MHRN Exposes Local Creativity Movement Activity

Network Identifies Distributor of White Supremacist Literature in Bozeman:
Billings Hate Group Designates Activist “Creator of the Month”

Recently, Bozeman residents have found racist literature left at their homes and on public bulletin boards. The flyers promote a white supremacist website called “Stormfront,” which serves as a clearinghouse of information for the white supremacist movement. The Montana Human Rights Network has learned the identity of the person conducting these white supremacist literature drops and has determined he is also the local contact point for The Creativity Movement, a hate group with an active chapter in Billings.

According to information he has posted on numerous white supremacist forums, Alan Keith Sones moved from Texas to Montana in mid-2006. The 30-year-old lives in Bozeman and says he works construction and, in one photo, sports a tattoo reading “Nazi Skinhead.” Sones claims to, and is given credit for, “handing out flyers, posting on bulletin boards, etc” in the Bozeman area about what he believes is a problem—“white racial extinction.” Based on conversations the Human Rights Network had with officials in Williamson County, Texas, Sones also has a felony record.

His postings on various white supremacist forums detail Sones’ racist and anti-Semitic views. Frequently posting under the screen names “redwood” and “sskeith88,” he also displays an affinity for Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. The “88” in his one screen name is white supremacist shorthand for “Heil Hitler.” Some examples of his postings follow:
• “Blacks are vial disgusting animals! All they contribute to for the most part is destruction!!!”
• “I am white and I am SUPERIOR!!!”
• “I know that there will be a race war someday!…There will come a time when whites stand up and it will be a great day indeed!!”
• “Hitler was a good man trying to make things better.”
• Under a discussion thread titled “BEWARE OF STEALTH JEWS,” Sones complained that, on more than one occasion, he had discovered women he was interested in were “half STINKING jew[s].”
• “How could anyone like/defend/etc anything about niggers? Mongaloid [sic] retards with weopons [sic]!”

Sones recently posted online that he has various DVDs available for distribution. One DVD presents President Barack Obama as a puppet of the “New World Order,” an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory rooted in the belief that there is a Jewish attempt to create a one-world-government. Another DVD claims that the income tax is illegal, a common belief of that anti-government “patriot” movement. Many of the DVDs Sones references have been distributed at Tea Parties across Montana this year.

In addition to the literature he is distributing in Bozeman, Sones is the local contact point for The Creativity Movement, a national hate group with a history of violence. Online, Sones frequently communicates with a “Creator” from Billings, Allen Goff. Goff is currently facing weapons and assault charges.

In response to an online message posted by Goff about his racist flyering activities in Billings, Sones responded, “Just wait, I’m gonna piss off Bozeman too!!!” Goff recently announced that, “Brother Keith (aka Redwood) of Montana” is “Creator of the month” for September 2009. Goff wrote in an online white supremacist forum that, “Keith has showed a lot of loyalty and dedication throughout the last few months and has blitzed his area non-stop with our message.”

The flyers being spread around Bozeman promote the “Stormfront” website, which was the first major white supremacist website to go online. It was established in 1995 by former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black. One flyer features a photo of a white child and text claiming that minorities are taking away a future for white children. This particular flyer has been seen before in Bozeman. It was used in 2004 by Kevin McGuire, a racist recruiter for another white supremacist organization, the National Alliance.

“The people of Bozeman should take this activity seriously,” says the Human Rights Network’s Travis McAdam. “It may seem like these are just pieces of paper, but literature drops tend to be a hate group’s opening salvo against a community. It escalates from there. Allen Goff started with literature drops in Billings, and now he faces charges relating to shooting a fellow teenager. It is important that communities be concerned about any upswing in white supremacist activity. Once again, Bozeman must come together and collectively say racism, hate and violence are not welcome.”

Bozeman’s Recent History with White Supremacists

In April 2005, Kevin McGuire, an engineering student at Montana State University-Bozeman and activist with the National Alliance, ran for the Bozeman School Board. He based his candidacy on the supposed discrimination against European Americans in the school curriculum. Opposition to his candidacy inspired high turnout in the election. He lost by huge margins, winning only 3.6% of the public vote, which came out to 157 votes.

Bozeman’s Gallatin Valley Human Rights Task Force, a local affiliate of the Human Rights Network, helped mobilize the community against McGuire and his efforts to advance the agenda of the National Alliance. In 2005, the Task Force organized a huge parade celebrating the Martin Luther King Holiday. McGuire and eight followers protested at the parade. They were outnumbered 1,000 to 8.

In April 2008, McGuire showed up with a racist sign in Butte, Montana, at a Democratic Party event featuring then-presidential candidates Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. His placard read “America Without Niggers,” featured a swastika, and a website address, www.fetchtherope.com.

The Creativity Movement

The Creativity Movement used to be called the Church of the Creator, which was founded by Ben Klassen in 1973. The ideology driving the group was, and still is, based on books written by Klassen, including Nature’s Eternal Religion and The White Man’s Bible.

Creativity boils down to worshipping the white race. It teaches that white people are the “creators of all worthwhile culture and civilization.” It views the white race as nature’s finest creation, while “racial treason,” which encompasses practically any interaction outside the white race, “is the worst of all crimes.” Those following Creativity are called “Creators.” Creators believe that Creativity is the only salvation for the white race, and that Christianity is a lie perpetuated by Jewish people. Creativity refers to people of color as “mud races” and claims Jews are engaged in a conspiracy against the white race. An integral part of the doctrine is RAHOWA, an acronym standing for “Racial Holy War.” It is used to describe a worldwide ethnic cleansing that will leave white people as earth’s only inhabitants.

Founder Ben Klassen committed suicide in 1993, and instability plagued the group until Matt Hale took over in 1996 at a meeting in Superior, Montana. Under Hale’s leadership, the newly named World Church of the Creator became one of the most active hate groups in the country. He visited Montana many times and unsuccessfully attempted to get his license to practice law in the state. In 2005, Hale was sentenced to 40 years in prison for soliciting the murder of a federal judge.

In 1999, Creator Benjamin Smith went on a shooting spree during which he targeted people of color and Jews. Smith killed two people and wounded eight others before committing suicide. Prior to the spree, Smith had been named “Creator of the Year” for his racist activism. Hale refused to condemn Smith’s actions. Instead, he issued commemorative T-shirts featuring Smith.

The Creativity Movement in Montana

For over a decade, there have been Creators active in Montana. The previous generation of Creators included people like Missoula’s Dan Hassett, Superior’s Slim Deardorff, and Billings’ Rudy Stanko. Billings teenager Allen Goff has recently stepped onto the scene and is organizing the next generation of Creators in Montana. Goff currently faces charges of felony assault with a weapon and a misdemeanor for carrying a concealed weapon.

Goff’s activism is through the Montana Creators Assembly, and he is very active on a Creativity Movement website forum. On the forum, he claims credit for numerous racist literature drops that occurred in Billings and for designing a new Montana Creators website. One of his online postings featured his telephone number that interested people could call to get white supremacist materials, including T-shirts, patches, pins and key chains. Earlier this year, Goff was named “Creator of the Year” for “his activism” and “support and aid of creators.” Along with Goff in Billings and Sones in Bozeman, the Montana Creators Assembly has contact points in Kalispell, Laurel, Missoula and Helena.

Only July 27, 2009, Goff was arrested and accused of shooting another teen in the leg. The 17-year-old Goff was found with weapons and white supremacist materials upon his arrest, but it was unclear if the shooting was racially motivated. Officers found a set of brass knuckles, a nine millimeter semiautomatic Glock pistol, a fully loaded 30-round high-capacity magazine, a 10-round magazine with seven rounds loaded, several knives, a shoulder holster, two .38-caliber bullets and a patch for Montana Front, a white supremacist group. Goff is currently out on bail.

Transformed Racist Books Visit Bozeman

During its history, The Creativity Movement has experienced much infighting and numerous leadership crises. Creativity weathered these times of unrest primarily due to the numerous racist and anti-Semitic books written by Ben Klassen that outlined the group’s ideology. Large numbers of the books had been printed, which featured titles like The White Man’s Bible and On the Brink of a Bloody Racial War, and they continue to circulate. They have provided a steady stream of income through sales in white supremacist circles.

In 2003, the Human Rights Network acquired more than 4,000 of these white supremacist books from a defecting member of The Creativity Movement’s state chapter that had been located in Superior, Montana. The Network partnered with the Holter Museum of Art to create Speaking Volumes. The art exhibit will be visiting Bozeman’s Emerson Cultural Center from October through December this year. It features pieces created by artists in response to the racist and anti-Semitic ideology found in the books. Artists transformed the hate literature into pieces that stimulate community dialogue about the dangers of bigotry. You can read more about this project here.