The Aryan Nation

The Aryan Nation was founded in 1974 by Richard G. Butler and operated on Butler's 20 acre compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Butler's organization became a source of inspiration for other white supremacist followers and supporters.

In its early days, the Aryan Nation operated mostly printing projects designed to inform the world about their intentions and goals. Butler also targeted white prisoners as recipients for his message.

It was not until the early 1980s that the Aryan Nation began to gain publicity when a group known as "The Order", which was founded by members of the Aryan Nation, took on a more militant platform by conducting covert and overt acts of sabotage and assassinations against what was known as the "Anti-Aryan Zionist system". The activities of The Order came to an end when its creator, Robert J. Mathews, was killed in a firefight with federal law enforcement officers in December of 1984.

While the Aryan Nation was operating out of the Hayden Lake compound, Butler was host to the World Congress of Aryan Nations which allowed supporters and like-minded thinkers to gather and discuss issues important to them. Over the years it was reported that members of other right-wing radical groups including the Ku Klux Klan and the Posse Comitatus were in attendance at the World Congress. Attendees of the World Congress of Aryan Nations were often given classes and seminars on guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism.

For the most part, the Aryan Nation was able to support itself financially through donations, membership dues, and selling Butler's sermons and speeches on tape, but the Aryan Nation took a huge financial blow in September of 2000 when a jury awarded a mother and son $6.3 million after they were chased, assaulted, and shot at by Aryan Nation security guards for briefly stopping on a road adjacent to the Aryan Nation compound.

After the court's decision, Butler was forced to sell off his Hayden Lake compound along with various personal possessions. The Aryan Nation headquarters was transferred to a smaller compound in Pennsylvania and Butler named Ray Redfeairn as National Director of the Aryan Nation at the 2002 World Congress.

Butler died in 2004 of heart failure. Since his death, the activities of the Aryan Nation have been rather quiet in the last few years. On its official website, the Aryan Nation declares that they're activities have not slowed down, only that the organization is taking a new direction with itself. The new direction involves total secrecy and an underground operating policy. This could explain why the Aryan Nation seems to have fallen off of the media's radar.

Sources:

Aryan Nations - About Us. The Aryan Nation.

Aryan Nations. The Anti-Defamation League.

Richard Butler. The Anti-Defamation League.