I wrote this entry for them that mentions many groups we deal with in here. Might be a bit long for some, about 18 pgs.
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“The Radical Right and the Modern Anti-Indian/Anti-Sovereignty Movement”
Like other minorities, American Indians began demanding their legal and political rights in far greater numbers following World War II. Native participation in the civil rights and Red Power movements centered on reasserting tribal sovereignty, that Indian tribes return to being nations with self-determination. American laws (including the Constitution) and the federal government (including the Supreme Court) repeatedly recognize that Indian tribes are nations. Tribal status is often legally defined as limited, domestic, and dependent, but few Native peoples cede that, pointing for support to the provisions of numerous treaties and international law. With the first successes at achieving Native tribal sovereignty came backlash from white racists and the rapid growth of today’s anti-Indian and anti-sovereignty movements.
Anti-Indian groups range from white property rights groups, anti-environmentalists, anti-Indian gaming groups (who rarely oppose non-Indian gaming), business interests, the militia movement, fascists and neo-Nazis, and much of the New Age movement. Many, including militias, New Age groups, and Black supremacist groups, try to pass themselves off as Indian tribes, spreading confusion and disrupting the efforts of actual Indian tribes. Increasingly, anti-Indian groups employ professional tokens, people with claims of or actual Indian ancestry to deny their groups’ racism. But a movement seeking to deny or roll back rights or limit the property and resources of a minority racial group in favor of the dominant racial group is by definition racist.
One of the tactics used by anti-Indian groups is to frequently adopt names including phrases like “equal rights” even while calling for the loss of rights for American Indians. Anti-sovereignty groups also use civil rights imagery, where whites are depicted as an oppressed people. Yet at the same time anti-Indian groups use openly racist appeals in pamphlets such as, "200 Million Custers." Anti-sovereignty groups also spread false racial rumors that claim American Indians do not have to work, receive free money, or are exempt from taxes. (The only actual exemption is state sales tax on reservations, which is true for both Natives and non-Natives.) Yet while claiming Natives are dependent, simultaneously anti-Indian groups denounce tribal efforts for economic self-sufficiency, such as small businesses, tourism, gaming, or leasing, as anti-white.
White Property Rights Groups and the Wise Use Movement
From the late sixties to the early nineties anti-Indian and white property rights groups groups rose from a half dozen to more than fifty organizations. Anti-sovereignty groups often exaggerate their membership or influence, sometimes claiming to represent hundreds of thousands of people. But one estimate by the Center for World Indigenous Studies has the number of dedicated anti-Indian activists at under one hundred in sixteen states in the early 1990s. The total number of people who participated in anti-Indian meetings or protests was also estimated at less than 11,000. The number of persons who gave money or wrote letters in support of anti-Indian groups was less than 35,000. White property rights groups are strongest in the Pacific Northwest, but Indian tribes in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, and Wisconsin have also faced conflict with anti-sovereignty groups.
One of the earliest anti-Indian groups was All Citizens Equal (ACE) founded in 1970, which came from an earlier group, Montanans Opposing Discrimination (MOD), which wanted to end all reservations. While ACE has non-discrimination statements and disclaimers, its leaders associate with many racist groups. Prominent ACE members included; Keith Roberts and Del Palmers, members of Christian Identity which teaches that Jews are children of Satan and nonwhites are “mud people”; Frank Ellena, a militia and freeman supporter; and Nilah Miller of the far right Populist Party.
The first nationwide anti-Indian network began in 1976, the Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsibilities (ICERR). ICERR was initially made up mostly of non-Native landowners on Indian reservations, who frequently own more than half of former tribal land. ICERR also has many non-Native sports and commercial fishermen opposed to treaties protecting Native fishing rights. ICERR claims to speak for 450,000 people. The most frequent targets of their campaigns are the Lummi, Quinault, and Suquamish nations, but also the Blackfoot, Crow, Kootenai, and Salish. ICERR receives funding from the Joseph Coors Foundation.
The Wise Use Movement began in the late 1970s as a coalition of anti-environmentalists. It includes lobbyists for timber, energy, mining, development, fishing, and other corporations such as Exxon, Louisiana-Pacific, and Boise Cascade. Under the Reagan Administration, some of its leaders became part of the federal government. One of the leading Wise Use groups, Defenders of Property Rights (DoPR) had as board members James Watt (Interior Secretary), Ed Meese (Attorney General), failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.
In 1984 in Washington State, Initiative 456 was proposed. Vaguely worded, the initiative aimed to restrict American Indian fishing rights. Anti-sovereignty groups succeeded in gathering over 200,000 signatures to get it on the ballot, and it narrowly passed. Anti-Indian groups hoped it would give them momentum to pass similar proposed measures in twenty-three other states. But no similar initiatives were passed in any other states, and the Washington state government began to negotiate with tribes on a government-to-government basis, something frequently not done before.
Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE) are white property owners who oppose Indian land claims in New York and claim over 8,200 members. Daniel Warren served as chair of the Buffalo chapter of UCE and as a Director of Coalition Against Gaming in New York (CAGNY). United South and Eastern Tribes (USET) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) both passed resolutions condemning UCE as a hate group.
In Wisconsin, the anti-Indian group Protect Americans' Rights and Resources (PARR) began in 1987, led by Larry Peterson. PARR protestors harassed Ojibwe fishermen, chanting "timber niggers" and "welfare warriors.” Another group, Stop Treaty Abuse (STA), led by Dean Crist, began in 1988. STA organized violent protests, with whites assaulting Natives, issuing threats, slashing tires, running vehicles off the road, ramming boats, and firing guns. In 1989, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported anti-Indian groups formed a death squad that offered money for the assassination of two Native leaders. Crist is a supporter of David Duke, and Milwaukee skinheads of the White Patriots League attended PARR rallies in support.
The Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) is made up of nearly 500 groups from thirteen states. Over half of CERA's organizations are business interests in gas, industrial recreation, oil, and timber. CERA focuses on lobbying Congress to weaken or end treaties.
CERA filed a lawsuit in 2007 against Montana state officials over alleged voter fraud on the Crow reservation. The lawsuit sought to end federal voting on Indian reservations, moving ballots to off-reservation sites far from Native residents, where white racists potentially controlled access or threatened Native voters. The suit was dismissed.
One Nation is the leading anti-Indian group in Oklahoma, made up mostly of business interests. They list their founding members as the Oklahoma Grocers Association, Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, the Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers Association, the Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance, and Rusty Shaw, owner of Shaw’s Gulf, Inc.
An advertising campaign in 2000 accused the St. Regis Mohawks at Akwesasne of drug smuggling, money laundering, and transporting undocumented immigrants. The ads were from the New York Institute for Law and Society, funded by non-Indian casino interests. Advertising was traced to an organizer for Donald Trump's campaign for president. Trump was fined $250,000 for not registering his lobby.
Besides the Reagan Administration, other politicians have come from the anti-sovereignty movement or sought its members’ support. In the mid-1970s, Washington State Attorney General Slade Gorton lost many cases seeking to limit tribal sovereignty, but he used his notoriety to win a seat in the US Senate. Jack Metcalf began as an anti-Indian activist with both United Property Owners and Salmon/Steelhead Preservation Action for Washington Now before becoming a Washington State Senator. John Fleming wrote a Washington State Republican resolution calling for the end of reservation governments. Fleming further argued that if Natives opposed the federal government, the military should be sent in. After a nationwide outcry, the resolution was rescinded by the Washington State Republican Party. Senator Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican, introduced a bill that would exempt white reservation land owners from reservation laws. In his successful run for governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger appealed to anti-sovereignty groups using openly racist language, “The Indians are ripping us off.”
The New Age Movement and Fascism
Many of the forefathers of the New Age movement were also forefathers of the modern fascist movement. New Age originators include dedicated proponents of white supremacist beliefs such as Alice Bailey, Helena Blavatsky, and Edgar Cayce. Bailey and Blavatsky’s anti-Semitism permeates their writings. Cayce argued man divides into “root races” with Aryan/whites as the most advanced. The New Age movement sometimes presents itself as apolitical, above or outside of politics, or progressive. But much of the New Age movement today is often based on ideas of the far right. Much of its leadership and membership overlap with fascism. The basic premises and practices of the New Age movement have long been criticized by Native activists and academics as inherently racist and colonialist. The damage done to sovereignty struggles for American Indians includes spreading false images of American Indians that seek to convince those sympathetic to Natives that activism is not necessary.
Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy and Waldorf Schools, had many disciples among the Nazi leadership, including Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler. Both Steiner and many contemporary Anthroposophists and Waldorf schools teach that Blacks are trapped in a permanently childlike state, that American Indians are a senile dying race, and that Aryans/whites are the most spiritually developed. Concerned parents formed People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS) suing two school districts using Waldorf teaching in violation of the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion. PLANS have also documented unequal treatment and racism towards minority students in Waldorf schools.
William Dudley Pelley was an American Nazi who preached a mix of fascism and mysticism that had a direct influence on the New Age movement and the far right. Pelley promoted channeling, pyramidism, ESP, mental radio, and UFOs. He founded Galahad College to advance his spiritual ideas in 1930. In 1933 he founded the Silver Shirts, modeled on the Nazi Party, with chapters in twenty-two states and 15,000 members. Pelley called for a Christian Commonwealth with all Jews registered and only permitted to live in one city in each state. His best known writing became the Franklin Prophecy, a forgery claiming Benjamin Franklin urged Americans to exclude Jews. In 1935 he was convicted of selling worthless stock. Next year he ran for US President under the Christian Party. In 1942 he was convicted of sedition. Released in 1950, he spent the rest of his life leading the Soulcraft cult. Silver Shirt Henry Beach founded the Posse Commitatus. Silver Shirt Richard Butler led the Aryan Nation.
An Italian fascist, Maximiani Portas, renamed herself Savitri Devi and founded an ideology, Esoteric Hitlerism. Devi directly influenced American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell. Devi’s work gained many followers of fascist ideas among both the New Age and Green or Deep Ecology environmentalist movements. Devi connected Hitler’s belief in Aryans to Hindu history, claiming Hitler was an avatar. In 1962 Devi, Rockwell, and others founded the World Union of National Socialists, the international Nazi organization.
Devi also influenced William Pierce, the leader of the National Alliance and author of The Turner Diaries, a work that inspired the militia movement and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Pierce was originally an atheist. He published a version of Devi’s books in the Nazi Party’s paper. After reading Devi he founded his own New Age religion, Cosmotheism. Some observers believed Cosmotheism to be a way to avoid taxes for Pierce and the National Alliance, or to compete with Ben Klassen's Church of the Creator.
Miguel Serrano, a Chilean diplomat, authored books claiming Hitler lived in the Hindu paradise Shambhala, or underground in Antarctica. Serrano further believe Hitler and Hindu gods would come with a fleet of UFOs to lead the forces of light (Aryans) over the forces of darkness (Jews). Serrano believed the UFOs’ victory would bring a Fourth Reich.
Devi, Serrano, and others such as Trevor Ravenscroft brought recruits for fascism and neo Nazism from not only the New Age movement, but the black metal and industrial music scenes, science fiction fans, and pagan groups. In online forums for fascists, racists, and others on the far right such as Liberty Forum, Stormfront, and White Revolution, it is common to find neo Nazis who are also New Age believers. Many New Age and far right publications and individuals continue to work together and promote each other’s ideas. The New Age magazine Nexus promotes militia groups, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and propaganda from the LaRouche movement and the Nation of Islam. The best known proponent of both far right and New Age ideas today is David Ickes. Ickes claims the world is controlled by a secret conspiracy he calls The Elite, whom he identifies as Jews, Zionists, or world bankers. Ickes endorses the famous anti-Semitic forgery Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and preaches The Elite are lizard-like aliens with Jewish human shells.
Two of Ickes’s associates are Roy Steevensz AKA Roy Littlesun and Credo Mutwa. Steevensz, who is Dutch-Indonesian, first came to public attention for falsely claiming to be a Hopi elder. Steevensz used the names of actual Hopi elders to raise money for fraudulent charities and disrupt Hopi village life before finally being banned from the Hopi reservation. Steevensz and Mutwa faced legal problems in South Africa for false claims about curing AIDS.
In 1984 Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro founded a New Age cult, the Order of the Solar Temple, which eventually numbered over 400 members in Canada, the US, and Europe. The group claimed to be in the tradition of the Knights Templar, following the teachings of Julian Origas, a former member of the Gestapo. In 1994, seventy-four members died in mass murder-suicide pacts in three separate locations. While investigating, authorities found plans to set up a terrorist network to launch attacks on the Mohawk Nation.
Militia Groups
Most militia groups in the US are primarily concerned with being anti-federal government, especially on issues of guns and taxes. At times the militia movement overlaps with neo-Nazis, fascists, and other racists. Some groups within the militia movement falsely claim to be Indian tribes, seeking to take advantage of lack of public about tribal sovereignty and spreading confusion.
The Posse Comitatus, founded on a belief in anti-Semitism and anti-federal conspiracy theories, began to extend its hostility to tribal governments in the 1970s. In 1977 “Marshal” Slim
Deardorff of the Posse Comitatus publicly stated its members would not submit to orders by tribal officers. By the 1990s, Deardorff had become a minister in the white supremacist World Church of the Creator.
The Little Shell Pembina militia group is essentially the Delorme family and militia associates, along with undocumented immigrants conned into buying membership hoping to become US citizens. (This group should not to be confused with an actual recognized American Indian tribe, the Little Shell Tribe of Montana.) The original Pembinas numbered from sixty to 160 members, but are now split into three competing factions. In 2001 Ronald Delorme claimed to be hereditary chief of an Indian band and filed for federal recognition. By 2004 the Little Shell Pembinas claimed to be a sovereign tribe with title to over sixty-two million acres of land, most of North Dakota and parts of Montana, South Dakota and Manitoba.
The Pembina “tribe” admitted anyone for a fee, whether they had Native ancestry or not. Anti-government figures joined and began to use false legal claims of sovereignty to try to avoid the law or attempt to make money. Some Pembina members offered bogus insurance. The states of Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Oregon, Ohio, New York, North Dakota, and Washington issued cease and desist orders. Some Pembinas used sovereignty claims to stop withholding taxes or paying sales tax. The Pembinas issued fake drivers licenses, registrations, and insurance cards. Pembinas tried to avoid lawsuits or prosecution by claiming courts lack jurisdiction or transferring property to the Pembina “tribe.” Members also issued phony writs, court orders, and lawsuits.
A splinter faction of the Pembinas founded Gold-Quest International, a currency trading system that was a Ponzi scheme. Over 2,100 people were cheated out of $27.9 million. When the Securities and Exchange Commission prosecuted, Michael Reed filed a $1.7 trillion lawsuit for damages as the Pembinas’ attorney general. Other Pembinas say Reed was expelled.
Another offshoot of the Pembinas is Universal Service Dedicated to God (USDG) a counseling service run by Reverend Audie Watson. Watson sold permits to drive, titles, registrations, and license plates. He also sold over 2,000 memberships to undocumented immigrants hoping to become US citizens. Audiji, a yoga guru in Tamarac, Florida, ran USSG with Watson. One faction of the Pembina said Ronald Delorme gave Watson the right to sell memberships and received part of the money until expelled.
Militia members and sovereign citizens in the Pembinas include spokesman Ronald Brakke, who was part of groups promoting bogus trusts. William McNamara, the Pembinas’ head of public relations, is an actor involved with anti-government organizations the Law Research Group and the Erwin Rommel School of Law. Navin Naidu AKA Chief Judge Silver Eagle is the Pembinas’ judge and economic advisor. Naidu was the lawyer for George Speight, who led an unsuccessful coup in Fiji and was charged with treason. Naidu was deported from Fiji for falsely claiming a certificate to practice law. Clerk and tribal lawyer John Lloyd Kirk is also a militia supporter, convicted of conspiracy to possess destructive devices. For this, Kirk received prison, his second sentence after an earlier conviction for raping his daughters.
Another figure within the Pembina militia is Allen Becker AKA Allen Aslan Heart AKA White Eagle Soaring, a white man claiming to be Ojibwe and Abenaki based on a dream he had. On his website he sells alternative medicine cures, mortgage elimination schemes, and anti-Semitic essays. Becker gives presentations to libraries and public schools in the Midwest, claiming to teach American Indian tradition.
Harley Reagan AKA Swiftdeer AKA Thunder Strikes alternately claims to be Cherokee or Mayan and founded a cult and militia, the Deer Tribe. Reagan issued a call for the federal government to be overthrown in 2000 should Al Gore be elected president. Reagan also calls for race war against Latino immigrants. He trains his followers in firearms and his form of martial arts he falsely claims is from American Indian traditions. The Deer Tribe also sells what they falsely claim are Cherokee ceremonies which involve group sexual assault upon initiates, and have numerous allegations of sexual abuse against them. HBO’s Real Sex program was fooled into presenting the ceremonies as legitimate in 1992, leading to a lawsuit threat from the Cherokee Nation. Reagan claims to have 5,000 members in chapters across America, Canada, and Europe.
The Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band, is another militia group posing as an Indian tribe. Founded at an Arby’s restaurant in 2004 in Provo, Utah, the group is led by Dale Nolan Stevens. (The group should not be confused with the actual Wampanoag Nation, Tribe of Grayhead, Wolf Band, a federally recognized Indian tribe in Massachusetts.) The false Provo-based group founded the Western Arbitration Council (WAC) to file suits that harass perceived enemies. The WAC claims hundreds of millions of dollars in sham judgments against their opponents by claiming to be American Indians exempt from Utah law. Stevens was charged in 2008 with attempted lewdness with a twelve-year-old girl he claimed promised to him by her mother in exchange for energy bars.
