Student photo editor Patrick Cunningham took these photos for the October 7, 1983, edition of the Gonzaga Bulletin. They show a variety of locations, people, and activities at the Aryan Nations compound near Hayden Lake, Idaho. The church, shown in the upper left picture, contained a bust of Adolf Hitler and Hitler was referenced frequently during worship. The Bulletin published these photos with three articles on the origins and beliefs of the groups and on the actions and beliefs of a neo-Nazi from Ohio who was convicted of multiple, hate-motivated murders and had expressed interest in moving to Idaho to continue his hate-based violence. The publication of these articles and photos in the Bulletin show the degree of notoriety and impact of the group on the surrounding region. Hayden Lake is about 35 miles from Gonzaga University.
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The Intelligence Report published this map in the Winter of 1998. The Report is a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization dedicated to monitoring the radical right. The map is based on statistics from 1997 and shows the locations of Christian Identity groups across the United States. The shaded states indicate that a member of one of these groups has committed a crime. The Report points out that there is nothing inherently criminal about these groups, it is simply attempting to display a trend.
The physical exhibit contained documents produced by the Aryan Nations, some of which were not uploaded for the online version. One of those documents was a pamphlet that summarizes some of the core beliefs of the group. These beliefs include the idea that Adam was the first White man, that White Christians are the chosen people of God, and that the Bible lays out a racial hierarchy that all people must respect. Another facet of thier beliefs is that the Jewish people are the "children of darkness" and the enemies of both God and the Aryan race. Most Christian Identity groups share these beliefs and, even though these violent ideologies contradict the teachings of other Christians, Jews, and Muslims, they are a good example of how these groups use religion to justify their racial and religious bigotry. It is also historically incorrect to say that the ancient peoples who are called "Israel" in the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament are either White or Christian. The people the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament call "Israel" are the ancestors of the Jews, and later through its teachings, the spiritual ancestors of Christians and Muslims.
One of the beliefs of the Christian Identity movement is that the lost tribes of Israel migrated to Northern and Western Europe, and, thus, are the ancestors of "White" Europeans. This idea holds that their descendants in Europe and in European settler societies like the United States are the true chosen people and children of God. This map illustrates this belief by showing the migration routes that white nationalists believe the lost tribes of Israel took.
These two pamphlets are examples of racist and antisemitic propaganda put out by Aryan Nations. Each of these pamphlets contains lists of leading questions followed by Bible verses that supposedly contain the answers. These leading questions imply a number of racist and antisemitic beliefs around the supposed superiority of a White, "Aryan" race over people of color, including followers of Judaism. The Aryan Nations and other White nationalist groups see nonwhites as inferior and lesser and fit only to serve Whites, who they consider God's "chosen" people. This propaganda also invents Jews as an enemy of White Christians. This is another example of religion being used as a justification for White supremacy and bigotry. The Aryan Nations likely used these pamphlets to spread their beliefs and to encourage a very specific interpretation of the Bible, one that supported the claims of the Christian Identity movement.
The back page of a pamphlet entitled "America" by the Aryan Nations was on display in the physical exhibit. the page lists Bible verses that members used to explain and make sense of their beliefs. The groups claims that the verses listed reference the United States as the New Jerusalem, or chosen, holy land. These ideas exist today, particularly among White Christian nationalists.
The "Field Manuel for the Free Militia" is a book that was published in 1994 by the Free Militia. The pages that were shown in the physical exhibit discuss the justification and methods for establishing civilian paramilitaries in the United States. These excerpts show some of the religious justifications for violence given by these militia groups. It quotes a variety of Bible verses as "proof" that self-defense, capital punishment, and the use of force as a last resort are all justified by their religious beliefs. A number of the interpretations and beliefs conveyed here are similar to those shared by other American Christians. There are a number of similarities between this and the leaked writings of former Washington State legislator Matt Shea from Spokane Valley in 2018. This was intentional. Christian Identity, White nationalist groups recruited followers by expressing beliefs that many Americans already held. Once attracted, extremist groups expose new recruits to their more radical and bigoted views over time, folding them into their community of hate and bigotry.
This article, published in the Spokesman Review in April of 1985, discusses three Christian Identity groups that formed by splitting off from the Aryan Nations. The two named in this article are "The Order" and "The Restored Church of Jesus Christ," both of which were located in Post Falls, Idaho. The latter is very similar to the Aryan Nations, only deviating on beliefs surrounding taxes and tithes. The former is a more violent group who took their name from "The Turner Diaries," a futuristic novel about a race war in the United States that continues to inspire violent White nationalism today.
This map, published alongside the article "Others: A common hatred," shows locations where far-right hate groups have committed crimes or been arrested. It narrates the movement of extremist members, their crimes, and police investigations over the course of a single year. A number of these incidents were linked directly with The Order, a violent Christian Identity group that split off from the Aryan Nations.
Extremists justified their acts of violence through their interpretations of the Bible and the clash between that White supremacist perspective and the government. The tragedies at Ruby Ridge and Waco were used by these groups to construe the government as their enemy and the enemy of White supremacist Christians. This ultra-conservative, anti-government sentiment motivated later violence, such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which was an attack carried out on a government building by Christian Identity followers. Present-day White supremacist violence targets nonwhite and non-Christian religious institutions, gathering places, and neighborhoods. The shootings at a Walmart in el Paso in 2019 and a grocery store in Buffalo in 2022 were both carried out in neighborhoods with a majority nonwhite population. The 2015 shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston was racially motivated and targeted one of the oldest Black churches in the country. In 2014 there were two shooting in the Kansas City area that were motivated by antisemitism, targeting a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement home. In 2018 there was a mass shooting at a Pittsburg synagogue. In 2012 there was a shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin motivated by both racial and religious hatred. These seven shootings, which left a total of 63 people dead, are a small selection of the hate crimes in the last decade motivated by White supremacist ideas. It is heartbreaking to see how prevalent White supremacist violence remains today and the way it has ruined so many lives.