Funeral may exclude supremacists

Funeral plans for Aryan Nations founder Richard Butler remained unclear Thursday, but it’s likely the family will have a private service not including the pastor’s white supremacist followers.

Aryan Nations members said they respect the family’s wishes but are planning their own tributes, including a major memorial during the July 2005 World Congress that might be in North Idaho.

National Security Chief Rick Spring came from Arkansas to plan an immediate memorial service for Aryan Nation members and other Butler supporters who are trickling into Hayden. He declined to disclose the time and location, saying it would provoke “anti-racist” people to disrupt their mourning.

“The family would like for him to have just a family service,” Spring said. “We’re not at odds with them. We respect that 150 percent.”

Butler’s two daughters have kept their distance from Butler’s Aryan Nations activities and family members ordered white supremacists out of the Hayden home and removed an Aryan flag from the window Wednesday.

Butler, one of the most notorious racists in the United States, was found dead Wednesday at his Hayden home. Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson said the autopsy showed that Butler had two clogged arteries, emphysema and a kidney in total failure. He had visited the hospital about two weeks ago. Butler, 86, suffered from coronary problems since at least 1988 when he had open heart surgery.

Yates Funeral Home in Hayden said that Butler’s family has yet to make arrangements and that one daughter hasn’t yet arrived in town. Butler’s wife, Betty, died in 1995.

Aryan Nations groups across the country also are planning smaller memorials, including one Sept. 18 in Scottsboro, Ala., Spring said.

Aryan Nation members were quick to state that the group won’t collapse because its founder and spiritual leader is dead.

Spring said there is no immediate successor but there’s a short list of people who could become the national director. He declined to provide names. He clarified that he is not the interim leader. In the future, the Aryans also plan to find another pastor to continue Butler’s teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, a belief that people of white, Northern European ancestry are the true children of God.

Human rights groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, don’t expect the Aryan Nations to immediately fall apart, but a battle may develop over leadership. Butler’s death could help speed up the atrophy of the Nazi Party movement, they said.

“We fully expect the organization will continue to be a problem in the future,” said Rob Jacobs, Northwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. “I’m sure they will use this as public relations and promote the organization among those people that are already included to support their beliefs.”

Spring denounces any theory that the Aryan Nations are dead. He said the organization is strong – although in mourning – and membership is growing.

In 2003, there were 22 chapters of the Aryan Nations in 21 states, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. That number has dropped to 17 chapters. Nationwide, there are only about 200 Aryan Nations members, not including Charles Juba’s faction in Leola, Pa., with fewer than a half dozen members, the center reports.

Steven Holten, the Nevada Aryan Nations leader and acting national communications director, said next year’s Aryan World Congress will prove that their flock isn’t scattered. The group has a solid contingency plan in place that tells members how to organize after Butler’s death, he said.

Holten thinks the annual Congress will be in Kootenai County, where it has been for years. He later revised his comments to say it could happen someplace else if there’s not the population base in Hayden.

Holten said Butler invigorated his followers during the July congress about seven weeks ago when the pastor made his last public appearance. About 40 supporters attended the parade in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Butler signed Holten’s Aryan flag “For Victory,” during the gathering and Holten said he will make sure those words really permeate the organization.

He also predicts an end to the passiveness that has seeped into the organization in the past years. He is pushing for a more militant message.

“I don’t want it to be confused with violence,” Holten said about the militancy. “But our message is going to be very stern and unyielding.”

For example, when the Aryan Nations go to raise money, it will look for large donations – $500 and $1,000 – not small bills and T-shirt sales, he said.

“That’s what I mean about passiveness,” Holten said.

The president of the Spokane NAACP chapter said society must be vigilant against those “waiting in the shadows” to become the next Hitler or Butler.

“Those of us that are of color cannot be glad, and neither am I sad,” V. Ann Hicks Smith said of Butler’s death. “We just have to keep on pressing for that one day when the world will be without those people.”