Montana human rights activists say a known white supremacist group with chapters around the country is behind racist and anti-immigrant flyers distributed in the Flathead Valley this month.

The leaflet boasts an image of a 19th century homesteader aiming a rifle and references the “great replacement,” a time-worn conspiracy theory about a plot to replace or overwhelm White voters in the United States with immigrants, and the risks of allowing “racial invaders” a foothold in Montana. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the organization behind it, White Lives Matter, as a neo-Nazi group, and the Montana Human Rights Network linked it to the distribution of promotional stickers in the Flathead Valley in recent years.

City Councilor Ryan Hunter found the flyer on his Kalispell doorstep Oct. 6.

“In the past, we’ve always been clear to condemn this messaging, so I just want to also reiterate that tonight and say that this type of messaging is not acceptable in our community,” Hunter said during an Oct. 9 Kalispell City Council work session. “The folks that are being targeted in the community are welcome in this community. I just want to make that clear.”

Hunter told the Daily Inter Lake last week that the pamphlet elicited an immediate reaction.

“Just disgust,” Hunter said. “And worry.”

While unsure of what level of support the organization has among area residents, the messaging echoes sentiments he said he has heard while out drumming up support for his City Council reelection campaign.

“Unrelated to the flyer, I’ve been talking to a lot of community members as part of the campaign and there are folks saying they can tell the legal status of immigrants in our community just by looking at them, which I find disturbing,” Hunter said. “And folks saying that our homeless problem in the community is due to illegal immigrants, which I know factually to be false. There is just some of this sentiment in the community that I find disturbing.”

One of the Montana chapter’s founding members does have Flathead ties, according to the Montana Human Rights Network. Sebastian Colin Campbell, who moved to the Kalispell area from Kentucky, is credited with handling the group’s early social media strategy and vetting potential recruits.

Campbell is serving a partially suspended 10-year sentence in the Montana State Prison on a felony assault with a weapon conviction, according to NBC Montana. He allegedly struck another man with a bottle in a Butte saloon in January. He pleaded guilty in June and received his sentence in late September.

The NBC report notes that Campbell faced a misdemeanor partner or family member assault charge in Kalispell Municipal Court in 2021. Prosecutors later dismissed the charge.

Cherilyn DeVries, spokesperson for the Montana Human Rights Network, said addressing white supremacist groups without inadvertently publicizing their aims is a challenge. Context matters, she said, and in this case, one of the group’s leaders is behind bars for a violent crime.

The leaflet distribution in the Flathead Valley is likely the work of one or two zealous members of what she described as a small roster.

“There are a couple of new members of the group that are driving around and really trying to prove themselves,” DeVries said, pointing to stickers and vandalism linked to the group in Great Falls in September.

“Flyers, stickers with white supremacist stuff has been happening for many years; it’s always horrible, it's always alarming,” she said. “We just have two people in the group right now who are just very aggressive about getting flyers and stickers out. They’re hoping to intimidate people and recruit people.”

It’s unknown how many flyers were distributed in the Flathead Valley. While the Kalispell Police Department’s regular blotter noted several calls related to racist or anti-immigrant pamphlets, Chief Jordan Venezio did not respond to a press inquiry.

Volunteers with Valley Neighbors, a nonprofit aimed at welcoming and supporting immigrants in Flathead County, said they have confirmed at least one person in Kalispell received the missive and have reports of another individual coming across the flyer in Bigfork.

But none of the organization’s clients have come across the publication, said Rebecca Miller, vice chair of Valley Neighbors.

“We’re kind of glad,” she said. “The minor extremist element in the community is not causing distress.”

Valley Neighbors has aided in resettling refugees from Ukraine, though their clients these days primarily hail from Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, said Chair Johnny Ratka Skinner. Many are going through the asylum process and made arduous journeys fleeing dire circumstances in their nations of origin, he said.

“Oftentimes they are coming with stories or accounts of being targeted by their home government or government-sponsored gangs,” Ratka Skinner said. “For a lot of them, it’s a matter of life or death.”

This is the first Ratka Skinner can recall hearing people of Latin American descent being targeted in his time in Flathead County. But the sentiment is not new.

“Certainly, as having lived here for 12 years, extremism, xenophobia, homophobia, all those sorts of things are not new to the Flathead,” he said.

The group planned to release a response to the pamphlet on social media, said Miller and Ratka Skinner. The aim is to express solidarity with the immigrant community and disapproval of the flyers.

She also invited residents to reject the message, and support newcomers to the Flathead, by contributing to Valley Neighbors’ efforts.

“It’s dehumanizing rhetoric. That’s really the thing that troubles us the most,” Miller said. “Sometimes more casual things, more than this extremist stuff, I worry about more with people — when people aren’t seeing other people as human beings.”

Denouncing the efforts of extremist groups and signaling support for targeted communities is the right response, said DeVries, who praised Hunter for condemning the pamphlet publicly.

“The city is an organization, we're encouraging them to speak out against this group,” she said. “That makes a big difference. I think a lot of leaders think if we mention [the extremist groups] that gives them attention. No. Denouncing them publicly lets marginalized communities know that their leaders are speaking up for them.”

And it lets organizations like White Lives Matter know where they stand in the Flathead, she said.

“It also tells these organizations they won’t get a welcome,” DeVries said. “They won’t just get a pass.”

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.