Aryan Nations

Aryan Nations is a North American pro white Christian based National Socialist organization that was originally based in Kootenai County, Idaho, about 2+3⁄4 miles (4.4 km) north of the city of Hayden Lake. Richard Girnt Butler founded the group in the 1970s.

History

The beliefs of Aryan Nations are based on the teachings of Wesley A. Swift, a leading figure in the early Christian Identity movement. Swift combined British Israelism, extreme antisemitism, and political militancy. He founded his own church in California in the mid-1940s.

He hosted a daily radio broadcast in California during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1957, the name of his church was changed to the Church of Jesus Christ–Christian, which continues to be used by Aryan Nations churches.

From 1974 until 2001, Aryan Nations headquarters was located in a 20-acre (8.1 ha) compound 1.8 miles (3 km) north of Hayden, Idaho. the Aryan Nations had a number of state chapters, but it was highly decentralized and the chapters' ties to the organization's headquarters were extremely loose. the group hosted an annual World Congress of Aryan Nations at Hayden Lake for Aryan Nations members and members of similar groups.

Until 1998, the leadership of the Aryan Nations remained firmly in the hands of Richard Girnt Butler. By that time, he was over 80 years old and his health was poor. At the annual Aryan Nations World Congress in 2001, Neuman Britton was appointed to lead the Aryan Nations as Butler's successor. But in August 2001, after Britton died, Butler appointed Harold Ray Redfeairn who was from Ohio to lead the Aryan Nations as his successor; he had been agitating for control of the organization since the mid-1990s.