{"id":34561,"date":"2024-01-16T22:02:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T03:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=34561"},"modified":"2024-01-16T22:02:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T03:02:26","slug":"montana-free-press-racist-group-spreads-hate-messages-on-college-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2024\/01\/16\/montana-free-press-racist-group-spreads-hate-messages-on-college-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Montana Free Press: Racist group spreads hate messages on college campus"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Montana<\/a>
Montana Hall serves as the main administration building for Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. Photo: Jimmy Emerson, DVM<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
MSU campus stickered with white nationalist slogans<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, January 16, 2024<\/div>\r\n
By Alex Sakariassen<\/div>\r\n
Montana Free Press<\/DIV>\r\n
montanafreepress.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nStickers and fliers linked to a white nationalist group surfaced on the Montana State University campus late last month, the latest in a wave of such activity across multiple Montana communities.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nMSU spokesperson Tracy Ellig told Montana Free Press the stickers \u2014 several of which referenced a group called Big Sky Active Club \u2014 were first noticed by campus staff December 30 and promptly removed. Ellig added that MSU law enforcement was informed of the situation, and that while an investigation is ongoing, \u201cthey\u2019ve not identified a security concern.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cNo stickers or fliers of any kind are allowed on the exterior of any building,\u201d Ellig said. \u201cWe immediately let university police know, and university facility services know to remove them. They have been removed.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe stickers appeared in several locations on the roughly 1,170-acre campus, including on a flagpole and on a sign for MSU\u2019s Montana Hall. According to photos shared with MTFP, the flagpole sticker featured phrases such as \u201cwhite lives matter\u201d and \u201cpreserve your culture.\u201d Other fliers included references to the Big Sky Active Club, which the Southern Poverty Law Center<\/a> and other human rights organizations have identified as part of a nationwide network<\/a> of white supremacist groups. Research by the Portland-based racial policy advocacy nonprofit Western States Center indicates the Big Sky Active Club was founded in 2022 and has participated in gatherings targeting immigrant, LGBTQ and Jewish communities.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nMSU is currently on its winter break, with the spring semester scheduled to begin January 17. The university is currently the subject of an ongoing federal civil rights investigation<\/a> into multiple allegations that it failed to adequately respond to student reports of sex- and race-based discrimination during the 2022-23 school year, as well as a separate investigation opened last month<\/a> into MSU\u2019s response to incidents of harassment against Jewish and female students. Both investigations are unrelated to the recent incident involving the white nationalist stickers.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe appearance of white nationalist propaganda on the campus drew condemnation Saturday from the national Council on American-Islamic Relations<\/a>, which urged community leaders and public officials to \u201crepudiate all forms of bigotry.\u201d Cherilyn DeVries, outgoing communications director for the Montana Human Rights Network, described the covert dissemination of such propaganda as \u201clow-level terrorism\u201d designed to intimidate community members and exaggerate the size and influence of the white nationalist movement. Speaking with MTFP this week, DeVries said there\u2019s been an uptick in white nationalist activity over the past year coinciding with political debates over LGBTQ rights, immigration and the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

<\/P>\r\n\r\n\u201cThey are seeing the rhetoric they\u2019ve been promoting for years pop up on the state and national level,\u201d DeVries said of white nationalist groups, \u201cso they think they have a permission slip to be out in public saying racist, discriminatory and dehumanizing things.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\r\nThe group linked to the stickers at MSU has repeatedly appeared in news stories about white nationalist activity in Montana over the past year. Big Sky Active Club reportedly took credit<\/a> last March for etching Nazi symbols at the Four Dances Special Recreation Management Area near Billings, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and named for a prominent Crow leader. Months later, residents of more than a dozen homes in Miles City reported receiving CDs in the mail<\/a> containing audio and music files supporting the neo-Nazi movement.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nIn October, a peaceful rally outside the Missoula County Courthouse in support of Palestine was disrupted by a group of masked protesters carrying signs with neo-Nazi slogans, one of whom was arrested and cited for disorderly conduct. White supremacist activity was reported that same day outside Missoula\u2019s Har Shalom synagogue, and according to the Missoulian<\/a>, witnesses said they believed the masked individuals were members of an Active Club. Har Shalom leaders made similar observations<\/a> in a message to congregation members.

<\/P>\r\n\r\nA \u201cdemonstration report\u201d posted online by White Lives Matter Montana<\/a> last October listed five regional groups, including Big Sky Active Group, as participating in the demonstrations outside the Missoula courthouse and Har Shalom. 

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