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have negative connotations."

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb said he's heard the phrase " Jew 'em down" used for years, and has used it himself as a term of admiration for tough bargaining. But, he said, " ff people are hurt by it, it shouldn't be said. People need to know that it's a hurtful statement."

Norm Gissel, a Kootenai County Task Force member who helped win a multimillion-dollar judgment that bankrupted the former Aryan Nations neo-Nazi group, said, " Nobody wants to have anything detract from the great victory for civil rights that that certainly was."

He said Harwood's contention that the focus should be on intent rather than words is " nonsensical."

"Everybody would just say, 'Well, I didn't mean anything by it when I used the word squaw, l was using it with the best of intentions.' " Gissel called use of the "Jew 'em down" pbrase 1 'outrageous."

"I've known people that have lost large contracts because they used that phrase/ he said. "People just won't deal with them, and 1 certainly wouldn't have any business dealings with a person that used that kind of language."

Added Stewart, ''lt doesn't do any good to appropriate $100,000 to work on the image of Idaho when political leaders make such statements."

â&#x20AC;˘ Betsy Z. Russell can be reached at (208) 336-2854 or by e-mail at bzrussell@rmci.net.

\

A4 THE PRESS Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2001

Tribe chairman 'astounded' Refusal to remove 'squaw' from names surprises Stensgar

try was clear enough. Those tribes, comprising the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, stood together to say that squaw is offensive, he said.

"For the

By ANDREW BISCOE committee Staff writer to disregard that, it COEUR d ~ E -The was mystichainnan of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe is "astounded" with the fying," House State Affairs Ste n s gar Committee's rejection of legis- said.

T h e lation on Monday that would have led to the possible c hairman removal of the word "squaw" was among Stensgar se v era l from place names.

"I was really surprised," said Indians who testified on the Ernie Stensgar, who spoke squaw issue Monday in Boise.

Lawmakers in Boise killed from his hotel room in Boise on Wednesday. "'The bill went Senate-passed legislation to through the Senate with only remove "squaw" from 93 Idaho one dissenting vote. I was place names.

Meanwhile, Oregon's senastounded. Thinking about it more, I was really saddened ate voted to remove "squaw" how the vote went" from the state's public property.

Stensgar believed that the One of two bills approved on message to the lawmakers Monday urges the Secretary of from 55 tribes across the coun- Interior, the U.S. Board on

Geographic Names and the Oregon Geographic Names Board to remove the word from various geographic areas and sites.

A Lake City human rights leader called the committee's rejection of the legislation a "setback" for human rights.

"It sends, once again, the wrong message about Idaho," said Tony Stewart, board member and secretary of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. He is also a past president "All the tnbes understood the offensive meaning of the word, and the lawmakers should have heeded their request to eliminate the word," Stewart said Wednesday.

"When a word is derogatory and people Jmow it ... we don't describe people with derogat~ ryterms."

Andrew Biscoe can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2008, or abiscoe@cclapress.com

SECTION

•

Friday, March 2, 2001

The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

• To contact the North Idaho office, dial (208) 765-7100, toll-free (800) 344-6718; Fax: (208) 765-7149

Dees speaker for Hulllan Rights · Banquet Fund-raiser features lawyer

who won judgment against Richard Butler, Aryan Nations

By Alison Boggs Staff writer

COEUR d' ALENE - The attorney who bankrupted the Aryan Nations will be the keynote speaker at the annual Human Rights Banquet next month.

Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, succeeded with the help of Coeur d'Alene attorneys in winning a $6.3 million judgment agamst Richard Butler and hjs racist group in September.

Butler and the Aryans were found responsible for an assault on Victoria and Jason Keenan, who were attacked after their car backfired outside the Aryan compound in 1998.

Dees will speak at 7 p.m. April 6 at the Coeur d'Alene Inn in an event sponsored by the Human Rights Education Founda-

File/The Spokesman·Review

Morris Dees will be the keynote speaker at next month's Human Rights Banquet.

tion, the nonprofit fund-raising arm of the Kootenaj County Task Force on Human Relations.

"It's going to be a banquet of victory, for

the trial, for the Keenans, and for anyone who believes there's not a place for violence in our society,'' Tony Stewart, secretary of the task force, said in a news conference Thursday morrung.

The number of seats at the banquet has been increased from 400 last year to 550 this year.

Mary Lou Reed, president of the education foundation. said money raised at the banquet will be used to fund grants for teachers who attended last year's diversity conference. The money will be used to help those educators teach ruversity in their classrooms, she said.

Tables for eight at the banquet cost $500, or $1,000 to also attend a private rece{'tion for Dees prior to the banquet. l ndiv1dual tickets to the banquet cost $25.

Continued: Human rlghts/85

Human rights: Philanthropist Greg Carr will attend banquet Continued from B1 Stewart also said a " major announcement" about a human rights project in Idaho will be made within the next few weeks. He said the announcement bas something to do with millionaire philanthropist Greg Carr, an Idaho native who donates money to human rights causes. Carr, who now directs a human rights institute at Harvard University, donated $500,000 toward the Anne Frank memorial in Boise and another $500,000 toward human rights education in the state. .

One unresolved question is who will buy the Aryan Nations land and memorabilia that now belong to the Keenans, who acquired it as part of the $6.3 million judgment. The Keenans expect to sell the land to a civil rights philanthropist.

Stewart would only smile when asked Thursday if that philanthropist is Carr.

He would say, however, that Carr will attend the banquet, along with human rights activists from around the country. Among them will be Ken Harward, executive director of the

Association of Idaho Cities, and Marilyn Shuler, president of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center in Boise.

Due to Dees's presence, Stewart said, security at the banquet will be tighter than usual. People buying tickets, be said, will need to specify the name of each banquet attendee.

Stewart also announced that twice as many scholarships for minority students - four instead of two -will be awarded this year at the banquet.

The scholarships provide full tuition to North Idaho College and are funded by the NIC Foundation, the education foundation and the Rotary Club. Two of the scholarships have been named already, after Mary Lou Reed and after former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt. The two new scholarships will be named in coming weeks. " Despite all the victories we've had in the courtroom, the struggle continues," said NIC President Michael Burke. "Our partnership strengthens our ability to confront the issue."

â&#x20AC;˘ Alison Boggs can be reached at (208) 765-7136 or by e-mail at alisonb@spokesman.com.

••

Popcorn Forum will examine human spirit

By Alison Boggs Staff writer

. COEUR d'ALENE - North Idaho College will examine the human spirit during the 31st annual Popcorn Forum, which begins April 1.

The lineup for the weeklong event, announced Thursday, includes portrayals of Thomas Jefferson, Mother Theresa, Mother Jones and Mark Twain. For the sixth year running, the annual symposium will be presented primarily through chautauqoa performances, in which

performers act as historical figures.

Organizer Tony Stewart, an NIC political science instructor, said the forum could not address all aspects of the human spirit so it settled on five: love, charity and good will, beauty, work, and humor.

"The reason we do the Popcorn Forum is that we want to provide a platform for the free expression of divergent viewpoints," Stewart said.

Popcorn Forum favorite Clay Jenkinson will return to NIC with Continued: Forum/85

will have an Indian poetry and exhibit which Forum: Art exhibit planned Gallery was recently on display at the White House and is on loan from the Institute of American Indian Arts. art

Continued from B1

his portrayal of Thomas Jefferson on April 2. Jenkinson, who performed before President Clinton, is an expert on Jefferson. Jenkinson will perform during the Jove portion of the program, talking about Jefferson's love letters to Maria Cosway, the last known love of his life.

NIC instructor Mona Klinger will portray Mother Theresa on April 3, to kick off the charity and good will section. She will show how the Catholic nun lived and worked with the destitute masses in Calcutta and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. The Roman Catholic Church is in the process of granting Mother Theresa sainthood.

Beauty will be addressed from the American Indian perspective on April 4 as Coeur d'Alene tribal member Jeanne Givens and Della Warrior, president of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., join together for the presentation. Givens was the first American Indian woman to serve in the Idaho Legislature and is a past chautauqua performer at NIC. Also on April 4, the NIC Student Union Silver Beach

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On April 5, NIC librarian and past chautauqua performer Denise Clark will address work by portraying Mother Jones.

The Irish labor union organizer passionately fought for the rights and dignity of working-class people and lived to age 100.

Humor will be addressed on April 6 through a portrayal of Mark Twain. George Frein, a former philosophy and religion professor at the University of North Dakota, will portray the famous writer and humorist.

Numerous other portrayals will take place during the week during panels, in which people will respond to the day's major presentation. Joan of Arc, Helen Keller, Woody Guthrie, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, Alexander the Great, Leonardo Da Vinci and Rosie the Riveter are among the other historical figures to be portrayed.

The Popcorn Forum begins April 1 with a jazz concert at NIC's Schuler Auditorium.

All events are free and open to the public. For more information and the full schedule, call the NIC Collt:ge Relations Office at 769-7764.

HANDLE / 81

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ON OF

MARCH 2 , 2001 •

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50 CENTS

Mo1ris Dees returns to CdA

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ONLINE : WWW.SPOKESMANREVIEW . COM

TONY STEWART Guest Speaker

M GONZAGA

UNIVERSITY

Thomas More Scholarship Program

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NIC's Popcorn Forum ponders human spirit Noted performers return to stage ByTARYN BRODWATER

Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE Mother Theresa, Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain will be at North Idaho College next month to share their views on love, charity, good will and humor.

TI1e historical characters will be portrayed by scholars from the community and across the country for the college's 31st annual Popcorn Forum. This year's theme is "A Journey in Search of the Human Spirit" Each day different aspects of the human spirit will be examined through Chatauqua presentations and panel discussions. The ser ies runs April 1-6 in NIC's Boswell Hall-Schuler Auditorium and is free to the public.

'The Popcorn Forum is an enormous gift to this community," NIC President Michael Burke said.

The event is organized by Tony Stewart, NIC political science instructor.

Highlights of this year's event include: • A free concert April 1.

The NIC Jazz Ensemble, directed by Terry Jones, will play jazz favorites beginning at 7:30 p.m.

• Well-known Chautauqua performer Clay Jenkinson returns to the Popcorn Forum again this year to portray Thomas Jefferson.

Jenkinson's keynote address on April 2, titled "Jefferson's Love Letters," examines the president's love life through letters he wrote to Maria Cosway, "the last known love of his life."

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Panel speakers for the day will include Joan of Arc, Anne Frank, Helen Keller and Woody Guthrie.

• On April 3, NIC instructor Mona Klinger will assume the role of Mother Theresa to discuss charity and good will.

Panelists will include Princess Diana, the Dalai Lama, Audrey Hepburn and Dorothy Day. • Jeanne Givens and Della Warrior will discuss the human spirit from the American Indian perspective on April 4. Panelists include Josephine Baker, Leonardo DaVinci, Alexander the Great and Frances Sch aeffer.

Throughout the day an Indian poetry and art exhibit

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that was displayed at the White House can be viewed at the NIC Student Union Silver Beach Gallery.

• Denise Clark, the college's public services librarian , will portray fair labor advocate Mother Jones on April 5.

• The final day of the forum will feature George Frein as Mark Twain, discussing humor.

Frein has performed in

about 100 communities during the past 10 years with the Great Plains Chautauqua Society's Summer Humanities Program.

Panelists include Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and Pat Paulsen.

Each day of the forum also includes performances by local musicians.

Taryn Brodwater can be reached at 664-8176, ext. 2012, or tbrodwater@cdapress.com

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Dees to speak at banquet ByTARYN BRODWATER Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE The man lmown for bankrupting the Aryan Nations and other hate groups across the country is returning to Coeur d'Alene.

Morris Dees, an attorney with the Southern P~erty Law Center, will be the keynote·speaker next month at the Kootenai County Task Force on. Human Relations

arships will be awarded during tlie banquet Mary •Lou Reed, HREF president. said the founda'tion raises money for edu~ tion projects, grants and the scl;lo~ps.

"We're hoping to raise many thousands of dollars fQr future projects," Reed

said.

Last year, the foundation was only able to award two scholarship,s. ' Because of donations from the NIC Human Rights Banquet .

Foundatiori and the Coeur Task force secretary' d'.Alene Rotary Club to Tony Stewart said Dees will KCIFHR. four will be awardspeak on the future of ed. lrfbat's growth, · that's human rights. He is also expected to make a -~r progress," ~ ,said. "We~re announcement" at t4e A:rm) very pleased."

Others scheduled to 6 banquet, Stewart said Another announcement attend the banquet include is, e ~ d from philan- Ken , Harward, executive thropist and ld~Q naqve directoroftheAssociationof Cities; Marilyn Greg Carr, who has ,aJreaciy Idaho given $1 million *,toWNd Schuler, president of the Rights human rights in Idaho:, ,It Idaho Human has been'rumored that Carr Eaueation Center and some ,plai:Js to .p ur~ the"fpr- civil rights leaders from ~ew mer Aryan Nations com- York.City.

pound.in Hayden.

Stewart said the ban~ the final activity in North I~o Coijege's weeltlong Popcorn Forum and a fund.raiser for the Human Rights " Education Foundatidn. . will ,be "a banquetofVK1WY-the victory Qf the. and for the Keenans and for everyone."

Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, were victims of a

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car chase, shooting spree and physical assau!.t by three Aryan Nations ~ ty guards outside the compound near Hayden on July l, 1998.

Before the banquet. a private (eCel)tion will be held at 5 p.m. at The Coeur d'Alene

Resort with M~rris Dees.

Attendance'will be limited A general reception begins at 6 p.m. atthe Coeur d'Alene Inn, followed by dinner and the keynote address at7p.m.

Tidcets are $25 for dinner and the general reception, $75 for* the private reception only or $150 for t h e ~ reception, general reception and dinner.

Tables can bel)Ul'Chased for $500,$1,000.

Information~664-3564

They were awarded a $6.3 million judgment which

Staff writer Mike forced Aryan Nations leader McLean contributed to this Richard Butler mto bank- report. ruptcy. .

Fwe civil rights awards and four NIC minority scbol-

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Taryn Brodwater can be reached et 664-8176; ext 2012, or tbrodwater@cdapress.com

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MARCH 8, 2001 •

50 CENT S

Compound to be rights center Kempthorne cites Idaho gains in recognizinghuman rights

By Betsy Z. RusseU Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - The planned conversion of the former Aryan Nations compound into a human rights cenler was lauded Wednesday by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who said the state is making real strides on human rights and tolerance.

The Carr Foundation confirmed that it

will turn the Aryans' former home near Hayden Lake into a low-key education center.

Stoly,11 There, local business groups, college classes and others could explore the history of civil rights, Nazism, hate and tolerance. Neo-Nazi paraphernalia from the defunct hate group will be displayed in a museum located in the structure that the Rev. Richard Butler used as a church, where he preached

INSID E • Aryans want to carry loaded firearmsin parade.

white supremacy.

0th.er buildings on the 20-acre site will be demolished, and replaced with a human rights classroom that features a history of civil rights in America.

"The days of the Aryan Nations using this facility as a national headquarters for promoting religious and race-based hatred anq violence are over," said Greg Carr, the Idaho native and former Prodigy Inc. chairman who purchased the site through his foundation this week.

"The property's future is to serve as a reminder that justice prevails when it comes to human rights."

Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

The steeple and guard tower still stand over the former Aryan compound.

Kempthorne used Carr's announcement to also tout Idaho becoming the first state in the West to recognize an African American holiday marking the Continued: Aryan/A4

Aryan: .Idaho recogruzes

Juneteenth Continued from A1 emancipation of American slaves.

The governor was joined at a Boise news conference by supporters who have worked two years to win recognition of Juneteenth National Freedom Day in Idaho.

"Idaho is a beautiful, peaceful place," Kempthome said. "We welcome diversity, and refuse to allow the beliefs and insensitivity of a few individuals to tarnish our reputation."

Butler's Aryan Nations went out of business last year when a North Idaho jury awarded a $6.3 million judgment to a mother and son who were attacked by the group's armed guards. In a bankruptcy sale last month, Butler lost the compound • where he preached hate for more than two decades.

Kempthorne said the transformation of the site joins the newly recognized June 19 holiday as signs that Idaho is moving forward on promoting tolerance - despite insensitive racial comments about African Americans, Hispanics, Jews and American Indians made by several Idaho political leaders in recent weeks.

"We know that we have challenges," Kempthorne said. "But each , of these elements are building blocks as we put together a very strong foundation celebrating the human spirit and the rights of people - all people."

The Juneteenth National Freedom Day resolution passed both houses of the Legislature unanimously, Kempthorne noted. It recognizes the June 19 date that official word of President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Em'ancipation Proclamation reached Texas, finally freeing the last African American slaves more than two years after Lincoln first signed the proclamation. The resolution merely designates and recognizes the holiday; it doesn't close government offices that day.

Juneteenth is typically celebrated

by African Americans with family picnics and gatherings.

Tony Stewart, a founding board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said the transformation of the notorious Hayden Lake site and the recognition of Juneteenth are "two positive steps." " This is a good day for Idaho and human rights. We have different kinds of days, but this is a good day," Stewart said.

Stewart was picked by Carr to bead

"This is agood day for Idaho and human rights.

We have different kinds ofdays, but this is agood dary. " TonJ Stewart, Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations

a local committee that will oversee and administer the new 20-acre human rights center.

"We're still in the planning stages,'' Stewart said, but many of the details about the new center will be settled in time to announce at a human rights fund-raising banquet in Coeur d'Alene on April 6.

Carr said, "It is in a remote location, so it isn't going to be some sort of place that's open all the time with people coming and going. It's going to be a center that is used by special appointment or invitation."

•

....

Displaying the former Aryan Nations' Nazi paraphernalia will help back up the center's message, Carr said.

"I think it's important to recognize that this kind of philosophy, this kind of hate, still exists. Sad as it is, we must admit that, and we must fight against this."

Carr said he first got the idea for the education center from Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Judy.

Judy could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Carr's $250,000 purchase of the site was just his latest contribution to human rights in Idaho. He's also funding a five-year human rights campaign by the Association of Idaho Cities, backing the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, and supporting other efforts.

Last year, Carr's foundation endowed a major center for human rights policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

• Betsy Z. Russell can be reached at (208) 336-2854 or by e-mail at bzrussell@rmci.net.

•••

Our view Followers ofthe old Aryan Nations still make no-ises, but the implications are markedly different now.

Sounds like rattle of a timely demise No one expected the publicity bounds in the old Aryan Nations to slink off quietly to northwestern Montana or other points with their tails between their legs.

And they're not.

Even without a home to call their own, they know how to make headlines and remain all-around pests. We'd love to ignore these Sad Sacks. But it's hard to do so when they plan to be busy again this year holding their annual hatefest in Farragut State Park and marching in Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint and Rathdrum. It's also hard to ignore their demand to bear loaded arms during the Coeur d'Alene march July 7, which Idaho law may allow-even if the city parade ordinance and common sense wouldn't.

All the noise and trouble Richard Butler and his remnant are making, however, won't hide one compelling fact- the racists have all but lost the battle for Idaho's soul.

Consider: Their compound now is owned by Greg Carr, a wealthy Idaho Falls native who plans to transform it into a center for civil rights education. Active human rights organizations exist throughout the state to deal with the Aryan Nations in its death throes and with other racists. And lawmakers have approved two key pieces of minority legislation during the 2001 session.

The region is indebted to Carr, a former Prodigy Inc. chairman who has used his great wealth and passion for social justice to become a force for good in the Gem State. His $250,000 purchase of the Aryan Nations compound last week was just his latest contribution in Idaho's battle against racism. He also donated $500,000 of the $1.6 million cost to build the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise and funded a five-year human rights campaign for the Association ofldabo Cities.

Significantly, Carr turned to Tony Stewart of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations to head a committee that will oversee the new human rights center. Stewart bas fought for human rights locally for the last quarter century. He has written the script on how to deal with racists - literally. Local government officials would be wise to follow Carr's lead and seek advice from

Stewart and other human rights veterans when bigots come calling.

Other signs that the Gem State has turned the corner in promoting tolerance include this Legislature's votes to make Idaho the first Western state to recognize Juneteenth National Freedom Day, an African-American holiday, and to set a decent minimum wage for farm laborers. It's easy to lose track of this progress as a result of the nasty racial comments about blacks, Hispanics, Jews and American Indians made recently by some Idaho political leaders.

So, let Butler's followers make noise and grab a few more headlines. Their 15 minutes of fame are almost gone.

D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board

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COEUR d'ALENE - The man who has made a career of fighting hate comes back to the Lake City today to get a little love.

Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, will deliver the keynote address at the annuaJ banquet that Dees the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations uses to raise money for its Human Rights Education Foundation.

Dees made national news last faJI when he won a civil judgment that bankrupted Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler.

Representing Victoria and Jason Keenan, Dees helped win a $6.3 million judgment against Butler and some of his followers for a shooting that occurred in 1998. As a result of the court ruling, the Keenans obtained Butlers 20-acre compound.

"He'll obviously tell some trial stories," said Jim Carrier, who works with Dees in Montgomery, Ala., "but he'll also be there to support and praise the local people there who have fought this good fight for so long."

Dees will use the occasion to launch the new Web Continued: Dees/82

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Dees: Web site tracks hate news Continued from 81

site, tolerance.org, which tracks both hate and human rights groups. " It also allows Web browsers lO take a Yale Universiry test to determine if they have any hidden biases," said Carrier, who is the director of the Website.

"The basic thrust of the Web site is keeping up with hate news, like Coeur d'Alene rising up against Butler," Carrier said. '¡It 1s inspiring to other people in the country because they think they can do something agai nst hate, t00."

Internet powerhouses Yahoo! and Cisco Systems lnc. helped fund and donate expertise to develop Tolerance.org, Carrier said. " We think it's got something for everybody," he said.

The Web site has a hate map that shows 602 active hate groups across

the country. It also shows about 1,800 human rights organizations, including about 100 in Idaho, Carrier said.

"It allows people to look inside themselves, their fami lies and take stock and actually do something about it," be said. "We want to awaken people, and then have them dig deeper into the issues themselves."

Tony Stewart, spokesman fo r the task force, said Dees will be followed

by Greg Carr, an Internet millionaire, who bought the compound from the Keenans. He plans to tum it into a human rights educational center.

"It's going to be a very special evening," Stewart said.

All 544 tickets have been sold for the event, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Coeur d'Alene Inn. The banquet " is a celebration of a great victory," Stewart said. "I'm very excited. It's a great day for everyone who supports civil rights."

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ii'ALINI April 7, 2001 V

Dees: 'Not in our town' Attorney praises Cd'A at human rights banquet

By JOHN MASON St aff writer

COEUR D'ALENE -The sweet taste of justice and victory was celebrated Friday night at the fourth annual Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights banquet Nearly 550 guests filled the banquet hall of the Coeur d'Alene Inn to capacity for the yearly fund-raiser that provides educational grants toward human rights.

"2000 has been a good year for the organization and for human rights in Kootenai County," said KCTFHR pr esident Doug Cresswell. 'The

JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Correspondent

Human Rights supporters listen intently as Morris Dees expresses t he levity of trial against the Aryan Nation during Friday night's celebration at the Coeur d'Alene Inn.

highlight of which was the closure and sale of the Aryan Nation compound." The entire room er upted in rau-

cous applause.

Philanthropist and Idaho native Greg Carr recently bought the former Aryan

.'

Nation compound in Hayden with plans to conver t it into an institute for teaching tolerance.

The compound's sale came as a result of a $6.3 million judgment against Aryan Nation leader Richard Butler which forced him into bankruptcy.

Morris Dees, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama - also the man who helped bring Butler's gross actions to justice - was the banquet's keynote speaker.

Task Force secretary Tony Stewart called Dees "the most effective civil rights leader in the United States since Martin Luther King Jr.," while board member Norm Gisse11 introduced Dees as "a great passionate friend of human rights."

DEES continued on A3

â&#x20AC;˘

Idaho/Nation

DEES continued from A 1 "He belongs to all of us," Gissell said. "He's America's citizen.''

Dees took the audience back to the night of July 1, 1998 when Victoria Keenan and her son Jason were victims o~ physical assault by three Aryan Nation security guards.

Without the encouragement of the KCTFHR, which prompted the Keenans to prosecute, their case may never

have been brought to justice,

..

Dees said. The rest of the community essentially sat on their hands.

"I think the reason why this attitude was taken was that the community had become numb to Butler's actions and the thugs he brought into the community," Dees said. ''Unless you con.front the schoolyard bully, he'll still be the bully."

The effect of Keenans' victory, and the support of people like the KCTFHR, Dees told the crowd, "(we are) saying (to Butler and his followers) in a loud voice, 'Not in our town!"'

Dees was proud to announce the unveiling of a new Internet Web site, www.tolerance.org, that promotes justice against hate crimes.

JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Correspondent

Nearly 550 people swarmed the Cataldo Room at the Coeur d'Alene Inn Friday night in order to celebrate the human rights victory of North Idaho with the Human Rights Task Force. Keynote speaker at the banquet w as Morris Dees of tfie Southern Poverty Law Center.

''We hope to take back the Web from the 350 Web sites already on the Internet," Dees said.

The number of hate sites are up from just one in 1995, Dees said.

The evening was certain1y a shining moment for community members used to the dark stain Butler and his ilk have left on North Idaho.

"I'm encouraged to see a sell-out crowd like this, in a room filled with so many tolerant, caring people," said Coeur d'Alene resident Fred Glienna.

"It underscores that we've done a lot of work, and it reminds us that we always have to be vigilant and do more work."

Spokane resident Diedre Ashmore was also g reatly encouraged by the celebratory attitude of the banquet "I think it's wonderful what (Dees) did," Ashmore said.

"He's a man of great courage. I really appreciate his vision for justice and equality."

Dees said that the Butler case was important because of his symbolism in the whole

white supremacy/Neo-Nazi movement. But like he told the crowd, of the 10,000 hate crimes committed last year, only 2 percent were connected to hate groups.

'They're committed by our next door neighbors against gay and lesbian couples, blacks, interracial couples," Dees said.

And that's the one thing Dees said he learned from the trial, that suing Butler and taking his compound won't stop intolerance in America.

At that very moment, Butler and a handful of his young followers were outside protesting this celebration of justice. ¡ "I feel sorry for this sad old man living out his life bitter in his hatred," Dees said. He gestured to the table in front of him, "I wish they were sitting at this table to bear this today.

It's important to include those we don't agree with."

And while there may always be ignorant hate crimes, there should always be a community unwilling to be numb to them.

"You can't stop people from organizing, but you can make it expensive when they promote violence," Dees said.

John Mason can be reached at 773-7502 or jmason@cdapress.com

JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Correspondent

Southern Poverty Law Center attorney, and hero to many North Idaho residents, Morris Dees thanks the Coeur d'Alene area for its support during the landmark trial against the Aryan Nation last year.

Idaho/Nation white supremacy/Neo-N azi movement. But like he told the crowd, of the 10,000 hate crimes committed last year, only 2 percent were connected to hate groups.

'They're committed by our next door neighbors against gay and lesbian couples, blacks, interracial couples," Dees said.

And that's the one thing Dees said he learned from the trial, that suing Butler and taking bis compound won't stop intolerance in America.

At that very moment,

DEES continued from A 1 "He belongs to all of us," Gissell said. "He's America's citizen."

Dees took the audience back to the night of July 1, 1998 when Victoria Keenan and her son Jason were victims o( physical assault by three Aryan Nation security guards.

Without the encouragement of the KCfFHR, which prompted the Keenans to prosecute, their case may never

have been brought to justice, Dees said. The rest of the community essentially sat on their hands.

"I think the reason why this attitude was taken was that the community had become numb to Butler's actions and the thugs he brought into the community," Dees said.

"Unless you confront the schoolyard bully, he'll still be the bully."

The effect of Keenans' victory, and the support of people like the KCfFHR, Dees told the crowd, "(we are) saying (to Butler and bis followers) in a loud voice, 'Not in our town!"'

Dees was proud to announce the unveiling of a new Internet Web site, www.tolerance.org, that promotes justice against hate crimes.

Butler and a handful of his JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Correspondent

Nearly 550 people swarmed the Cataldo Room at the Coeur d'Alene Inn Friday night in order to celebrate the human rights victory of North Idaho with the Human Rights Task Force. Keynote speaker at the banquet w as Morris Dees of tf1e Southern Poverty Law Center.

"We hope to take back the Web from the 350 Web sites already on the Internet," Dees said.

The number of hate sites are up from just one in 1995, Dees said.

The evening was certainly a shining moment for community members used to the dark stain Butler and bis ilk have left on North Idaho. ''rm encouraged to see a sell-out crowd like this, in a room filled with so many tolerant, caring people," said Coeur d'Alene resident Fred Glienna.

"It underscores that we've done a lot of work, and it reminds us that we always have to be vigilant and do more work."

Spokane resident Diedre Ashmore was also g reatly encouraged by the celebratory attitude of the banquet.

"I think it's wonderful what (Dees) did," Ashmore said.

"He's a man of great courage. I really appreciate his vision for justice and equality."

Dees said that the Butler case was important because of his symbolism in the whole

young followers were outside protesting this celebration of justice. ¡ "I feel sorry for this sad old man living out his life bitter in his hatred," Dees said. He gestured to the table in front Qf him, "I wish they were sitting at this table to hear this today.

It's important to include those we don't agree witl1."

And while there may always be ignorant hate crimes, there should always be a community unwilling to be numb to them.

"You can't stop people from organizing, but you can make it expensive when they promote violence," Dees said.

John Mason can be reached at 773-7502 or jmason@cdapress.com

AN EDI TION OF 1kE .5PoKEsJlAN-REYIEW

APRIL 7, 2001 â&#x20AC;¢

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50 CENTS

Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center chats with people attending Friday's Human Rights Victory Banquet in Coeur d'Alene.

Bnan Plonka/The Spokesman-Review

•

'

Dees says Idaho delivered justice lawyer credits human rights leaders with ousting Aryans

By Thomas Clouse Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE- Morris Dees deflected praise for bankrupting the Aryan Nations on Friday, saying local human rights Jeaders planted the seed that grew into justice.

Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, returned to Coeur d'Alene, where last fall he won a $6.3 million civil judgment against Aryan

Nations leader Richard Butler and some of his folJowers.

Dees was the keynote speaker for the Human Rights Victory Banquet surrounded by 544 supporters as Butler stood in the cold with a hand-made sign and vilified those who attended the event.

"I feel sorry for that sad old man who will live out his life bitter in hatred," Dees said of Butler.

Dees praised the efforts of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations for

..

malting pos~ible the chain of events that Jed to the court victory.

As he recounted the July l, 1998, incident in which Aryan Nations guards fired at a car containing Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, Dees also criticized inaction by the Kootenaj County Sheriffs Department.

"They did an investigation,' Dees said.

"They took a picture or two. But that's when things went realJy bad wrong."

H the armed men fired assault rifles at a car anywhere else in the United States, it would have generated a different response, Dees said.

Continued: Rights/AS

..

•• •• •

•• • •

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Rights: Sheriffs ..

spokesman takes issue with D ees

''I think in this case, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, justice rolled down like water."

Continued from A1 Sheriffs spokesman Ben Wolfinger, who attended the banquet, said Dees' portrayal of the event was.n't "exactly accurate."

The Keenans "weren't cooperating with law enforcement that night.

They didn't want to report it," Wolfinger said. ¡ "I think it was handled appropriately," he said, noting that two Aryan Nations members were convicted in connection to the shooting.

Dees said the Keenans were justified in their fear. It was only after human rights leaders Norm Gissel, Tony Stewart and others offered their support did the case against the Aryan Nations get started.

"The community bad become numbed to the actions of Richard Butler and the thugs he brought into this community," he said. " Nothing would have happened,

Morris Dees except for the great group of people who make possible the reason we are here tonight," Dees said. "They did not simply let the injustice that occurred on Rimrock Road go unpunished."

Dees added that he believes an incident like the Keenan shooting won't happen again here.

He praised "those who had the courage, the passion and the desire to make sure fairness and justice ruled out," he said. "I think in this case, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, justice rolled down like water."

"It happened because the seeds and the passion for justice, that came to the aid of Victoria and Jason Keenan, were deep in the hearts of the people who founded the Kootenai County Human Rights Task

Force."

Butler and six of his followers didn't share that same view of the court decision. They stood with signs and an Aryan Nations flag in front of the Coeur d'Alene Inn to protest Dees' speech.

"When you have $185 million to buy off a judge and jury, what the hell's the difference," Butler said, as he carried a sign that read " Mr. Dees: Do You know God Hates Perjury."

Aryan staff leader Shaun Winkler said human rights leaders "are the real haters.

"We have a new attitude about things. We feel we have nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Dees acknowledged that bankrupting Butler will not make hate go away. That's why he called on l.ocal leaders and volunteers to contmue supporting human rights.

"Your support here tonight is so important. Because you are saying, 'Not in our town.'

"I hope, as you go forward, that you truly will not be satisfied until everything is done to ensure that the message of love and tolerance goes out." â&#x20AC;˘ Staff writer Alison Boggs contributed to this report.

-

••cttl•t<t

THE PRESS/ NORTH IDAHO NEWS NETWORK Sunday, April 8, 2001 A7

Those honored at banquet receive award, gratitude 111111111, Nol•lh ldalNJ lthlr-.-.y IIIMkad COEUR d• ALENE-The mother and son who brought down white supremacist icon Richard Butler in a Kootenai courtroom last summer were recognired Friday night at the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations annual fundraiser banquet Victoria and Jason Keenan took the stand against Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler and his former security officials last summer in the landmark trial that resulted in $6.3 million judgment against the Butler and his group.

On Friday night, the Task Force acknowledged their efforts to stamp out the North Idaho hate group when it presented them with a one-time

award honoring their courage and conviction throughout the ordeal, said Task Force member Tony Stewart Three other people were honored at the event Local attorney Ken Howard assisted in the legal work on the Keenan's case. For his efforts the task force presented him the Civil Rights Award. Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, took up the Keenans case at no charge, was also presented the Civil Rights Award.

Former Idahoan Greg Carr was the third recipient of the Civil Rights Award. Carr, who makes his home in Massachusetts, recently purchased the former Aryan Compound and plans to convert it to center for teaching tolerance.

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Commissioners conspicUfJus by their emba"assing absence

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victory party to celebrate the most significant event in Kootenai County human rights history - and no county com-hiss-ioaers? That's right.

The Fiddlers Three were MIA Friday when the county's Who's Who turned out to applaud the Aryan Nations bankruptcy sale. Most K-County solons were missing, too. But that's understandable. There were no freebie tickets to be bad. Mayor Steve Judy and every Lake City council member were there. Ditto Post Falls Mayor Clay Lark.in. But the commis-shunners couldn't be bothered. Mebbe there was something good on TV that night. Mebbe they wanted to send a message. F'shame.

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Idaho R's tolerate D's outside voting booth As for the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations event, this Potato head lost track of the standing ovations at 10. Politically, most at the podium were Democrats, most in the audience Republicans. Never have so many Idaho R's applauded so loudly for so many Idaho D's ... The best line of the night belonged to Boy Mayor Judy, who expressed concern that homeless people were picketing in front of The Coeur d'Alene Inn while hundreds enjoyed rubber chicken inside. Racist Richard Butler and a few goosesteppers, of course, were oo tbe sjdewaJk protesting the " theft" of

their home and vilifying everyone within earshot ... French Fries (or, "They earned standing O's"): .1, Morris Dees; 2, Bill Wassmuth; 3, Norm Gissel and Ken Howard; 4, Victoria and Jason Keenan; and 5, Greg Carr.

Boy mayor planted Idea that sold compound Sweet Potatoes - to Steve Judy for suggesting to Carr that he buy the Aryan Nations compound at the bankruptcy sale ... Quotable Quotes (from the victory celebration): " It only took a moment to tell someone to wire the money" - millionaire Carr, downplaying his role in the purchase of the Aryan nations complex ... "You Sodomites" - Butler to passing cars headed toward the victory banquet ... "Unless someone confronts the schoolyard bully, he's going to continue to be the schoolyard bully" - civil rights lawyer Dees ... "The manual typewriter is the only thing the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and l have in common" - Dees, discussing his high-tech illiteracy . .. "You are my hero" - local human rights leader Tony Stewart to Dees ... This edition of Hot Potatoes was brought to you by the No. 544. Or, the number of people at the human rights victory party.

Or, about 100 times as many as Butler and the Aryan protesters outside. â&#x20AC;˘ D.F. Oliveria can be contacted at (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125, or daveo@spokesman.com.

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Editorial board Members of the edttorial board are Stacey Cowles. publisher; Chris Peck, editor; Scott Sines. managing edttor; John Webster, opinion editor; Rebecca Nappi, Doug Floyd and Ken Sands, interactive editors; O.F. Oliveria, Fem Christenson and Gary Crooks, writers; John Kafentzis, newsroom guest writer; Marla A. Caprile, newspaper guest writer; and Lorenzo Hannan, community guest writer.

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·Aryans hunt for church SANDPOINT - Aryan Nation followers are looking to build a new church somewhere North Idaho, a group spokesman said on Thursday. . The group confirmed they do not intend to show up in Sandpoint next week and will instead use the time to prepare for the Aryan National Congress ib July and find land for a new compound .. "W~re going to have fundraisers t6 buy another piece of property for an Aryan Nation church," said Shaun Wmkler, the group's staff leader. ~ Winkler said the white

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THE PRESS Friday, April 13, 2001 A 3

By KEITH KINNAIRD North Idaho News Network

• . . . . . . f'IIII'•

supremacy group has been looking at land in Kootenai Bonner and Boundary counties.

Wmkler said the group has looked mainly in Kootenai and Boundary counties because property he looked at in Bonner County was too expensive.

However, he said the group is tiring of Kootenai County.

If they do find another piece of land, Winkler said he would probably put it in his own name instead of church leader Pastor Richard Butler's so it can't be seized.

The group hopes to raise money for a new church through donations, or possibly by selling pizzas through a Pizza Hut fundraising program, Wmkler said.

AN ED IT ION OF

1'JJE .5PonsMAN-REYIEW

-REVIEW Wednesday MAY 16 , 2001 â&#x20AC;˘

50 CENTS

Aryan church likely to bun1 Turning compound into human rights center now seen as unfeasible

By Bill Morlin StaH writer

The notoriou Aryan Nations compound in North Idaho apparently will be burned to the ground without ceremony.

The new owner of Richard Butler's fonner church is abandoning plans to turn the site into a human rights education center and museum, sources say.

Instead, multimillionaire and human rights activist Greg Carr reportedly favors turning over the site to firefighters for a training exercise.

For a quarter century, through last

summer, the North Idaho landmark attracted a stream ofwbite supremacists - many of whom left behind legacies of crime and violence.

Legal papers are being drafted to authorize the Northern Lakes Fire District to bum down the abandoned Aryan church, an old farmhouse and outbuildings at the site, sources say.

Then the 20-acre site would be turned into cow pasture and sold.

"We've had some preliminary discussions, but at this point I can't really elaborate," Northern Lakes Chief Jeff Welsh said late Tuesday.

A human rights education and

conference center documenting the impact of hate groups in the Northwest and the United States probably \\-Ould be established at another site, such as a public library or a facility at North Idaho College, sources say.

The idea of converting the former Aryan Nations compound to a human rights center was scrapped because of concerns about the cost of security at the remote site, and about insurance lfability issues.

The plan to burn down tbe compound was first disclosed Monday at a meeting of an ad hoc citizens Continued: Compound/A12

Jesse Tn~ley/The Spokesman-Review

The former Aryan Nations office In Hayden Lake sits in disarray.

•

........

Compound: Aryan would rather it burned Continued from A1

committee selected by the new owner. The committee is to forward its recommendation about the compound's future soon to the Carr Foundation.

"It would cost more to restore those run-down buildings out there than to build new ones," said one committee member, who asked not to be identified.

"We also asked ourselves, 'Would we tum it into a tourist attraction by keeping the buildings out there?'

"Some of us favor having a human rights conference center, one that sticks out like a sore thumb, right here in Coeur d'Alene," the committee member said.

Initially, the burn was to occur quietly as early as next week, but now apparently it will be postponed until June.

It couJd be planned for June 19, Idaho's newly recognized holiday marking the emancipation of slaves.

"The plan was to bum it down next week, in a low-key way, without the media or the public knowing about it until after the fact," the source said.

"They didn't want to make a big deal about it, a big victory dance or a ceremony."

Aryan leader Richard Butler, now living in a ranch-style house in Hayden, wasn't available for comment Tuesday.

His staff assistant, Shaun Winkler, said he welcomed news the former church would be bvmed down. .

"I'd rather see it burned down and left in a pile of ashes rather than turned into a human rights museum," Winkler said. "That would cause big problems for some of us if they turned it into a human rights museum."

Tony Stewart, who beads the ad hoc citizens committee, said Tuesday that "various options" for the com-

•

• t ..

pound were discussed, but he declined to say which one he favors. He said the final decision could come soon.

"Some demolition will occur up there," he said, "and we don't plan on having any kind of ceremony."

Stewart avoided questions about plans to bum down the bate landmark and wouldn' t say whether the intention was to inform the public through the news media -r- after demolition occurs.

"Whatever we do, the final decision will be made by Greg Carr," Stewart said. " I'm not the one who has the finaJ say."

Stewart aJso wouldn't confirm that plans for a human rights center at the compound were being abandoned but said serious security and liability questions exist.

Mike Smith, representing the Idaho Association of Cities at the committee meeting, reportedly urged postponement of the burning so human rights activists and others can visit the site. He couldn't be reached Tuesday at his office in Boise.

Several human rights activists aJ. ready have toured the former compound, abandoned last October by Butler and his followers.

The citizens panel was formed this year by Carr, whose Carr Foundation bought the former Aryan compound for $250,000 on March 6 from Victoria and Jason Keenan.

The Keenans gained possession of the property in February after it was liquidated to conclude a bankruptcy filed by Butler.

He filed for bankruptcy last October, about a month after the Keenans got a $6.3 million judgment against Butler and the Aryan Nations church he started in North Idaho 25 years ago.

The Keenans won the jury award in a lawsuit they filed after being shot at

by Aryan security guards in 1998.

• Bill Mor1in can be reached at (509) 459-5444 or by e-mail at billm@spokesman.com.

••

• II 6

..

Two views How should the Aryan Nations' old compound be destrr,yed?

Give the place a hot send-off Millionaire activist Greg Carr and his advisers wisely have decided to burn the old Aryan Nations compound to the ground rather than convert it into a human rights center.

Their reasoning was sound.

Not only would it be costly to Bum it down convert the compound's 10 dilapidated buildings and trailers Purify the grounds, into a human rights center and museum, in addition it would be train fire crews, too. difficult to protect staff from sabotage and worse. Disciples of the defunct Aryan Nations are still seething about the verdict that forced leader Richard Butler into bankruptcy and off his property.

A human rights center at the isolated complex in rural Hayden Lake would have been a target for mischief.

Aryan Shaun Winkler, an aide to Butler, said as much in commenting on the decision: "I'd rather see it burned down and left in a pile of ashes, rather than turned into a human rights museum.

Thal would cause big problems for some of us if they turned it into a human rights museum.'

Many have voiced opinions on what should be done with the buildings. Some want them preserved at least until human rights advocates from elsewhere have a chance to visit. Scores already have, including an African-American woman from southeast Idaho who wept for 20 minutes at the compound's guard post. Others see something sinister in the choice to use fire to raze the compound, claiming it conjures images of burning crosses and the blaze that claimed racist Robert Mathews on Whidbey Island.

But it's best on issues like this to defer to veterans of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, such as Tony Stewart.

During a tour of the compound on Thursday, Stewart said there's nothing symbolic about the planned series of controlled burns: "We would bulldoze the buildings if that was cheaper.'

The various buildings - including the old Aryan Nations worship fac ility, the skinheads' dorm, Butler's office and print shop-will provide a unique, bands-on laboratory for new firefighting recruits.

Stewart said he would be delighted if training from the controlled bums at Camp Hate is responsible someday for saving a life.

In the meadow behind the Aryan Nations worship building, a piled handful of charred logs that once were burned as crosses serve as a somber reminder that fire was used to fan hatred on the property. For those searching for symbols, the next fires will exorcise that evil and purify the ground.

D.F. Ollverla/Staffwriter

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Forgo temptation to bum it down Fight the temptation.

Don't burn down the infamous Aryan Nations compound.

Yes, it's almost irresistible. A chance to wipe out the headquarters of hate with a cleansing fire.

What a symbolic spectacle - like Aryan Nations members standing around a flaming cross.

Plow it under And that's the best reason not to give the Aryan compound a fiery Fire~ too si,milar send-off. This isn't fighting fire with fire. The Aryans used fire to try to to Aryans' methods. intimidate people they didn't like.

Should we stoop to that level?

Remember, the reason the Aryan compound is in a position to be razed is because law-abiding citizens went to court to seek damages for the barbaric actions of some at the compound. They followed a civil judicial process and won. Setting a torch to the compound now is in stark contrast to that civil approach to settling disputes.

Earlier plans called for the compound to be turned into a human rights center. It's understandable that those plans were abandoned.

The sit~ is isolated and security was an obvious concern. The poorly built structures would have been more trouble than they were worth to refurbish. ¡ ¡ The proposal to let the Northern Lakes Fire District burn down the Aryan headquarters as a training exercise sounds innocuous enough. But these aren't just abandoned buildings any more than a blazing cross is just two sticks burning.

Any time you play with fire you stand a good chance of getting burned. Human rights activists must be wary that they don't imitate the ugly behavior of the Aryans as they fight hatred. Besides, followers of the Aryan Nations might find it appealing that their headquarters was accorded a fiery martyrdom.

Burning the compound to the ground won't close the book on the Aryans and people like them. It'~more like the end of a chapter.

Sending the message that the hate-filled few can't impose their will on our region takes constant vigilance.

Save the matches for a community barbecue celebrating human rights. A more fitting end for this ignominious training center for hatemongers would be simply to bulldoze it out of the way so it can be used for something more constructive - like a cow pasture.

John Kafentzls/Staff writer

Wednesday, May 23, 2001 J

Page 17

f d r~e5tv1 ~(\, ;fev, e-w

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Guest column

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Out of the ashes, a place ' of reason

~ . . ..

By Greg Carr Special to The Spokesman-Review

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n a 20-acre parcel of land near Hayden Lake this week, the Carr Foundation is planning to bum nine buiJdin~s recently inhabited by a , group that called itself the Aryan Nations. .~ We're proud to join northern Idahoans in their effort to replace the Aryan Nations' message of hatred with one promoting the enjoyment of human differences. ln a broader context, we applaud the many Idahoans who have engaged in a human rights , , discourse on a variety of topics across the state in the past year.

We plan to use the 20-acre property for an educational retreat. Its remote, wooded location will be an excellent setting for study and quiet reflection on the ideas and ideals of human rights for students, civic leaders and others.

In Coeur d'Alene, we'll create a forum for public discussion. We hope that classes, speakers, exhibits and events in a downtown setting will enable substantive debate of often difficult issues.

The quiet, private retreat and the noisy public forum may metaphorically represent the poles between which we travel as we wrestle with human rights issues.

In our reflective moments, we study core concepts, located, for instance, in the Declaration of Independence with its principle of equality, or in the U.S. Constitution.with its guarantees of individual liberty. We may also learn our values from the I\• speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. or Eleanor Roosevelt, or in the doctrines of any of the world's major religions. A Christian may place this extraordinary statement of Jesus ma human rights context: " lnasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

Enlivened by our ideals, we may move to the other pole and attempt to apply moral tenets to real-world '" issues, soon finding ourselves in a complicated public discussion. Are mi~rant farm workers an example of "the least of these' ? And ifwe decide that we care about these people, does that necessari]y mean that we support mirumum-wage legislation? What if someone tells us that the word "squaw" assaults their dignity. but we've heard it all our Jives and it doesn't bother us?

Should we change 90 highway signs? Whether the topic is education policy or a hate-crimes statute, we may enter a conversation with good intentions and next discover that we are not sure where we stand on an issue.

At this point we may revisit our central beliefs. Our retreat may be the church, mosque, library or armchair as we reconsider, rejuvenate, sift and sort. Our thoughts may come from the treatise at hand or from our memory reservoir. (More than a few times I've · recalled a Dr. Seuss book my mother had me read. It's about the "Star-BelJy Sneeches" and encourages us to set aside our differences.) lf human rights principles can come from sources as diverse as the Bible, Vaclav Havel, Anne Frank or Dr. Seuss, is there a common thread? Many say it is the recognition that all humans are born with dignity.

When a group of us examined the ex-Aryan Nations property shortly after our purchase, we were struck by one cunous sight. The pamphlets and posters of hatred toward blacks, gays, Jews and forei~ers, basically, toward anyone perceived to be different were spread on every wall of every building except one: their leader's own home.

One is tempted to wonder if there wasn't some buried impulse (of which he was or wasn' t conscious) that caused him not to place this ugliness right wpere he ate and slept.

Idaho's recent spirited and courageous debate of tou£h public policy issues continues a 225-year tradition in a country that aspires to lead the world in respect for all. Those who founded this nation left us a summary phrase that we carry with us when we leave our meditations and move into the public square. The quarter in your pocket says "e pluribus unum" -from many, one. Those words inspire me. However, what exactly does that mean I should do when I face the next batch of tough issues? We'll discuss that in Coeur d'Alene.

• Greg Carr is anative of Idaho Falls who recently purchased the former Aryan Nations compound. He is aphilanthropist who supports human rights education.

May 23, 200 1 Vol. 94 No. 296

50 cents

Compound coming down Buildings to be demolished to make way for diversity camp

By MI KE McLEAN St aff writer

HAYDEN LAKE - A children's diversity camp will take the place of the former Aryan Nations compound, according to human rights advocates now in control of the property.

Tony Stewart, a member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said

the task force was contacted over the weekend by philanthropist Greg Carr, who decided that the 20. acre site should be turned into a human rights camp for youth.

But the buildings that served neo-Nazis for more than a quarter-century will be removed first Some will be Stew art destroyed beginning as early as today.

The place long infamous for the practice

of cross burning be used briefly for practice burns. The Northern Lakes Frre Protection District is seeking permits to torch some of the buildings for training exercises.

Some items on the compound may be saved for display in a human rights center/ museum now in the planning stages for Coeur d'Alene.

The center will also be funded by Carr.

He bas appointed a statewide citizen's committee headed by Stewart to develop plans for the facility.

COMPOUND continued on A2

4 sections

AN EDI TI ON OF

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-REVlIEW

MAY 24 . 2001 â&#x20AC;˘ 50 CENTS

an buildings bite the dust Symbols of racist past come tumbling down

By Bill Mortin Staff writer

DemoHtion of the Aryan Nations compound - described as "a symbolic, cultural moment" in North Idaho history - began Wednesday as documentary film cameras rolled.

The new owner of the former white supremacy landmark hired a demolition crew Tuesday when the Environmental Protection Agency put a 10-day hold on plans to burn down lhe compound.

The jaws of a 55,000-pound track hoe chewed into the red swastika roof on a concession stand at mid-afternoon, and the small building was a pile of debris in A track hoe rips into the red swastika roof of the concession stand on the former Aryan 10 minutes.

A 40-foot guard watchtower - which Nationsproperty in North Idaho on Wednesday. symbolized the Aryan Nations during hoe.

Task Force. the quarter century it was a national "This is a symbolic, cultural mo'1 t's important for the public to see, ment,'' headquarters for white supremacists Gissel said. "l t is a symbol of through the eyes of the media, the what's happening was the next to go. for human rights in It took two attempts, but the metal- physical evidence of the transformation North ldaho." clad, timbered guard tower was pulled of this property,'' said Norm Gissel of down with cable attached to the track the Kootenai County Human Rights Continued: Aryan Natlons/A11

COMPOINJ continued from A 1

"It will be a major center with lots of room for classes, displays and an oratorium," he said.

Stewart is joined on the committee by Mary Lou Reed, president of the Idaho Human Rights Education Foundation, Jeanne Givens of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Coeur d'Alene lawyer Norm Gissel, Paul Sanchez of the University of Idaho, Michael Shaw of the

Association of Idaho Cities and Rob Bishop of Idaho Falls.

The committee faces an October deadline to prepare an architectural rendering of the museum as well as a description of planned educational exhibits and activities.

Stewart said the committee is seeking ideas from the community for the center.

Carr, an Idaho native and Harvard graduate who made an Internet for tune, bought the property from Victoria Keenan and her son Jason in March. .

The Keenans won a multimillion dollar judgment against former Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, forcing the aging racist into bankruptcy and off the proper ty. Butler was found mostly responsible for an attack on the Keenans by three Aryan Nations security guards.

Carr, now resident of Cambridge, Mass., has been active in human rights causes since 1996.

Mike McLean can be reached at

664-8176, ext 2011, or at mmclean@cdapress.com.

Associated Press

A worker moves children's play equipment away from a watch tower and off the property of the former headquarters of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations Tuesday.

Aryan Nations: Rest to be used for fire training •

Continued from A1 The former Aryan Nations headquarters, he said, will be turned " into a benign piece of property, with no more swastikas and burning crosses."

Gissel, a Coeur d'Alene attorney, was instrumental in bringing a civil lawsuit against the Aryan Nations that ultimately brought about the demolition of the landmark of hate.

Aryan leader Richard Butler, who built the compound after moving to North Idaho in the early 1970s, wasn't around for the historic event. He reportedly was traveling to Kentucky to be a featured speaker at this weekend's "Nordic Fest" white supremacy gathering. " Our dumb cable TV is out so I didn't even get to record the TV news for him," said Debra Maggiore, who serves as Butler's personal assistant and secretary.

Butler, 83, now lives in a private residence in Hayden and continues to head the Aryan Nations, which has an Internet site and mails literature to prison inmates. " We'd rather see it destroyed than turned into a human rights museum,'' Maggior~ said.

With the concession stand and

••

guard tower demolished, firefighters for Northern Lake Fire District will begin fire-training exercises.

The remaining buildings at the compound will be burned during the drills, said Wayne Johnson, Northern Lakes Fire District commissioner. . " We'll train on this place for two or three weeks before we ever put a match to it," Johnson said.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department SWAT team also wants to use the buildings for training exercises before the burning begins, Johnson said.

One of the volunteers for the fire district is Butler's grandson. The grandson and his parents reportedly do not share Butler's racist, neo-Nazi beliefs, fashioned around a white supremacy religion known as Christian Identity.

Structures on the 20-acre site include the Aryan Nations headquarters office, an adjoining printing office, the former chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, a small guest cabin, a larger bunkhouse and the former home of Butler.

The tower and church bell on the chapel, flag poles outside the building and all signs were removed before Wednesday's demolition.

Near the abandoned 13-bed bunkhouse, a Ponderosa pine tree has a swastika carved into its bark. It, too, is destined to fall, and be replaced with a new tree.

The demolition was largely choreographed by a private film crew, Loo Gibby Productions, of Spokane, and producer Randall Morgan, of Buhl,

Idaho, hired by the Carr Foundation, which owns the property.

"From a filmmaker's point of view, there are only three things here that stand out as icons of hate," Morgan said before the demolition. " They are the swastika roof cook shack, the watchtower and the entrance guard tower."

Morgan said his camera crews planned to leave after Wednesday's demolition of those three symbolic structures. They weren't scheduled to return when firefighters burn the other buildiµgs.

The filmmakers hired a he licopter for aerial shots and had four cameras in place before the producer told th e equipment operator to begin the demolition.

Morgan said he doesn't know yet if the video will be part of a permanent anti-hate educanon center planned for downtown Coeur d'Alene.

The center will be open to the public as part of the effort by tlie Carr Foundation and other human rights activists to change the image of North Idaho.

A smaller human rights retreat center, for use on an invitation-only basis, wilJ be built on the former Aryan property, said Greg Carr.

Carr heads the foundation, which bought the Aryan Nations property in April from Victoria and Jason Keenan. The Keeoans, who were fired on by Aryan guards, woo a $6.2 million jury verdict from the Aryan Nations which pushed Butler into bankruptcy. " No cheering, by the way," Robert

Bishop, l?roject director for the Carr Foundat1on, shouted seconds before the demolition began. "That's not what we're here for."

Carey Cheyne, whose Post F alls company was hired for the demolition, said he didn't hesitate when asked Tuesday if he'd do the job. " I'm a born-again Christ1an, so I don' t believe in bate," he said before starting his demolition machine. " I'm also a Vietnam veteran and don't subscribe to these beliefs, so this wilt be a pleasure."

Tony Stewart, a founding member of the Kootenai County Task Force, declined comment as the demolition began .

Gissel arrived a few minutes late but said it was an event he couldn' t miss.

"This is another important milestone, the unraveling of the national headquarters of the Nazi party in Amenca,'l Gissel said. " I actuaJly never thought the end of the Aryan Nations would manifest itself in this fashion,'' he said. " I thought they would just dwindle away."

Earlier, FBI agents, and a couple of retired agents, toured the landmark, talcing souvenir photos before the demolition crew moved in.

The FBI has had an open investigation of the Aryan Nations since 1983 when some of its members formed a terrorist group known as The Order.

The Order got its start by printing counterfeit money on the Aryan Nations presses that also were used to print thousands of pamphlets and books espousing white supremacy.

•

Jesse Tinsley pholoS/Tlle Spokesman-Review

Atrack hoe tears down the 40-foot guard watchtower, which symbolized the Aryan Nations and cast a shadow on Kootenai County for a quarter of a century.

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gettmg two rights centers Aryan site to become private retreat center; public exhibit hall to be built in downtown CdA

By Bill Mortin Staff writer

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The new owner of the former Aryan Nations property in North Idaho said Monday he decided over the weekend to build two ~ facilities dedicated to the fight for human rights.

A human rights education center and public exhibit hall will be built in downtown Coeur Carr d'Alene, Greg Carr announced from his office in Boston.

A small retreat facility will be built at the 20-acre Aryan Nations site after the compound's buildings have been destroyed, he said.

The retreat facility on Rimrock Road, north of Hayden Lake, will not be open to the public and will be used J.>y invitation only, Carr said.

"We will use those 20 acres for retreats for students,

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you had a J?Ublic facility, would you really want 1t 20 miles from town1' ,. be said. " On the other hand, something symbolic needs to be done with that property of the former Aryan Nations.

"There should be some rededication of chat land to peaceful purposes," be said. Carr said its location doesn't allow for easy public access Continued from A1 for an education center. scholars, committees - to give them That's why he favors locating the a facility and ao opportunity to study education center in Coeur d'Alene and reflect oo human rights," Carr and the smaller retreat facility on the said.

Rimrock property.

Of the planned Coeur d'Alene "The idea to do both makes percenter, Carr said, "This will be a fect sense," Carr said. much more public facility, available Security is an issue at the former to thousands of visitors and tourists, Aryan Nations site, where racists with better access for school chil- ~athered every July for cross burndren." mgs and speeches centering on a The site and cost are yet to be religious ideology known as Christian determined, said Carr, who also Identity. funded the Anne Frank Human Carr said he hopes to change the Rights Memorial in Boise. face of the property to reduce securCarr has formed a 14-member ity issues. citizens committee, headed by Tony "We're not gloatiug over some Stewart of the Kooteani County Task group such as the Aryan Nations,'' Force on Human Rights, to address Carr said. "That would seem pretty several issues. petty and against the very spirit of The committee will offer sugges- human rights. tions for the center's budget, pro" l suspect the actions we're going grams and possible affiliations with to be doing out there wiU be quiet other orgaruzations interested in hu- human rights work," he said. " It's not man rights, Carr said. going to be a public place and it's not The human rights education center going to attract public attention or in Coeur d'Alene, he said, will in- cause anyone concern." clude an auditorium and exhibit hall But public attention will be sought detailing the fight for human rights. for the new human rishts center in "We don' t have any idea where it Coeur d'Alene, Carr said. might be located," he said.

"The topics will be the broad Carr, the 41-year-old former chair- history of human rights worldwide man of Prodigy Inc., said he wants and in this country, with specific the center to Jet the world know that emphasis on human rights in Idaho."· ldaho stands for human rights. He " lt will by no means be a shrine to doesn't like people associating his the Aryan Nations,'' Carr said. " It's home state with racists. possible that none of their stuff will Since he became interested in be on display." acquiring the notorious Aryan comDesign and construction of the two pound, Carr said he has struggled facilities is still several months away. with the question of what to do with " By October we want to know what the property. we're doing in a specific way,'' includ" The question has always been, 'If ing a location, he added.

facility's site not determined

I,• I ,I

t •

Aryans' former neighbors ready to move on Media had a greater presence than supremacists, says next-door neighbor

"The media is more annoying, coming up here, wanting to drive across my property. ,, Art Hallum, neighbor

By Winston Ross Staff writer

HAYDEN - The road to Richard Butler's old .house is paved and freshly striped, lined with dyin$ dandelions, surrounded by lush fields of iridescent spring green.

Every so often, a house emerges, behind a thin barbed wire or long wooden fence. The people that live here were Richard Butler's

neighbors.

As the first buildings of the infamous Aryan Nations compound crumbled to the earth on Wednesday, human rights activists across the state cheered. " It's an end to converting people who were law-abiding citizens to criminals," said local real estate agent and human rights activist Marshall Mend. " And taking criminals and turning them into racists.

"Hopefully, that bas come to an end."

But the peol?le who have lived through it all, out in this pretty, quiet part of the county, they simply yawned, collectively, or breathed a sigh of relief - and went about their business.

"I was more interested in the helicopter" flown by a documentary crew around the compound, said Art Hallum, sitting in a lawn chair beneath a shading liJac tree. " He was down low."

Continued: Reactlon/A11

Spokane, Wash. / Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

s.-- 2 'I - .2 "" oI From the Front Page

Reaction: Most are relieved at aftermath Continued from A1 And that pretty well sums up Hallum's opinions about the Aryans through the 20-plus years he's Lived next door.

Reporters have more of a presence than Butler's crew ever did.

"Only about two times a year would you ever know they were there," said Hallum, 72.

"The media is more annoying, coming up here, wanting to drive across my property.

"They wanted to put me on television."

Hallum, a retired GTE employee, moved co North Idaho in 1966. He used to farm the 50 acres he owns. Health problems have discontinued that ability now. He just doesn't have the energy to put in the hard work

anymore.

Nor does he expend much energy oo his old neighbors.

"De-winterizing," is what Hallum spent Wednesday doing. "l took down some storm windows, did a little work on the hot tub."

Since Hallum moved in, he's barely known that the Aryans existed next door, were it not for what he read in the newspaper or saw on television. When a bomb exploded in Butler's church in 1981, Hallum was tooling around on his property.

But he didn't hear a sound.

One year, Hallum remembers a bunch of youngsters playing music so loud that it sailed across the hilJsides. That was kind of a bother.

But then they started playing German marching music.

"I enjoy German marching music," Hallum said, with a chuckle. "That doesn't bother me a bit."

Nor did the Aryans bother Betty Magnus much, a retired schoolteacher who has Lived just across the road since 1951. Her brotherin-law once owned the land on which the compound now sits.

â&#x20AC;˘ ''I think a lot ofpeople are relieved. We didn't know what the Aryans would dtJ ifpushed. " Betty Magnus, neighbor

Butler's late wife, Betty, used to plow Magnus' driveway in the winter.

"The church used to be a big milking barn," Magnus said, as she put her feet up on the front porch.

There have been scary moments, both for Hallum and Magnus.

In 1995, human rights leaders had a counter-march, on U.S. Highway 95, and some of the more dangerous Aryan affiliates were in town. Hallum didn't say anything to his wife, but he was paying attention to the commotion.

"That made me nervous," HalJum said.

Once, when a man was driven out of the

compound, he barricaded himself in a rental house on Magnus' property, and threatened to blow the place up when he was surrounded by police. Eventually, he gave in.

"Butler called the next day," Magnus remembered, wanting to know what she knew about the incident. "He said 'That guy doesn't exist.'"

Magnus doesn't know what that was supposed to mean. But it was spooky.

Once, she returned home from Seattle late at night, and stopped at her mailbox, right next to the Aryans' driveway, to check her mail.

Floodlights went on, and cars came racing out of the compound. Magnus sped up her own driveway, heart racing, and to her relief, the agitators stopped when they saw that she lived there.

She's had to replace the mailbox at least four times.

"Our mailbox stands askew," Magnus said.

"Everybody thinks it's Butler's mailbox, and they drag it down the hill."

She's gotten notes, through the years, from people who want to know more about che

Page 88 Sunday, May 27, 2001 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

,

Photos by Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review

Human rights leader Tony Stewart locks up one of the dilapidated buildings in the shadow of the guard tower last week. The tower was demolished Wednesday.

The Aryans' compound was as poorly constructed as their racist logic, says D.F. Oliveria.

The Spokesman¡ RevtC\\

W

,

eshould never have called it a "com-

pound."

Take away Richard Butler, his angry German D.F. shepherd and his angrier Oliveria security guards and disciples, and the former headquarters of the Aryan Nations was nothing but a ramshackle assortment of cheap buildings and trailers.

Yet, for 27 years, Butler's property served as a beacon for racists and convicts who joined hands with him in a vain attempt to resurrect Adolf Hitler's race war.

The bigots, of course, were gone when human-rights activist Tony Stewart and I toured the grounds May 17. So were the foreboding signs that had identified this place: " Aryan Nations,'' "Church of Jesus Christ Christian," "Whites Only."

What remained, before wrecking crews began their holy work, were reminders that Butler had been here: A 40-foot guard tower with a bird's-eye view of his 20 acres. A printing press that had spewed bigotry 18 hours a day in a cramped, little room at the back of Butler's office, "The Ministry of Truth." Racist stickers and slogans pasted on almost every cabinet, desk or wall - but not within Butler's personal quarters. A giant swastika painted on the red tin roof of a concession stand that had served "Nazi burgers" (with sauerkraut) for $1.25. The charred remains of burned crosses, piled in the meadow behind the guard tower. A target area where a bullet-riddled photo of a multi-racial couple was found. Butler's pulpit, with notes from his "Farwell (sic) Address," German sheet music and a pamphlet about prostates for men over 50.

I'd never visited the hate center before.

For 17 years, I've reported on the other side of the story- the remarkable humanrights movement that arose in lily-white North Idaho to combat Butler's "territorial imperative." I walked through Bill Wassmuth's shattered house after three Aryans bombed it. I witnessed New York City toast Coeur d'Alene for its stand on human rights. I saw Marshall Mend, Tony and Bill describe how to fight hate to a high school gym full of people in Noxon, Mont., including dozens of uniformed Nazis and KJansmen - and then require a police escort to leave town safely. (n the process l grew frustrated, along with many of my North Idaho neighbors, with the way the national media glamorized Buller and his ragtag outfit.

I kept the cljppings. ln a GQ article five years ago, for example, free-lancer Mike Sager began by telling how Butler's dog Hans charged out from behind the barn and threw himself against the door of Sager's rented car, "snarling and barking and spewing foamy spittle, raking the glass with his nails." Sager made a big point of how his olive skin, deep nostrils and earring drew stares in North Idaho and how he hadn't seen a nonwhite face in the week he was here. His 12-page article made no mention of the Inland Northwest's human-rights movement. But it was, of course, accompanied by the

Shelves in the Aryan Nations Church hold thousands of pages of neo-nazi propaganda that was never distributed.

prerequisite photo of Butler giving a Nazi salute.

What Sager's story and others like it failed to reveal was the tackiness of the "compound." It resembled a rundown church camp, with ill-fitting doors made of plywood, rotting sheet siding and walls set on crumbling blocks, exposed wiring shoved through crudely cut holes between rooms.

In the skinhead barracks, the main living area for guests and the only building not piled with garbage, 13 beds lined two walls, with a desk and a mirror by each. Stripped of the people, the toxic ideas and the drama, such was the extent of what Tony has referred to as a campus of hate. Up close it seemed so shabby. So small.

Sager and other media romantics, however, labored under two handicaps: their preconceptions of the Aryan Nations and North Idaho, and their controlled access to Butler and his holdings. I'm told that armed security guards shadowed media pilgrims all around hate central, bullying them about what photos they could take anc' to whom they could talk.

During my tour, I had the time and access to poke through what remained of the Aryan Nations headquarters. It was eerie to walk where the who's who of the American neo-Nazi movement bad lived, visited, plotted, hated: Robert Mathews, Bruce Pierce, Gary Yarbrough, David Lane, Elden "Bud" Cutler, David Dorr, Cbevie Kehoe.

When Tony stopped his red Mazda at the front gate, I half expected security guards to burst out of the scrub pine in a rage, as Butler's dog had done, and as three Aryans did on July 1, 1998, after Victoria Keenan's passing car backfired.

But Tony unlocked the gate without incident and stopped again a short distance later to repeat the exercise at a guard house, half the size of a coffee hue, and a second gate. Weeks ago, after reading the graffiti in the guard house and catching her first glimpse ofButler's hate institute, an African-American woman from Pocatello, Idaho, had wept uncontrollably at this spot.

I couldn't blame her.

David Tate, who's serving a life sentence for murdering a Missouri highway patrolman, grew up here, playing on the jungle gym and swings below the guard tower. Chubby Buford 0. Furrow, who murdered a Filipino mailman and shot those Jewish kids in Los Angeles, swaggered

across these grounds in his blue Nazi shirt, armed and dangerous. Mathews secretly recruited followers to commit murder and robberies here because Butler wouldn' t back his call for armed violence. The coldblooded killers of Denver radio host Alan Berg were spurred to action here by incendiary speeches delivered by Butler and his comrades in hate, from an outdoor platform and the sanctuary behind it.

For 28 years, Richard Butler hunkered down in his whites-only enclave, bidden from neighbors by the bulJ pine and a barbed-wire fence, his freedom protected by the laws he sought to overthrow, preaching a gospel of hate toward all but a select few of bis fellow men and women.

The only thing I saw of value during my tour was a New American Standard Bible on a table in the meeting hall of Butler's religious center. Its words were the same as those in the one I have at home: " However you want people to treat you, so treat them." What a difference those words could have made in this center of darkness, if Butler and his minions had opened their hearts to hear. â&#x20AC;˘ D.F. Oliveria is amember of The SpokesmanReview editorial board.

A map at the Aryan Nations compound outlines the Western states north of California, Western Canada andAlaska as the territory for an Aryan National State.

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' WEDNESDAY, MAY 23. 2001

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Human rights leader Tony Stewart stands next to a tree Tuesday in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, that has a swastika carved into it at the former headquarters of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations.

Aryan Nations site will become meeting center project The compound won't be open lo the public, Stewart COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho said.

- The former headquarters There were concerns of the neo-Nazi Aryan about the costs of providing Nalions will become a adequate security at the retreat cenler, the new remote site, he said. owner has decided.

Workers for some time Internet millionaire Greg have been removing items Carr decided over the week- from the compound's many end to destroy the buildings buildings, Stewart said. on the wooded, 20-acre site Some of the extensive aod build a facility where collection of Nazi memorapeople will gather to discuss bilia on the site will be human rights. stored, and some will be A separate museum will · destroyed, Stewart said. ''We would never sell be built in the Coeu r d'Alene area, about 15 miles anything that is Nazi materisouth, whlch the public will al," Stewart said.

The Spokesman-Review be urged to visit, said Tony Stewart, a human rights newspaper of Spokane, leader in Coeur d'Alene who Wash., first reported the

BY NICHOLAS IL GERANIOS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

is working with Carr on the

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decision Tuesday.

RANDALL MORGAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Headquarters of hate razed An excavator tear$ into the Nazi insignia Wednesday in Hayden Lake, Idaho, painted on the roof of a building. The former headquarters of the Aryan Nations is being demolished by the new owners, who plan a human-rights camp.

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an Nations' hate

Rights group owns banlrrupt property ·

By David Foster THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho - For 27 years, Nonn Gissel never could have made it past the guard shack at the Aryan Nations headquarters. Now he and other human-rights activists ro.µn the 20-acre compound as if they own the place.

That's because they do own it - the result of a lawsuit that bankrupted . Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler . - and this week they are savoring the demolition of what they call "the campus of hate."

An excavator arrived Wednesday to begin dismantling some of the most potent symbols of Butler1s neo-Nazi organization: the guard shack, a 40-foot watchtower and a commissary with a huge swastika on the roof.

Where skinheads and · uniformed Nazi wannabes once goose-stepped around Butler's property in the woods of northern Idaho, the new owners are Associated Press photos planning a human-rights retreat or a Nonn Glssel, who helped bankrupt Aryan Nationsfourukr Richard Buller, is happily involved in dismantling the compound. children's camp devoted to cffversity.

Gissel, a la.wyer who helped bank· rupt Butler, smiled broadly as he stood outside the former Aryan Nations office. watching workers haul away garbage. Inside, shelves were pasted with labels of mail-order tracts: "America: Free, White and Christian," $9. "The Jews and Their Lies," $6.

"Klansman Handbook," $5.

Resting his hand on a small printing press, Gissel said: "We've spent many sleepless nights worrying about the effects of the speech that came off th.is press. This isn't the only printing press out there, and I'm sure they're buying another one as ¡we speak. But they're not going to have this one anymore." ¡ Butler, now 83 and in poor health, still lives in the area, in a home donated by a wealthy suppQrter. His following, which over the years included some of the nation's most violent racists and anti-Semites, has dwindled to a dozen or so people. The Aryan Nations still maintains a phone number and answering machine, though no one returned three messages left this week.

Butler moved to northern Idaho from California in 1973. By 1980. when

A racist sticker remains on a locker in a small barracks at the former headquarters of the Aryan Nations in Idaho.

anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on an area restaurant owned by a Jew, community members had taken notice of Butler's racist rhetoric.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations was soon formed and has battled thr Aryan Nations

ever since. When the Aryan Nations would hold a youth conference, the task force would counter with humanrights rallies. When Butler staged parades in nearby Coeur d'Alene, the task force would assemble protesters.

It seemed as if the duel would con-

tinue indefinitely - until 1998, when Aryan Nations security guards chased a car after they thought someone inside shot at them. (It turned out to be backfire or a firecracker.) The guards fired at the car and forced it into a ditch. One of them grabbed the driver, local resident Victoria Keenan, jabbed her with a rifle butt and put a gun to her head.

Keenan and her son Jason sued Butler and won a $6.3 million verdict last year. They gained Possession of the 20acre compQund and its nine buildings after Butler filed for bankruptcy protection, and in March they sold it for $250,000 to the Carr Foundation, a human-rights group in Cambridge, Mass.

Foundation head Greg Carr, an Idaho native and former chairman of the Internet company Prodigy Inc., wants to convert the site into a retreat. He also wants to build a public humanrights center 10 miles down the road in Coew¡ d'Alene - all in the name of erasing Idaho's image as a haven for racists.

Carr and activists plan to demolish some buiJdings and let the Ore department burn down the rest for firefighting practice.

ampus of hate' crushed in Idaho New owners claim Aryan Nations site

By David Foster Associated Press

HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho-For ?:"I years, Norm Gissel couldn't

have made it past the guard shack at the Aryan Nations • headquarters. Now he and other 1 human-rights activists roam the 20-acre compound as .if they own the place.

That's because they do own it-the result of a lawsuit that bankrupted Aryan Nations founder Richard Butlet: And this week they are savoring the demolition of what they call "the campus of hate."

An excavator arrived Wednesday to begin dismantling some of the most potent symbols of Butler's neo-Nazi organization: the guard shack. a 30-foot watchtower and a commissary with a huge swastika on the roof.

Where skinheads and uniformed Nazi wannabes once goose-stepped around Butler's property in the woods of northern Idaho, the new owners are planning a human-rights retreat or a children's camp devot· ed to diversity.

Gissel a lawyer who helped bankrupt Butler, srruled broadly as he stood outside the former Aryan Nations office. watching workers haul away garbage. ln-

• , • ,,tC:~ ' .... ~ ?" · AP phot0< by Elame Thompson Brodt Sishop,- who is helping to dismantle the former Aryan Nations headquarters, st.Inds o1top a pile of Nazi and white supremacist it'ems in a storage unit in Hayden Lake. side. shelves were pasted with labels of mail-order tracts: "America: Free. White and Christian." $9. ··Toe Jews and Their Lies." $6. "Klansman Handbook." $5.

Resting his hand on a small printing press. Gissel said: "We've spent many sleepless nights worrymg about the effects of the speech that came off this press. This isn't the only printing press outthere,and rm sure they're buying another one as we speak. But they're not going to have thls one anymore."

Butler; 83 and in poor health. still lives in the area, in a home donated by a wealthy supporter.

His following, which over the years included some of the na-

tion's most violent racists and anti-Semites, has dwindled to a dozen or so people. The Aryan Nations still maintains a phone number and answering machine, though no one returned three messages left this week Butler moved to northern Idaho from California 111 l973. By 1980. when anti-Semitic graffiti appeared on a Jewish-owned area restaurant. community members had taken notice of Butler's racist rhetoric.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations was soon formed and has battled the Aryan Nations ever since.

When the Aryan Nanons held youth conferences, the cask force countered with humanrights rallies. When Butler · :;taged parades in nearoy Coeur d'Alene. the task force assem!>ied. protesters.

• •

Guards fired at car ft seemed as If the duel would Human-rights activist Norm Gissel savors the demolition of the former Aryan Nations com pound in continue-w1til l998. when Idaho . A lawsuit that bankrupted the Aryan Nations' founder resulted in the sale of the p roperty. .- vyan No.ti ons security guards

chased a car they thought had fired a gun at them. (It turned out to be backfire or a firecracker.) The guards fired at the car and forced it into a ditch. One of them grabbed the driver. local resident Victoria Keenan, jabbed her with a rifle butt and put a gun to her head.

Keenan and her son, Jason. sued Butler and last year won a $6.3 million verdict. They gained possession of the 20-acre compound and its nine build· ings after Butler tiled for bankruptcy protection. and in March they sold it for $250,000 to the Carr Foundation, a human· rights group based in Cam· bridge, Mass.

Foundation liead·. d'reg C'arr, an Idaho native and former chairman of the Internet company Prodigy Inc., wants to convert the site into a retreat. He al· so wants to build a public human-rightscentex:lOmilesdown the road in Coeur d'Alene-ail in the name of erasing Idaho's image as a haven for racists.

Carr and activists plan to demolish some buildings and let the fire department burn the rest for firefighting practice.

There was a festive air at the compound th.is week. A dozen law-enforcement officials who had tracked the Aryan Nations toured the site WednesdaY, posing for photos and poking

around' tne a.t>andoiied btfiidings.

"We're just sightseers like everyone else," said one FBI agent official who refused to give his name or allow journalists to photograph the group. "Some of these guys are still working," he explained: It was a last chance to see the place more or less intact, and the best view was from the 40-foot watchtower.

Remnants· of cross burnings To the west was a pile of charred timbers in a pastw-e. left

from cross bl/I?lings.

To the northeast was the commissary, with its red. black and white swastika on the roof and a

i56ffli <Y{fmtrg "1.~"'.ttiburgers" (with sauerkraut) for

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$1.25.

At the foot of the tower was

the chapel. where Butler, a minister in the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, once preached that northern European whites were the true lost tribes of Israel, favored by God. Everywhere there were swastikas: carved into trees, stuck on windows and walls, taped onto wastebaskets. "]his is a great relief," said Tony Stewan, a founding member of the task force . '·Itmaybea long time coming sometimes. but justice prevails when good people do the right thing."

C4 THE PRESS Wednesday, June 20, 2001

Idaho

Teachers awarded for human rights efforts

By KEITH ERICKSON Staff writer COEUR d'ALENE - Five Kootenai County elementary and middle schools were awarded Tuesday for their commitment to human rights.

The Human Rights Education Foundation presented representatives of the schools with more than $6,100 in grants for human rights projects.

Human rights education reaches more than 14,000 students locally, said Tony Stewart, vice president of the Human Rights Education Foundation.

'Toe real answer to (deterring) discrimination is education, and you can never start too

early," Stewart said during a ceremony at North Idaho College.

Foundation President Mary Lou Reed applauded the educators who have emphasized diversity in the classroom and sought money to promote their cause.

'This is another special day for human rights," she said.

"We exist to promote the acceptance of difference."

Educators accepting awards included: • Pamela Keifer, secondgrade teacher of Fernan Elementary, received $800 to provide informational books for children to read and discover the uniqueness of other cultures.

• JoAnn Harvey of Dalton

Elementary received $700 to be used to develop diversity within her physical education program.

• Pamela Pratt, principal of Skyway Elementary, received $867 to purchase a "secondstep" kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum for teaching/improving social and emotional skills in the school.

Pratt also received $1,500 to pay for a quality presenter on human rights issues to all fifth grade students.

• Page Harmon of Post Falls Middle School received $800 to help fund purchase of books focusing on diversity, respect, compassion and tolerance.

• Suzy Gerber of Woodland Middle School received $560 to

KEITH ERICKSON/Press

Recipients of the Human Rights Education Foundation grants, from left, JoAnn Harvey, Dalton Elementary; Suzy Gerber, Woodland Middle School; Joy Crupper, Athol Elementary; Kathy Baxter, Athol Elementary; Connie McGee, Athol Elementary; Page Harmor, Post Falls Middle School; and Pam Pratt, Skyway Elementary.

fund teaching of tolerance and differences in schools and the community.

The

Human

Rights

Education Foundation has raised more than $37,600 to increase awareness of diversity during its two-year existence.

Some 14,682 students in North Idaho and eastern Washington have benefited from the program, organizers said.

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Wednesday, June 20, 2001 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash,/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Grants to bring the world to Athol Funds from human rights group will go to buying books to help kids understand other cultures

By Erica Curless Staff writer

Jesse Tlnsley/The Spokesman-Review

Kootenai County educators. from left, JoAnn Harvey, Suzy Gerber, Joy Crupper, Kathy Baxter, Connie McGee and Page Harmonhear about the grants they will receive. :

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COEUR d'ALENE - Athol children can now open a book and escape their isolation.

Thanks to an $800 grant from the Human Rights Education Foundation, the 400 Athol Elementary School students can read about other cultures and ethnic traditions.

"We are P-retty sheltered out there:' said Kathy Baxter, the district s library coordinator.

Baxter and five other area school teachers accepted $6,100 in grants Tuesday from the foundation, which is .. -. '. .......

the educational arm of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

The money will help Athol Elementary buy books for it library, reading materials that will help children understand other cultures.

Baxter said many Athol students see few opportunities to escape their isolation.

She said the children have difficulty relating to the discrimination Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank faced.

Books will help widen their perspective, Baxter said. ·'We do believe books can take you anywhere,·· she said.

In the last two years, the foundation has put $37,650 Continued: Grants/ BS

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Contact the North Idaho office: (208) 765-7100, toll-free (800) 344-6718; fax (208) 344-6718; e-mr1il news@spokesman.com

Onllne regional news: WW\

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Grants: Feman also gets funds Continued from B1

toward educational grants, which have helped more than 12,000 North Idaho students.

"There's a role for us to play in !>upplementing the resources school c.listricts have: · said Mary Lou Reed, foundalion president.

Fernan Elementary School also got $879 to buy books.

Because North Idaho provides limited interaction with multi-ethnic

populations, teacher Pam Kiefer said education to art. It includes an allit's important to promote the toler- school diversity assembly where stuance of different cultures ar an early dents perform skits. age.

The physical education specialist Skyway Elementary Principal Pam will duplicate the program at Hayden Pratt will use an $867 grant to "bully- Lake Elementary School. proof' the school and teach respect.

"Other than the PTO, we would The cash will buy curriculum for have little monies for this," Harvey teaching improved social and emo- said. tional skms in the school and home Post FaJls Middle School got an setting. $800 grant to bring Living Voices, an Pratt said the program should interactive educational theater group dramatically reduce the number of from Seattle, to perform a play depicting the struggles of a fam ily discipline referrals.

Jo Ann Harvey of Dalton Elemen- during the Dust·Bowl.

Woodland Middle School will use tary School got a $700 grant to integrate cultural studies into au its $560 grant to hire the same aspects of education from physical troupe, wh ich will focus on Anne

Frank and the Holocaust.

The largest grant, $1 ,500, went to Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls school districts to bring human rights presenters to area schools to work with fi fth-graders.

That program will mesh with the annual Human Rights Celebration at North Idaho College in January, which recognizes the nonviolent beliefs of Martin Luther King Jr. "We in the task force always believe the answer is educating young people," said Tony Stewart of the task force.

• Erica Curless can be reached at (208) 765-7137 or by e-mail at ericac@spokesman.com.

A4 THE PRESSTuesday,June 26, 2001

Idaho/Washington

Former Aryan buildings to burn this week No public spectacle, only training, NLFD says

By BRENT A NDREWS Staff writer

HAYDEN -There will be nothing .JUlUSual about Northern Lakes Fire :I)isbict training exercises in a collec~on of buildings off Rimrock Road this week - just firefighters learning to ;extinguish flames, save victims and get ~emselves out safely.

But the location for the training is

definitely unusual: 15725 N. Rimrock Northern Lakes Chief Jeff Welch practice extinguishing the fire," he said.

Road, the site of Richard Butler's for- said the variety of buildings - a While the media will be offered limmer Aryan Nations compound, which church, a bunkhouse, other structures ited access to watch, the general public he lost in a lawsuit last year. large and small - offers a good oppor- is not invited.

"We're going to do a lot of training tunity to get firefighters trained for any 'There's a safety issue," said on the grounds up there," said occurrence.

Marcus.

"The training that we're going to get Northern Lakes Fire Inspector Dean The Northern Lakes officials called Marcus on Monday. "Eventually there's is mor e than throwing a match in the media representatives to their main stagoing to be some burning, but we want building and standing around," said tion Monday to discuss their schedule Welch, adding crews will look at rural of burning at the compound and to to emphasiz.e the training aspect" Beginning today at 6:30 p.m., the for- water supplies, staging, and how to stress that tJ1e activity is not meant to be mer hate complex will become a sort of structurally attack a fire. symbolic.

"From there it will be a matter of educational institution as rookie fire'The point of all this, as we have said fighters and experienced crewmen smoke in the building and going inside from the beginning, is there's an opporstage emergency scenarios. in practice teams and back-up teams to tunity for us to get some valuable train-

ing out of the different types of buildings that we have out there," said Welch. "For whatever reason, there's a lot of people that want to see this place go away, and that's not why we're doing ,, this.

While the training begins tonight, Marcus said burning on the property will likely begin Thursday afternoon.

NLFD expects to complete its training on the site by July 15, Welch said.

Brent Andrews can be reached at 6648176, ext. 2009, or bandrews@cdapress.com

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Fifday, June 29, 2001 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash/Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Firefighters practice on Aryan Nations site Compound bulldlngs burned during Hayden fire training

By Angie Gaddy Staff writer

HAYDEN - In the end, Anson Gable plans to cut off the swastika carved on a log and toss it into the fire.

The fire marshal, who started as the first paid firefighter here two dozen years ago, watched Thursday afternoon as a smaU bunkhouse at the Aryan Nations compound sizzled and popped with flames.

"Hopefully, that wilJ be the last one in North Idaho," Gable said, pointing to the Nazi symbol hidden behind another burned out building.

While firefighters were quick to

point out they had no political agenda in doing training exerci~es on four of the seven abandoned buildings, many knew their actions had historical unportance.

Before Thursday's training, a Bonner County bomb squad dog was called in to make sure the abandoned buildings were safe, spokeswoman Cynthia Dachtler said.

"Safety is the biggest concern.

You can't be too safe," she said.

"We hate to lose a life on a safety training."

The dog and firefighters found nothing, other than ransacked buildings fiUed with molding food, neo-Nazi literature and hymn books.

Firefighters began their training Continued: Tralnlng/B2

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Friday, June 29, 2001

REGION

Training: Not meant to bea

political action Continued from Bl

exercise Tuesday evening, burning a long bunkhouse on the 20-acre site.

Northern Lakes Fire District officials were approached by the Carr Foundation to sec whether they would be interested in using the abandoned buildings for training c.xercises, Fire Inspector Dean Marcus said.

"We jumped at it," he said. "But we want to stay neutral.•· Greg Carr, who runs the foundation, bought the property in April from Victoria and Ja on Keenan, who won a $6.2 million judgment against the Aryan Nations. A Kootenai County jury believed founder Richard Butler was negligent when

Brian Plonka/The SpokesJi,an,Revlew

Northern Lakes Fire District firefighters, from left, Mike Pearce, Rick Wright and Jerry Moreau maneuver a hose during a training fire Thursday at a bunk house that was once part of the Aryan Nations' property In Hayden.

his security guards fired at the Keenans.

"The approach we've taken is we have no political statement to make. lt' an opportunity to train our fire-

fighters in North Idaho;· said Jeff Welch, the district's fire chief. "This just gives the folks the opportunity to train how we work."

Volunteer and full-time fire-

fighters from Post Falls, Kootenai County and Coeur d'Alene fire departments joined Welch's crews to study smoke behavior and practice rescue and fire suppression drills.

The approach was clinical, as if it were any other fire training drill, not the burning of a nationally known hate group's former headquarters.

Firefighters often must train in a concrete tower where fires are set and controlled by burning wooden pallets.

By practicing in homes, with furniture, curtains and paneling, firefighters get exposure to real-life fires that generate different kinds of heat and smoke, Welch said.

Firefighters planned to stay until at least 11 p.m. Thursday, practicing drills in the compound's office, barn and storage area.

Each of the buildings will eventuaJly be d~troyed after the drills.

Firefighters will then practice drills in Butler's former home and the church, which will be burned by July 15.

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The Press, Friday, June 29, 2001

JASON HUNT/Press

Area firefighters reposition a hose during a training fire held at the former Aryan Nation compound near Hayden Thursday. Fire crews from around Kootenai County planned to burn four buildings on the property Thursday.

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Compound buildings burn one at a time Local flrallghters train on former Aryan property

By BRENT ANDREWS Staff writer

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HAYDEN LAKE - For rookie firefighter Vtrginia Niten, it could have been any burning building.

The fact that it was a former guard house on the rural Rimrock Road land the courts took away from Richard Butler didn't make much difference.

What Niten needed was a burning building, and that's what she and other firefighters got as several fire departments converged on the former Aryan Nations headquarters Thursday.

Niten, 39, was not afraid to go inside to get the training she needs.

"It's kind of like getting on the freeway in LA," she said as she stood in full gear, the guard house burning behind her. "You're taking your life in your own hands, but you've had some practice."

After a year on the job, Niten has had little real-life experience. She's worked in a training tower, and has spent plenty of time in the classroom learning theory.

"I'm hoping to be able to put

"It's kind of like getting on the freeway in LA ... you're taking your life in your own hands, but you've had some practice."

- Virginia Niten, firefighter

everything together," she said, recalling similar practice at the Butler property Tuesday. "A whole lot of it clicked because you see all of it working together."

Niten and other firefighters training at the former Aryan compound through July 15 are acting out almost every conceivable scenario, said Northern Lakes Fire District spokeswoman Cynthia Dachtler.

Dachtler was responsible for herding reporters around the property, answering questions and staying on the message, which was: This is not a symbolic burn. This is real practice.

"Today we are doing the office, the trailer behind it, the barn and this

house up here," she said, looking · over a sketched map and pointing to the guard house.

The reporters wanted to know when fire crews would burn Butler's simple white farmhouse, and the little church where he preached - the Church of Jesus Christ Christian.

"We won't be doing the church or the house until after the Fourth of July, when things settled down a little bit," said Dachtler.

Reporters wanted to walk through the buildings anyway.

The home was littered with news clippings, literature and bundreds of cassette tapes - many of them recorded sermons by Butler from the 1970s. The relics from Butler's life and from an era here in North Idaho - have been strewn around every room. They will be burned with the house itself.

The church has also been wrecked since Butler le~ Pews sit at odd angles; litter is everywhere. A large stained glass window has been smashed.

Outside, firefighters took more than an hour to burn the guard shack before moving on to the office.

The delay was largely attributable to a television reporter's numerous COMPOUND continued on C4

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attempts to stage a live shot wearing full firefighter regalia on the guard shack's front porch.

1be shot kept getting delayed until at last, the reporter was able to say breathlessly that she's here in North Idaho, at the former Aryan Nations compound, where fire.fighters are getting some real-life training.

You can go ahead and train, she told the firefighters on cue.

But at least she stayed on message. Jeff Welch, who as chief of Northern Lakes Fire District is organizing the Aryan

compound training sessions, was worried some reporters wouldn't And so Dachtler kept corralling them, feeding them information, suggesting interviews.

Welch himself talked to reporters too.

"Are we gonna have flames at five?" one reporter asked him.

Told that yes, there would be flames at about that time, the reporter replied: "Cool. Flames at five. I like it" Another 1V reporter was suf. .ficiently inspired to predict the future as he stood watching the flames: "Once this is all burned down I think our North Idaho news is going to be cut down significantly, especially after the last

year and a half," he said.

Welch, pausing for a moment with yet another reporter, still seemed concerned about keeping the newspeople on message.

'To be honest with . you, I thought about just putting the yellow tape up at the gate and saying, 'Everybody out,'" he admitted. "But the fear is they'll do what they want, as far as the media - it'll be their spin.

Hopefully we can put our spin on it And our spin is the training and the exercise."

A little later, 23-year Hayden firefighter Anson Gable, now fire marshal for Northern Lakes, expressed hope that the firefighters were learning "how to attack a structure that's on fire

and control the fire with as little damage as possible. That's the whole point of this training."

As he talked, the guard house began to collapse, and firefighters let it 1bey pointed their hoses at nearby trees and let the building burn until its tin roof fell into the flames.

Anson was asked if he'd ever been to the compound to fight a fire before.

"We've had some crossfires but no structure fires," he replied as firefighters moved on to the office.

Stuck to one window of that building was a piece of paper, signed by Richard Butler some years ago.

It was a burn pennit

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IN LIFE/ El

fair's future looks grim

JULY 7, 2001 â&#x20AC;˘ 50 CEN TS

A N EDI TI O N O F

Tl:IE..5PoKu!IAN-RJMEw

The science of spirituality

-REVIEW

Aryans can't compete with march of time Task force plans to Ignore annual racist parade In CdA

By Benjamin Shors

Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE- Tony Stewart plans to take European reporters on a tour of the dismantled Aryan Nations' compound. Marshall Mend will be working to sell houses at his realty business.

After years of rallies, leaders of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations have taken a quieter approach to this morning's Aryan Nalions' parade. In a short

press release issued Friday, the group asked residents and visitors to spend time with their friends and families.

"We've always been very willing to work and organize rallies," said Stewart, a foundin~ member of the task force. "This time we've asked people in their own private way to spend time with family and friends.''

For years, the task force has asked citizens to stay away from Aryan Continued: Aryans/ AS

Hyosub Shin/The Sp0kesman-Relliew

Doug Cresswell of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations displays a placard signed by area mayors.

Aryans: Group expects only 20marchers Continued from Al

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Nations events, saying protests and confrontations will only further the white supremacist group's agenda.

But it has also countered the parade with rallies of its own.

A 1998 celebration at Gonzaga University raised $35,000. The following year, the group led a rally at North Idaho College, headlined by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

But a $6.3 million civil judgment last fall bankrupted the Aryan Nations and its leader, Richard Butler.

By May, workers were dismantling the former group headquarters - a collection of buildings north of Hayden Lake that bad served as a gathering place for white supremacists. A retreat is planned for the 20-acre site.

"The battle for human rights will always go on," Stewart said. " But there's a chapter that is over. Kootenai County is no longer the headquarters of the Aryan Nations."

At Friday's brief press conference, area mayors smiled for cameras and signed a white board proclaiming

"Idaho, The Human Rights State."

"Let's focus our attention on the end of the compound, rather than focus attention on a small group of marchers," said Doug Cresswell, president of the task force.

Aryan Nations' materials sprinkled Lawns and front porches in Hayden earlier this week. But task force members expect only about 20 marchers at today's parade.

Mend, a longtime and vocal member of the task force, missed the annual press conference this year, because he forgot to pencil it on his calender. He called the par~de a "non-event."

"These guys are bankrupt," Mend said. "The movement isn't dead - it would be nice if it was. But the Aryan Nations is no longer."

Protesters have consistently attended the parade, holding signs and singing. Last October, an estimated 500 people watched the 30-minute procession.

Instead of Lining the street, the task force will focus on the future particularly the construction of a human rights center in Coeur d'Alene, attorney Norm·Gissel said. The center will include an auditorium and exhibit hall detailing the fight for human rights in the region.

"We only have a dim idea of the present and no idea of the future, if we don't understand the past," Gissel said.

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White supreillacists gather for Aryan World Congress

By Bill Mortin Staff writer

On the site where GJs were trained to fight the Nazis, white supremacists from throughout the United States gathered Friday in North Idaho.

Many of those same racists camping in Farragut State Park are scheduled to march today in Coeur d'Alene with Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler. · Sherman Avenue and intersecting side streets will be closed during the parade, set to begin at 11 a.m.

The parade is the featured event of the annual Aryan World Congress, an event Butler has sponsored for a _quarter century. It has attracted Ku l<.lux Klan, Christian Identity and various other racists over the years.

The stubborn 82-year-old racist is holding this year's Aryan World Congress in the state park after losing his former 20-acre compound in a $6.3 million lawsuit.

But Butler is keeping a much lower profile this year. For the first time, he didn't kick off his annual gathering with a news conference and wasn't available to speak with reporters. In years past, he's introduced featured speakers and spouted his racist message.

An estimated three dozen participants had shown up by Friday eve~ing at the Nighthawk campground m Farragut.

Head ranger Bryan Rowder said he was told by organizers that about 100 campers were expected.

In the adjoining Kestrel camp-

ground, about two dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents, monitored the gathering under balmy summer skies Friday afternoon.

The a rr ange ment is an intelligence-gathering bonanza for law enforcement officers assigned to track domestic terrorism and racist groups.

Each vehicle and its occupants headed to the Aryan encampment at the Nighthawk site had to pass through a police checkpoint on an access road.

At past gatherings, officers have taken video and still pictures in attempts to identi~ those attending.

Individuals who ve attended past Aryan congresses later have gone on crime sprees that created national headlines.

Aryan staff leader Shaun Winkler applied to use the state campground earlier this year. Farragut, on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, was the site of a Naval training base during World War II. Winkler was issued the permit last month after state park officials con~luded there was no legal way to deny It.

The Aryans wanted to fire their gun~ at the firing range at Farragut, but 1t was rented out to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department.

Winkl~r has said his group will now use a finng range near Fernan Lake, east of Coeur d'Alene, this afternoon. The Aryans also plan to burn a cross after dark tonight in the designated fire pit in their campsite.

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LAWSUIT PLAINTIFFS

Buv ARYANS' PROPERTY CoEUR D'ALENE, IDARO (AP) -A mother and son

whose lawsuit bankrupted the Aryan Nations bought the neo-Nazi group's compound yesterday for $250,000 and said they plan to sell it, perhaps to a human rights organization. "We hope to get the evilness out of there and tum it around to something positive," Jason Keenan said.

Keenan and his mother, Victoria, were the only bidders in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court sale of the 20acre property that served as a clubhouse for some of the nation's most violent neo-Nazis.

Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler blamed a Jewish conspiracy for the outcome. "You take from those who work and have, and give to those who have never worked and did not have;' he said. ..I haven't lost my honor."

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY

14, 2001

50¢ Volume 49 -

Number 250

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Disease quiets Wassmuth's battle against bigotr,,.v . ~!14/i>t ill Wassmuth, whose eloquence. tenacity and tourage inspired other Idahoans to push back

the Northwest Coalition Aga:nstMalicious Harass-

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against neo-Nazis,has been quieted by a djsease.

W assmuth, who continued to fight racism.even after his house was bombed, was diagnosedwithamyotrQphic lateral sclerosis last fall. Commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease,ALS killshalfofall patients within three years of

diagnosis.

On Oct.11i friends and sup--

porters will gather inBoise to

honorWassmuth and raise money for his care, which includes naturo,Pathic treatments not covered by Medkare.

ButWassmuth,60,won't Qe able to give the sort ofrousingtaJkthathelped spur a community response to the llatredspewedbytheAryan Nations' church.

"Iflsay anything, it will be bri,ef," Wassmuthtold me :Monday,explainingthat he is becomingshortofbreatb and

losi.ngcontrol ofthemuscles pverninglaugbingand crymg. "Ican start cryingand can'tstop.Andit'snot just tears,it'ssobbing."

Wassmuth'sfriendswillbe there, saluting his leadership at a criti~ time in the 1980s

whenAryanN~tionsfollowerswete beckon.ingother bigots to come to their Idaho

ment,a six-,stateetiortheran

from1988untilhisretirement inl999.

"Hewent J?Ublicwhenhe himselfwasatrisk," said Susan Curtis.Ada County Hum.anRights Tas)(Force chairwoman. ''That'sahero,inmy

mind."

"homeland." ~oughoutthe Northwest,he,morethananyother

Skip Oppenheimer,past

person,createdanatmos-

AhavetbBethlsraelinBoise, who bas known Wassmuth for 20years, said, "He set an extraordinaryexampleof personal courage and has beenable to build bridges to a wide range ofpeople."

rights and combat prejudice and bigotry," said Tony Stew-

art,aNortb Idaho College professorand co-founderof the Kootenai CountyTask Poree on Human Rights.

Norm Gissel, the Cc;,eur

d'Alene lawyer who helped win the2000 civij.case that finally shut down the Aryan Nations complex, said the

"Hemadesomepeopleun-

comfortable," ex-Gov. Cecil Andrus said "Butthat belpedi becausehe roadethemaware ofthe bigotry in the back of theirheads.Anditwasn'tjust theAryanNatian&.BillWassmuthlookedforbigotry across thespectn.lm, and.he was never afraid to speakout" AnativeofGreencreekin Idaho County, Wassmutb spent2lyearsasaCatholic priest inCaldwell, BoiSe and Coeur d'Alene beforeleaving the priesthood inl988 tomar-

ry. Hehaswonnational

leadershipofWassmuthan.d othersdiscoutagedneo-Nazi growth. "!four culture would

have permittedthese Nazis, then.theywouldhavebeen hereinlargernwnber$," Gis, selsaid "lhat's the thing."

Wassmutbsaid the bombing, whicboccurredatnight whilehewasinhisrectocy, Statesman file pl)oto didn't prompt doubt. "My background plysays if Bill Wassmuth, 60, has been dli;lgnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. On Oct. 11, supporters wi II gather in Boise to honor there are people beingmis-

sun

Wassmuth and help raise money for his care.

awards andhono,rarydoctor- ¡ Willamette University.

While hewascllairmanof atesfromAlbertson CoUe~e. the University ofldaho and theKootenat County Task

Forceinl986,hishousewas bombed. Wassmutbpressed on,andin1987helpedfound

muthin theI960s. He visited hls old friend at his home in

Ellensburg, Wash., over the weekend.

"He's lostmostoftheuseof his~"Brownsaid. "He

walkswitbawalker.But his attitude is very positive, and

president ofCongregation

pherewhere government and private organizations joined together to promote civil

known Wassmuthsincehe

spenttwoyearsstudyingfor thepriesthoodunderWass-

he's stillvery funny. He's dealing with it asgracefully as youwouldexpect, butit's not easy."

W $SI11Uthistryingalternative treatments to the~ ease, which progressively weakens muscles and brings paralysis.

"Havewestopped the progressofthe disease?" he said."No.Haveweslowedit down? I don't know. But for

myownpeaceofmind,fve gottodoevecythinglcan." ~ W assn;mthsaid he's been overwhelmed by the support

be'sreceived. 'Tinvery,very grateful.for it" Ifyou'dliketohelp,caULes Bocl<at the Idaho Human Rights Education Center at 345-0304,LeslieGQddardat theldahoHuman.Rights

Commissionat334--2873or JacquelineCristatJ.Crist

galleryat336--2671.

treated, youdowbatyoucan

todosomethingaboiitit.It reallyisn't anymorecomplicat~ than that1' Mowbray Brown~

DanPopkey'sopinioncolumn ' runsSunday, Tuesdayand 11tursday.377-<5438or dpopkey@idahosta~com

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needles? .Hate .. :Huckleberries .has nurse for you HUCKLEBERRIES The Spokesman-Review

, . . . aryn Brodwater couldn't :: bel_ieve it when she to~k ~Bailey, her new bouncing baby boy, to Kootenai Medical Center to get hi~ biJirubin count for jaundice. Bailey didn't flinch when the nurse poked him in D.F. the heel to draw blood. "Wow," said Oliveria Taryn to the nurse, "you're good."

That's when Taryn reaJized the nurse was bleeding, not Bailey.

Seems the RN had held the new fandangled needJe backward when she tried to poke the babe. Comments Taryn: "It's a good thing she wasn't giving him a vaccination." ·

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Huckleberries That "GO VOTE" vanity plate belongs to County Clerk Dan English ... Dan Barton's readerboard: "God has blessed America - just look around9 " Bin o ... Tony Stewart reports that all traces of the ol Aryan Nations are gone and its former compound is "just like a park" ... Under civil complaints: _ "Shoshone Adjustment Bureau v. Robin Hood, seeking $2,048." Didn't know they had bill collectors in Sherwood Forest . .. If elected mayor, ex-teacher Sandi Bloem sez she wouldn't send your Huckleberry Hound to a comer for being bad. But, sez she, " I may give you a timeout" ... The HuckJeberry Pupette perk:ed up while watching the chamber candidates' forum when Bloem mentioned her husband taught at Canfield. "Is her husband Bob Bloem?" asked she.

"He's cool" ... Run the numbers of the terrorist attack, 91101, and you get Pasadena's zip code. Betsy Roberts of Clark Fork pointed that out ... Sightern (at Person Field, Oct. 6): A Rabid Sports Dad cussing and pushing football official Scott Blas during a Junior Tackle game. Witnesses,say he's done it before. Book 'em, Dan-o.

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Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler has named a new successor, an Ohio white supremacist who stands convicted of three felonies, including shooting a police officer.

Ray Redfeairn is the new national director of the Aryan Nations and is in line to be his successor. Butler said Monday from his home in Hayden, ldaho.

Buller also named August ¡'Chip'' Kreis 111. of Ulysses, Pa., as director of information for the Aryan Nations.

Kreis currently manages the Aryan Nations Web page, where the appointments were announced.

"Aryan Nations founder Pastor Butler will continue to remain the rock and spiritual leader of the Aryan Nations but will be taking a less active role in the everyday running of Aryan Nations affairs," Kreis said in a statement.

Civil rights activists say the appointments of the two men from east of the Mississippi may be the beginning of the end of the Aryan Nations' presence in the Northwest.

"This is the start of the exodus, I believe." said Coeur d'Alene attorney Norm Gissel. He spearheaded a landmark civil suit last year that financially broke the back of the Aryan Nations.

The $6.3 million judgment sent Butler and the Aryan Nations into a bankruptcy tailspin. As a result, tbe group abandoned its 20-acre compound, and its buildings were burned this past summer. " lt looks to me like the Aryan Nations essentially have ContJnued: Aryans/AS

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N orth Idaho still headquarters Continued from Al

given up on their so-called ' Northwest imperative' because their leadership has gone east," Gissel said.

But the longtime civil rights activist also said he's learned that the Aryans are unpredictable. " When you predict something about this group, the opposite often occurs. ·•r do think they're essentially giving up on good old North ldaho, but that's more my hope speaking more than my judgment," GisseUsaid.

Butler said the announcement does not mean he's retiring or retreating from North Idaho.

"Our national, international headquarters are stilJ right here in North Idaho;· Butler said.

Even after his passing, Butler said, the Aryan Nations headquarters wilJ remaia in North Idaho with Redfea irn assuming the leadership. " I'm still in the picture, and I'm still controlling things,'' Butler said. " I'm not dead yet."

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Ray Redfealm, left, accompanied Richard Butler In the 1998 Aryan Nations parade In Coeur d'Alene.

Butler, 83, previously picked longtime racist Neuman Britton, of Escondido, Calif., to be his successor. But Britton died in late August after a

lengthy battle with cancer.

As Britton grew ill, Redfeairn and Kreis both moved into Butler's inner circle.

Kreis, who also heads a citizens' militia group known as Posse Comitatus, joined Butler for last summer's Aryan Nations parade in downtown Coeur d'Alene.

Redfeairn also has ties· with an Aryan Nations splinter group, the Church of True Israel. That group, mostly composed of ex-Aryan Nations members, operates out of a post office box in Hayden and has occasional meetings in the region.

Redfea irn was part of an honor guard that surrounded Butler for the group's 1998 parade, even though he was on parole and wasn't supposed to leave Ohio, authorities said.

Redfeairn served six years after being convicted of aggravated robbery and attempted aggravated murder in 1985, records how.

Those convictions came from the shooting of a Dayton, Ohio, police officer. Shot five times, the officer lived because be was wearing a bulletproof vest.

Redfeairn testified as a witness for Butler at last year's civil damages trial in Coeur d'Alene.

He told the jury that he wasn't then a member of the Aryan Nations because he didn't share Butler' view of non-violence.

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OUR VIEW An announcement indicates the local Aryan Nations scourge is on the cusp ofbeing completely kaput.

Decency will keep the upper hand Veteran human rights leaders are reluctant to say that the Aryan Nations presence in North Idaho is aJI but over- although signs point that way.

Norm Gissel, for example, hedged while responding to the A,.ryan Nations announcement that founder Richard Butler had picked a successor who Lives in Ohio. The Aryans are too unpredictable, he said, adding: "I do think they're essentially giving up on good old North Idaho but that's more my hope speaking than my judgment."

If anyone knows how to read tea leaves about Aryan Nations activity, it's Gissel and other longtime members of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. Gissel, after all, dealt area white supremacists a fatal blow last fall when he helped sue Butler and bis followers into oblivion. As a result of a $6.3 million judgment against the Aryans, Butler, 83, lost his compound and now is living out his days in Hayden in relative obscurity.

Still, much can be read into the notice that ex-convict Ray Redfeairn is the Aryans' new national director and Butler's heir apparent. The fact that Butler had to reach all the way to Ohio for another successor - the previous one from California died reveals there's no one locally to take up his discredited mantle. It also shows that Butler failed miserably in his attempt to establish a "territorial imperative" in the Pacific Northwest.

There's much to celebrate here.

At one time, human rights leaders weren't sure how Butler's effort to establish a North Idaho beachhead would work out. For a whiJe, be attracted a rogue's gallery of racists who murdered, committed armed robberies and bombed buildings in an attempt to start a race war. The thugs found refuge at Butler's compound and paraded in Coeur d'Alene. But they couldn't attract many locals to their unholy cause.

Fortunately, the apostles of bate were met by stiff, sustained resistance from Gissel, Tony Stewart, Bill Wassmuth and other local human rights activists. Those activists helped Idaho pass tough antibate laws. They comforted victims of bate crimes. They literally wrote a manual and developed a video on how communities should respond to racists. They spawned a regional human rights movement. They parried every Aryan Nations thrust. .If the Aryan Nations tries to re-establish itself in the Inland Northwest, it'll be met by the battle-tested task force. That's why we're confident the end is near. Gissel and his task force have proven they won't let up until the last semblance of Butler's movement has left North Idaho.

D.F. Ollverla/For the editorial board

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Human rights center will be built with ideas

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COEUR d'ALENE Organizers want residents to bring ideas Wednesday so they can be used like bricks to build a human rights center in Coeur d'Alene.

The Human Rights Education Foundation has scheduled a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday for local residents to develop ideas af>out what the center should represent.

The meeting, which is scheduled to last until 9 p.m., will be at the Lake City Senior Center, J9J6 Lakewood Drive.

"We are trying to decide which form the human rights center should be," said Mary Lou Reed, who chairs the mission committee looking for ideas.

Greg Carr, former chairman of Prodigy Jnc., formed the foundation to offer suggestions for the center's budget, programs and possible affiliations with other

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organizations interested in human rights.

Carr, who also fu nded tJ1e Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise, purchased the 20 acres that had been the Aryan Nations compound of white supremacist leader Richard Butler.

Earlier this year, Carr said the center in downtown Coeur d'Alene would include an auditorium and exhibit hall detarnng the fight for

human rights.

Tony Stewart, foundation chairman, said Carr is expected to visit here in December or January to announce both the location and the design of the center.

"We are trying to create something that will be really meaningful for the people here and for the people who visit the community," Stewart said.

Members have visited the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery, Ala., and the Civil Rjghts Museum housed in the Loraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in l968.

They took detailed forms to fill

out and interviewed the staff at some of those centers, Stewart said.

"We are gathering all this information. It will be processed by the board and given to our consultant," Stewart said.

The fom1er Aryan compound has been cleared and is now simply wooded land. Carr has said he would like to build a retreat facility on the Rimrock Road property north of Hayden Lake. rt would not be open to the public but would be used by invitation for students, scholars, and committees to study and reflect on human rights, Carr said in May. But Stewart said the Wednesday meeting will discuss only the center in Coeur d'Alene.

Coeur d'Alene attorney Norm Gissel, who assisted civil rights attor-

ney Morris Dees in winning a $6.3 million civil judgment that bankrupted Butler and the Aryan Nations, will speak at the meeting. " I think the center can be a pivotal place of activity and education to send the message that this is a foreign place for racists wanting to start their own racist empires," Gissel said. " lt would be wildly arrogant of us to assume we have all the answers for all the potential activities a center could do. So it's important for us to reach out to the community to hear their perspective about what we should be doing." â&#x20AC;˘ Thomas Clouse can be reached at (208) 765-7130 or by e-mail at tomc@spokesman.com.

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Residents able to share ideas on human rights The Press, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2001

The Kootenai County Task Force COEUR d'ALENE - Residents with ideas about what a human on Human Relations and the Human rights center can offer the communi- Rights Education Foundation will ty are invited to a public meeting hold the 7 p.m. meeting at the Lake City Senior Center.

Wednesday.

For the past few months, representatives from both groups have been touring human rights centers

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bankruptcy and off the property.

Butler was found mostly responcontinued from C1 sible for an attack on the Keenans by three Aryan Nation through the country for ideas on security guards. how a center could be impleCarr, now a resident of mented in North Idaho.

Cambridge, Mass., bas been active The Carr Foundation has in human rights causes since 1996. also pledged financial support if Tony Stewart, an official a plah is put together for a center from the local task force and in the Inland Northwest foundation, said Wednesday's The foundation was started round-table meeting will offer

by Idaho native Greg Carr, a direction in planning for the philanthropist who also bought center, which is expected to be the former Hayden compound finalized in December. of the Aryan Nation this spring.

Various ideas that have The property was acquired been discussed so far includfrom Victoria Keenan and her ing building some sort of son, Jason, who won a multi-mil- monument, center, museum lion dollar civil judgment against or children's area at the forformer Aryan Nation leader mer compound, or even a cenRichard Butler, forcing him into trally located building in

downtown Coeur d'Alene.

People who attend the meeting will be broken up into groups and asked a series of questions about human rights needs and possible program offerings. These groups will then report to the main body, which will make a recommendation to the foundation.

Questions that will be discussed include: • What examples of human rights violations have you observed or experienced?

• How much emphasis should be placed on education of children to understand and appreciate differences?

• Do you see a need for a center to address issues of racial, religious, or other

forms of prejudice?

• What programs or practices would you like to see carried out through a center?

• What ideas do you have to improve conditions respecting human rights in our region?

People who can't attend the meeting but want to offer their thoughts can write to the Human Rights Education Foundation, P.O. Box 75, Coeur d'Alene ID 83814, or write to norm@nidlink.com

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ursclay Nov. 8, 2001

Sunny Weather A2 3 sections

Public shares human rights ideas Phlanthroplst to build canter on former Aryan compound

By MEGAN COOLEY

Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - One night .in 1980, racists threatened a Jewish restaurant owner .in Coeur d'Alene and vandalized his establishment The next day, a group of 15 locals vowed their support of the man and of a bigotryfree North Idaho. From that seed, a human rights task force has grown and Wednesday the group presented to the public its largest undertaking to date: a human rights center on the site of the former Aryan Nations compound in Hayden Lake.

"We have to create a cultural environ-

ment that will send a message... that North Idaho is not a haven for these people," civil rights attorney Norm Gissel said of racists.

Gissel, the forum's keynote speaker, successfully sued former Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler last year. The $6-million verdict forced Butler into bankruptcy.

Philanthropist Greg Carr bought Butler's property last spring and is asking the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and the Human Rights Education Foundation to develop a plan for a center that will educate people against racism.

What will the center look like? How will it compare to attractions such as the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, D.C., or the Rosa Parks Center in Alabama?

RIGHTS continued on A3

MEGAN COOLEY/Press

Human rights specialist Vince Lemus shares his table's ideas for the proposed civil rights educational center.

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RIGHTS ~ontinued from A1 According to organizers Wednesday, the sky's the limit. â&#x20AC;˘ "What an opportunity Greg Carr is giving to us," said Tony Stewart, president of the Human Rights Education Foundation. "It'd be so great for North Idaho or the Inland Northwest, even, to be known for this."

Organizers won't disclose how much money Carr is willing to dedicate to the center, but Stewart said it would "raise some eyebrows." ''Your object is what would you would do if money was not an option," task force member Sandy Emerson told the audience of 110 who came to the forum to share ideas.

After an overview of the task force's ideas that better resembled a pep talk by coaches of a winning team, audience members broke into groups of eight and brainstormed possibilities.

Citizens talktd of educational tools that meet the needs of all age groups and of multimedia presentations that draw visitors into the .isslles.

They discussed the discomfort many face when asked to deal with bigotry and its terminology.

Along with the public forum, task force members are visiting human rights centers across the nation to gather ideas. Local universities,

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such as North Idaho College, the University of Idaho and Gonzaga University, have offered their resources to the center. This, said Stewart, will be the difference between a so-so museum and a worldclass facility.

"I think that dreaming high is really important," he said.

Stewart expects an overall plan for the center to be completed as early as January.

Despite the palpable excitement inside the senior center, police presence outside couldn't be ignored.

Security officers stood at the door and a patrol car sat outside as a precautionary measure. No incidents of opposition occurred.

In a relatively short time, Butler's former property could figuratively be miles from its previous purpose.

...

In his address, Gissel compared Butler to Osama bin Laden, but contrasted the places each leader selected as his home.

"It was a terrible choice when Afghanistan chose to protect bin Laden," said Gissel. "(Butler) thought we would embrace him and his world view... and we would nurture him the way Afghanistan nurtures bin Laden. But North Idaho was the wrong choice for Richard Butler."

The civil rights center will speak of who we are as North Idahoans and as Americans, said Gissel. "(The message) will be so clear that no Nazi will ever move here again.:' Megan Cooley can be reached at 664-8176 ext. 2008 or mcooley@cdapress.com

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Thursday, November 8, 2001 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash./Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Group ha~ desigI1:s on rights center Volunteers brainstorm Ideas for world-class facility in Coeur d'Alene

By Thomas Clouse Staff writer

COEUR d'ALENE - They filJed every seat. They packed every page of paper. The ideas flowed like dreams.

The work of 110 volunteers Wednesday night helped develop the shape, substance and mission of Coeur d'Alene's proposed human rights center.

Near the end of the round-table discussion at the Lake City Senior Center. Karen Lamb couldn't help but thank the others.

"As negative an image as we have, it has brought us together in a strength that 1 have never seen before," Lamb said. '·J have never

felt the community before."

The Human Rights Education Foundation wilJ use the ideas to design, build and operate a human rights center here.

Tony Stewart, who chairs that foundation, hopes the center will match the scale of other national civil rights centers, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Birmingham, Ala. "I'd like a center that has that prominence,'" Stewart said. "Tthink dreaming high is very important. When you have this energy and great financial resources, you should realize your potential."

The finances are coming from Greg Carr, originally from Idaho Falls. He left Idaho to become chairman of Prodigy Inc. He attended Harvard University and has used his influence to create the Greg Carr Institute for Human Rights Study at Harvard, Stewart said.

Carr - who aJso donated funds to create the Anne Frank Memorial in Boise - is expected to visit Coeur d'Alene in January to announce the site, design and cost of the human rights center.

Carr purchased the 20 acres that had been the compound used by white supremacist Richard Butler and the Aryan Nations.

Norm Gissel, who helped civil rights attorney Morris Dees bankrupt Butler and the Aryan Nations last year, opened the meeting

with a speech. He compared terrorist Osama bin Laden's haven in Afghanistan to Butler coming to North Idaho. ·'Our job is to create a culture so clear, so weU-spoken, so definite, that no Nazi would ever dream of coming here," Gissel said.

"Our goal is to design for ourselves a civil rights center that will speak forever for what we represent in lhe Inland Northwest and North Idaho."

The volunteers were divided into 12 groups. Eacb group was asked to relate racist activities they've seen and what the center should include. The ovetwhelming consensus was that the center should provide a variety of education programs. Suggestions included: • Making the programs geared 75 percent for children and 25 percent for adults.

' • Creating an "instant response team" to be able to comment to the press on such thi!!gs as the annual Aryan Nations parade.

• Including state and global issues to show area youth the advantages of living in a peaceful world.

• Reflecting local Native American history along with the 27-year struggle with the Al)1ln Nations.

• Including victim support and a research arm to help understand issues.

Jeannie Givens, a member of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, said those ideas will help create a center that can be used as a tool for generations. "Our goal is to ask you to walk down the path and look at the challenges of North Idaho," Givens said. "What do we want to be remembered for?"

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Sunday, January 6, 2002 The Spokesman-Review Spokane, Wash./Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

C LOSE TO

HOME

• Cynthia, Taggart

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Singer brings love of life to celebration JEFF MOYER KNOWS THE HURT of not being believed.

Doctors didn't believe he couldn't see after the measles ravaged him at age 5, so bis parents didn't believe it either.

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Jeff knows condescension, avoidance and ridicule. He experienced it all as his vision disappeared. His younger brother experienced even worse. His brother was born severely retarded.

Jeff, 52, also knows success, and that's why he's leaving hjs home in Cleveland, Qhjo, next week to

celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in Coeur d'Alene.

"I absolutely love my life," he says. " I' m always being fed by people touched by, encouraged and validated by my work. What more could I ask for?"

Jeff is a singer and speaker and much more.

Skyway Elementary Principal Pam Pratt heard him at a character education conference in St. Louis, Mo., last July and knew North Idaho deserved his message.

"He has such a belief in human justice," she says.

Jeff convinced his St. Louis audience to sing with him and sign as he played guitar.

"He presented with such dignity through song," Pam says. "It was so moving to me.''

Pam has organized Coeur d'Alene's Martin Luther King Jr. Day children's celebration for the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations since a few years after the event started locally in 1986.

She knew Jeff and his guitar would connect with Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls fifth-graders, the audience schools selected for the holiday activities.

Jeff will meet with students at area schools throughout the week and with the public at Coeur d'Alene's 1st Presbyterian Church, 521 Lakeside Ave., at7 p.m. Jan.18.

Continued: Moyer/82

Moyer: To help

task force expand approach

''I looked at what I love doing and where I wanted my life to go, took agreat leap of faith and decided to make my living out of wits and passion. "

Continued from Bl

Jeff Moyer

He i n't the ta k force ' typical presenter. The ta ·k force ·tarted 21 years ago in reaction to the ri e of anti-Semitic graffiti and literature in the area. Over the year it ha addr ed harru· ment and worked hard to rai ·e cultural awarene in largely white North Idaho.

But intolerance reaches beyond race and religion, and the ta k force i ready to broaden it approach.

"There' a growing con en u that we want ro work with all population ' say Tony Stewart, a longtime ta k force member. "Jeff Moyer i probably th mo t informed and qualified person we've ever brought in to deal, ith children' issue .'

Jeff fell prey to a avage case of mea le in 1954, th year hi brother w born. " I remember coming out of the hou ·e when I could play again and not being able to ee oap bubbles, he ay.

For three years doctor insisted he wa pretending. Hi par nts were pr occupied with hi brother. Finally a doctor decided Jeffs eye were fail ing, but the rea on wa · beyond him.

Jeff' parent kept him in a regular chool where he acted a · if he could ·ee.

"I de perately tried to compete a a ighted person, which was hard in baseball," he ·ays. 'I wanted to

pretend the vi ion lo didn t exist.

At 11 he was declared legally blind and . ent to a chool with pecial fac ilitie for blind children. He wa n t prepared or coun eled. He'd lived a a ·ighted child and uddenly was expected to read braille.

"Being blind cared me to piece ,' Jeff ay . "l had no identity with blindne or the tool of the trade."

The 1960s civil right movement and it u e of peech and folk mu ic to cause ocial change captured Jeff attention and heart. He played piano, guitar and ukulel . Hi own ong · abou t love, ocial commentary, public apathy human need war and the horror of his brothers in titutionalization w r cathartic.

At the Univer ity of California Berke! y, in the 1970 , J ff added disability rights to hi ong Ii t and di covered his skiJI at pubLic peaking. While he earned a bachelor' degree in ocial welfare, he ro ea an activi t for all di abled. The CBS Evening New ran a tory of Jeff inging at a San Franci co prore t that pawned the Americans With Di abi litie Act. Jeff' civil rights activi m helped him under ·tand he was more than a blind man.

"I realized my experience i more univer al than ju t ight lo . It' no

different than any other loss ' he ay . "Since then I m not defined by my di ability but by my humanity."

He earned a ma ter degree in rehabiJitation administration from the University of San Franci ·co and began building pecial programs for di abled people and performing al di ability-related conferences. He encouraged people to remember that everyone deals with the lo of omething - a parent house, hair pou e eyesight - and that experience should unite, not divide, people.

Ten year ago Jeff inve ted himelf completely in that mes age. He quit work at a rehabilitation ag ncy and hit. the performance/speaker circuit.

'I looked at what l lov doing and where I wanted my life to go took a great leap of fa ith and decided lo make my livi ng out of wit and passion," he say . ' Ive lived clo e to the dge, but every year gets b tter.'

Since 1992, he' performed in 45 ·tate · and everal countri · for people of every age. He's re.lea ed hi · ong on a erie of CD and written a play, 'How Big 1 Your Circle?" that theater critics and educators call noble, wonderful and challenging.

He tailor bis performance for each audience but hi me sage doesn t change. In Coeur d'AJene, he'll teach kid how much they hare

with everyone and t appreciate and accept their difference .

The task force and the Human Rights Education Foundation is covering the $6 000 for Jeff Coeur d'Alene appearance.

Hi br th r live with a i tanc next door to him now. Jeff i his guardian. When Jeff isn't traveling and p~rforming, he working on software that generates synthetic peech for people with peaking di abi litie .

His oftware work · with the mu ic he'll perform in Coeur d'Alene. To use it, contact him at moyer jeffmoyer.com.

The quality of my life ha nothing to do with seeing " he ·ay . I'm doing what I'm here to do, I firmly believe."

• Cynthia Taggart can be reached at 765- 7128 or by e-mail at cynthiat@spokesman.com.

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FIie/The Spokesman-Review

Sorensen students practice for last year's Martin Luther King Day assembly.

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