Aryan Nations: The Compound, the Keenans, and the Lawsuit That Ended It

Richard Butler moved to northern Idaho in the early nineteen seventies and established what he called the Church of Jesus Christ Christian near Hayden Lake. Some sources date the formal founding of what became the Aryan Nations compound to nineteen seventy-four; sources using nineteen seventy-seven exist as well. The precise year is disputed. What is not disputed is that for more than two decades, the twenty-acre compound became the primary national gathering site for white-supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations in the United States, drawing figures from across the country for annual congresses, recruiting from the surrounding region, and operating as the organizational hub of the radical-right movement.

The compound also became the origin point for criminal violence. In nineteen eighty-three, a group of Aryan Nations members calling themselves The Order, or the Silent Brotherhood, formed at Hayden Lake under the leadership of Robert Mathews and launched an armed campaign. They robbed armored cars and banks. On June eighteenth, nineteen eighty-four, members of The Order shot and killed Alan Berg, a Denver radio host, outside his home. Berg had been a frequent, confrontational critic of white-supremacist ideology on his program. Robert Mathews was killed by federal agents on Whidbey Island in Washington State on December eighth, nineteen eighty-four. The remaining Order members were convicted in nineteen eighty-five and eighty-six.

Federal attention to the compound did not end it. What ended it was a civil lawsuit.

On the evening of July first, nineteen ninety-eight, Victoria Keenan and her son Jason were driving on a road near the Aryan Nations compound when their car backfired. Compound guards pursued their vehicle and opened fire. The Southern Poverty Law Center brought suit on the Keenans' behalf. On September seventh, two thousand, an Idaho jury awarded six point three million dollars in damages against the Aryan Nations and Richard Butler personally. The judgment was larger than the entire value of the compound's assets.

Butler was forced to sell the property. A philanthropist purchased it and donated it to North Idaho College. The buildings were demolished in two thousand one. The Idaho Human Rights Education Center was established near the former site. Two thousand three, the last remaining structures were cleared.

The pattern the case established, bankrupting a hate organization through civil-rights litigation rather than federal prosecution, had been developed in earlier Southern Poverty Law Center cases. The Keenan verdict confirmed it worked.