----- Original Message ----- From: "Hunter Gray" <hunterbadbear at earthlink.net> To: "Michael Pugliese" <debsian at pacbell.net> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 9:11 PM Subject: Finished Copy: Gritz, Racism, Posse
Michael: From Hunter Gray [formerly John R Salter, Jr]
Thanks very much for the Bo Gritz etc stuff. I know something about him. I was a professor [and chair, Indian Studies] at UND, Grand Forks -- and had been for eleven years -- when he came to Bismarck and gave a talk in that setting. It was Summer, 1992 and this appearance was, I believe, in connection with his Presidential effort. My son, Peter, still in his early 20s, had just become State Editor of the state-wide Bismarck Tribune and he covered the event. He was not impressed at all with Gritz --quite the contrary -- and got much of his literature. He brought it all to me -- since then, as always [and now] I'm a resource person on far right/militia/racist stuff. While some of the Gritz material had the usual right-wing populist slant, other things went obviously deep into the militia circle, survivalism, and, at least through very obvious implication, into racism.
That was disturbing enough for me -- but then Peter showed me a little gem, a self-professed "warrant," which called on "citizens" to arrest George Bush [the other one] and was signed by three men -- including a John Salter [horror of horrors] ! who lived somewhere in Idaho [no specific address given.] This was obviously Posse Comitatus stuff, pure and simple, and that's a clearly racist outfit. We had had plenty of trouble with the Posse in North Dakota. I had just gotten to the state in 1981 when, soon after that, the Gordon Kahl shootout with US Marshals took place at Medina, ND, fairly close to us: everybody's tragedy -- several dead and several headed to prison.
The Posse cropped up in all sorts of anti-Indian things. They were a major problem for us - - along with some other racist outfits and just plain hoodlums -- in our very intensive Native rights campaigns in the Northern Plains in the 1980s and 1990s. But we won all of those tough campaigns --and we won all the way!
All of these racist outfits -- and I put Gritz in that context -- have sought to capitalize on the continuing major economic tragedy in the Northern Plains: thousands of ranchers and farmers forced out, totally losing everything. In 1989, the North Dakota State King Commission awarded me its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Social Justice Award for both historical and contemporary social justice activities. Then-Governor George A. Sinner [Democrat] presented the award to me at a ceremony at Bismarck. In the course of his remarks, he discussed the fact that, in the 1980s, 8,000 North Dakota ranchers and farmers had lost their land.
And it's all continuing. God knows how many small towns are dying -- almost overnight.
To come back to the Gritz thing at Bismarck in 1992: I was Chairman of the Grand Forks Community Relations Committee. I took the Gritz stuff to our next meeting and we went over it carefully. We all agreed it was obvious that these were new racist-group efforts to move into North Dakota. [ I took some ribbing on the "other John Salter" but I didn't and don't think it's funny.] Anyway, through a variety of our mechanisms -- friendly journalists and other media people, labor and Native rights activists, and other key and kindred people -- we sent out all sorts of sensible alerts throughout North Dakota. I personally contacted all the Indian reservations. Nothing shrill -- just urged people to be sensibly vigilant and report any developments to us right away. For awhile, we did get reports of Gritz and Posse-type literature ["warrants" calling for the citizen arrest of Janet Reno etc] being disseminated and, when this occurred, we helped the people who were contacting us with this information to spread the word vigilance-wise in their respective areas. In the end, not much came of the Gritz/Posse efforts in North Dakota, fortunately. But the Posse thing itself still retains some of its traditional footholds in the state and thus remains a problem.
Peter, my intrepid journalist son, then went down to LaMoure Co, ND to do a series of stories on the super-racist Winrod family of Missouri which was causing considerable trouble in that southern part of ND: inflammatory materials, constants threats, etc. His excellent series in the Bismarck Tribune certainly helped get rid of them. But, before he went down there, I presented him with my belated graduation present: a .357 Ruger revolver. He still has it, of course. Eventually, with the same newspaper chain, he went to Anaconda and Butte, Montana for awhile and then to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he is now City Editor of the Lincoln Journal-Star [same chain.] They've had some problems there with the super-crackpot Richard Barrett, the Klan lawyer from Learned, Mississippi [near Jackson] -- an old foe of mine -- who has been causing trouble via his American Nationalist Movement.
Back to Bo Gritz: After looking over that raft of literature that Peter brought me in 1992, and seeing the obviously Posse Comitatus stuff -- and following his trail since -- I've certainly always viewed him as a racist. He may be complex, confused -- but the racist side of him I think is far from buried! I think it's pretty overt -- and, certainly, the people in his circle are often very much in the racist wing of the militia thing.
Bo Gritz, I guess, is still in Idaho -- but I've seen little evidence of his stuff around here in the southeastern part of the state. We have had some potentially serious problems in this part of Idaho -- here at Pocatello -- and also over at Boise -- with the National Alliance. This is a West Va-based, extreme extreme racist outfit, very much involved with the "Identity Church" movement and the "Phineas Priesthood". Its literature is passed out here, surreptitiously, at night -- and it seems to be making a direct appeal to skin-head types [unemployment here has been rising, as it is nationally.] There has been one recent fire-bombing here. The National Alliance is moving its efforts into Idaho -- as the old faction-ridden, beleaguered, and aging Aryan Nations entourage up in North Idaho -- Coeur d' Alene region -- is fading from the scene, some moving over the state line into Montana. There is also some sort of Ku Klux Klan unit digging in around here. And the John Birchers have a surprising amount of strength.
We keep fighting -- as do you. All best, Mike.
In Solidarity, Hunter Gray [Hunterbear] Micmac/St Francis Abenaki/St Regis Mohawk
Take care, amigo. All best - Hunter
Hunter Gray www.hunterbear.org
Hunter Gray www.hunterbear.org