North Dakota poverty, gunfight and tragedy: Gordon Kahl and the Posse [with much comment]
Note by Hunterbear: There's a great deal of Native American economic poverty in North Dakota -- as there is everywhere in North America and much of the Hemisphere as well. I often focus on the Native world and its many social justice concerns. But in this, I'm talking about some other folks who are hurting badly as well. We had been in North Dakota -- I was teaching at UND -- for about a year and a half when the tragic shoot-out at Medina occurred. I'm a life-long foe of racist outfits and there's no question about the "extremist" nature of the Posse Comitatus movement -- and the racism of many of its followers -- but it's been far too easy for the Eastern and West Coast liberals to look at those dimensions and those alone. The growth a generation ago of the Posse , which originated in Wisconsin but found its most fertile soil in the rapidly embittering Great Plains [sometimes known these days as Buffalo Barrens], and its still continuing ripples and spin-offs, has to be seen in the context of massive economic tragedy. Thousands of farmers and ranchers have lost their land in the last thirty years or so in this vast Plains setting -- almost always to large scale corporation outfits generally based in the far away big cities of the east and west coasts. North Dakota always has a small population to begin with -- and it's only about 635,000 at this point. The metro area of Rochester, New York alone is bigger. In January, 1989, I was honored with the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Award -- given by the North Dakota State King Commission -- for historical and contemporary social justice activities. Both my wife and I know the state very well indeed. I have, on my mother's side -- Canadian Scottish -- deep roots in North Dakota. My great grandfather on that side came into Dakota Territory in 1870 [19 years before N.D.'s statehood] from Ontario and accumulated a very large land holding on which he raised horses -- and drove out homesteaders with force. [My Native American father used to chide my mother about all of this when they were having a fuss of some sort. I come, of course, from Northern Arizona.] My mother's mother [Populist and women's suffrage background] came up from Kansas to become the new state's first full time female college prof [Domestic Science] at North Dakota Agricultural College [now NDSU] at Fargo. She married my grandfather -- oldest son of the old rancher [who had nine other kids] -- and who'd just gotten his engineering degree at the college and they went off to North Idaho where he became a mining engineer, and then on to Seattle.] North Dakota is one of the Western states in which I have many relatives. The grandfather of Eldri, my Finnish/Saami/Norwegian wife, came to northern North Dakota in 1899 and homesteaded near Agate/Bisbee -- close to the Turtle Mountain Chippewa reservation into which some of her relatives married. And so Eldri, too, has many kin in the state -- and in her birth state of Minnesota as well. In addition, North Dakota abounds with former students of mine -- Indian and non-Indian -- from my many years of teaching at UND. At our King Day celebration in January, 1989 at Bismarck , my speech accepting the award focused primarily on contemporary challenges such as Native rights and union labor. This was certainly echoed by Democratic Governor George Sinner, who presented the award, and who also discussed at length the fact that 8,000 farmers and ranchers in the state had lost their land during the 1980s alone. The Federal government was little or no help. And all of this is continuing right to the moment. Most of the dispossessed -- bitter as they are, often forced to leave the state -- don't turn to things like the Posse Comitatus and its successors. But some do. Gordon Kahl was one of those who, a long generation ago, did go to the Posse. While some Federal officials at Fargo, aware of the on-going tragic economic backdrop, were not inclined to go after him for the simple matter of taxes and a minor probation violation -- and some others thought he could be quietly arrested when he came into town -- still others moved to confront him directly on a country road. The results were bloody and all-around tragic. About ten years ago, a film was made -- sympathetic to the plight of the ranchers and to Gordon Kahl [though not to the Posse.] Called "Death and Taxes," a copy was sent to the state-wide Bismarck Tribune for review. A strange effort was made by the brother of U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan [ND], who was a key figure in public television in the state, to prevent the Trib from even mentioning the flick. The State Editor of the newspaper was my youngest son, Peter [then about 24.] Like everyone in our family, he reacts very negatively to censorship stuff -- and the Trib gave the film a very full and fair review, finding merit in its discussion of economic privation on the farms and ranches. The copy was passed on to me and I found it useful in my course on Racism and Hate Groups in America -- since it certainly provides insights into the economic origins of racism and related ills. I have it at hand right here: ["Death and Taxes," A Jeffrey F. Jackson Film, Country People Productions, 1993.] It does have to handled with care and preceded by appropriate introductory context. A couple of years before this film appeared, James Corcoran's book came out: Bitter Harvest: Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus: Murder in the Heartland [New York: Penguin, 1991.] Factually accurate -- worth reading -- it does contain a very major omissive dimension: there is little there that's sympathetic to the dispossessed farmers and ranchers. And it's also a book that, whatever the liberal inclinations of its author, has no critical bones to pick with the Federal government in the Medina tragedy. It's reminiscent, bluntly, of the anti-Klan books which fail to talk about poor white poverty and the boss-initiated racism of Dixie. I guess I still worry about North Dakota. Here's s story from today's Minneapolis Star Tribune: Memories of North Dakota gunfight still linger after 20 years Mpls (red)Star Tribune / AP ^ | 2/9/03 | James MacPherson HEATON, N.D. -- A set of footprints leads to Gordon Kahl's snow-covered grave, adorned with freshly planted plastic flowers that battle a bitter wind. It has been 20 years since Kahl was buried in Heaton, N.D., the town where he grew up and farmed. People around these parts can't forget what put him here for good. On Feb. 13, 1983, a gunfight erupted 60 miles south on a rural highway in Medina, south of Heaton in central North Dakota. When it ended, two U.S. marshals were dead. Kahl was a member of the Posse Comitatus, a militant antitax, anti-Semitic group that recognized no power higher than county government. He served time in federal prison for refusing to pay income tax. After his release, he still refused to pay taxes or report to his probation officer, violating his probation. In 1981 the government seized some of his land to pay back taxes. He vowed to fellow farmers and family members that there would be trouble if the feds crossed his path again. They did at dusk on a Sunday in February two years later, when they came to arrest Kahl for violating his probation. He and about a dozen other tax protesters, including his wife, Joan, and eldest son, Yorie, met at a clinic in Medina, about 80 miles east of Bismarck. Afterward, Yorie, his mother and two others left in one car. Kahl was in another vehicle with Scott Faul, known for driving his tractor in the fields with an assault rifle at his side. Six U.S. marshals and local police set up a roadblock. There was a standoff. Shots were fired. U.S. Marshals Robert Cheshire Jr., 32, and Kenneth Muir, 53, were killed. Deputy Sheriff Bradley Kapp's trigger finger was blown off. Medina police officer Steven Schnable was hit in the leg. Deputy Marshal James Hopson was hit in the head. Yorie Kahl was shot in the stomach. Gordon Kahl took his wounded son back to Dr. Clarence Martin's clinic in a stolen police car, then left. A nationwide hunt for him began. The end came for Kahl that June, in another shootout at a farm near Smithville, Ark. Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Matthews and Kahl died in the gunbattle. Kahl was 63. Yorie Kahl and Faul later were convicted of murder and assault. They are serving life sentences. Virgil Kramlich of Medina said Kahl's antigovernment views appealed to many farmers, who had been -- and still are -- dealing with a difficult economy. "A lot of farmers around here listened to what he had to say about saving our farms, but he went about it the wrong way," he said. Kramlich said he and about 60 other locals attended one of the first meetings of the Posse Comitatus but were turned off by the display of weapons. Only a handful showed up at subsequent meetings, he said. Kramlich, who owns a butcher shop and meat locker in Medina, used to farm until times got bad and a bank foreclosed on his property. He estimates that only 20 percent of the farms in his area have survived since Kahl's death. Lynn Crooks, a retired U.S. attorney involved in the Kahl case, said the Posse, and tax protesters in general, have disappeared into the woodwork. Kahl was a martyr to the Posse and a folk hero to some. T-shirts and bumper stickers eulogized him. Books and songs were written about him. But Crooks said Kahl was nothing more than a murderer. "There isn't anything to remember about the fellow other than he murdered cops and had associates that helped him do it," he said. Deputy Kapp is still on the job, 20 years after losing part of his hand in the Medina shootout. "I'll never forget it," he said. "It doesn't bother me, and it never has." Kapp sees one reason not to forget what happened on that prairie road 20 years ago. "I think it should be remembered for the marshals that died that day," he said. "The other side, I don't care about." © Copyright 2003 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
