Whitefish Symposium Brings Together Flathead Residents to Combat White Nationalism
The event taught attendees about the history of white nationalism in the Flathead Valley and featured a panel of former extremists who talked about their experiences
By Mariah Thomas
Tracking the activity of white nationalist groups has become more challenging, said McKenzie Ball, Catalyst Montana’s counter extremism coordinator.
White nationalist groups are marked by their belief that nonwhite groups are inferior. Often, such groups claim white people are persecuted by society, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Catalyst Montana, the group Ball works for, was founded in 2024 after the Montana Human Rights Network and Montana Women Vote merged. Ball, who works as the organization’s extremism coordinator, grew up in Bozeman. But in his job, he has monitored and researched white nationalist and extremist activity in the Flathead area.
Ball referred to the modern recruitment of people to white nationalist causes as “White Nationalism 3.0.”
“They’re difficult to find out what they’re doing, where they’re going and usually, they’re not going to public forums like Stormfront,” Ball said, referring to the internet’s first major hate site. “They’re using Telegram, they’re using Signal, they’re using other tools that allow them to move with anonymity and to avoid scrutiny and to avoid researchers like myself.”
Ball’s comments came as part of a Saturday symposium on white nationalism and extremism. Dubbed “The Last Best Resistance: Fighting White Nationalism in the Flathead,” the event was organized by Flathead Democracy, Forward Montana and Viridescent.
The event came about after those groups saw white nationalists present at the No Kings rally in June, according to Bella Brown, a voter engagement organizer with Forward Montana. Brown and her fellow organizers wanted to educate people on the topic, and offer a space to talk about it.
The symposium taught attendees about the history of white nationalism in the Flathead Valley. It also included a panel featuring former extremists, and attendees discussed ways to combat local white nationalist activity. Around 40 people came to the event, which took place at a private residence in Whitefish.
Ball’s presentation focused on the history of white nationalism in the Flathead Valley. Ball said white nationalism and extremist ideology flourishes in the Pacific Northwest, in Montana, and in the area due to several factors. Geographic isolation, lenient laws, racial homogeneity and an ethos of “live and let live” all contribute to the area’s attractiveness for those in white nationalist circles.
The Flathead Valley has a long and complex history of white nationalist activity. Ball’s comments drew a line between the 2010 screenings of Holocaust denial films at the Kalispell Library, to a 2016 “troll storm” against Whitefish’s Jewish residents and the Love Lives Here organization, to the modern-day recruitment of young people to white nationalist causes online.
Several participants in a panel discussion at the event were formerly part of white nationalist groups. They said they joined those groups, in part, because it offered them a sense of belonging.
Christopher Semok said his deep involvement with the Atomwaffen Division, also known as the National Socialist Order, took place from 2019 to 2022. He was a propaganda chief for the Atomwaffen Division. That group is a neo-Nazi group that emerged in 2016 and whose members are preparing for a race war. The group mostly meets and organizes online. Semok also had involvement with the Patriot Front, a Texas-based group responsible for distributing white supremacist propaganda in the U.S. since 2019.
He has since exited those groups, but told attendees Saturday that he was “groomed” into them at a young age. His involvement in them really began when Semok was forced to drop out of seventh grade.
“I didn’t have much real life friends,” Semok said. “I was mostly online. And also being neurodivergent kind of contributed to that, so to speak, because I was very — how do I explain it — we are not immune to propaganda. And I ended up falling in with the wrong crowd, and that’s what brought me deeper into it.”
Other panelists’ stories about how they got involved in white nationalist groups struck similar notes.
Scott Ernest, another panelist and former recruiter for Stormfront, helped Semok leave those groups in 2022. Ernest had served as a recruiter for Stormfront, but exited Stormfront after the 2016 “troll storm.” He said Saturday he has helped a dozen former white nationalists with the de-radicalization process through a group called Hands of Eir, a non-profit dedicated to extremism prevention.
Semok is involved with that group now, which functions under the Center for Extremism Prevention and Intervention. Semok is also running for an at-large seat on the Columbia Falls City Council.
Semok, Ernest and their fellow panelists said part of combating hateful ideology comes with providing spaces for people to make connections and find belonging in real life.
I hope people made connections today that they feel like they can follow up.
Danielle Tuhy, Flathead Democracy co-founder
Danielle Tuhy, a co-founder of Flathead Democracy, said the desire to foster connection served as one of the reasons for organizing Saturday’s event.
“When people come together and are able to have these conversations, that’s something that doesn’t happen in our culture right now,” Tuhy said.
So, offering a workshop that brought people together and offered a space to learn about racism and how to combat it, in her eyes, provided value. She didn’t go into the day with expectations, but left feeling like the event empowered people to take action in their own ways.
“I hope people made connections today that they feel like they can follow up,” she said.
Victoria Gabaldon, an attendee, said she and her husband moved to the Flathead in 2019. They started the New Now Foundation, a support group in the area for those who live in tiny homes and are aiming for a sober lifestyle.
Gabaldon is Indigenous and said she has experienced racism and has struggled to build a community since moving to the area. After hearing about the local history, she said it “all makes sense now.”
But her larger takeaway from the event was the need to help those who are vulnerable — whether they’re struggling with isolation, mental health or substance abuse. It’s something Gabaldon said she was already committed to with the New Now Foundation. But, the event underscored the importance of that work.
Ron Gerson, the chair of Flathead Democrats and a resident of the Flathead Valley “intermittently” since 1996, agreed with Gabaldon. Hearing the experiences of those on the panel and how they fell into white nationalist groups “brought it into greater perspective” for him.
He sees a need to make progress on handling opposing viewpoints in the valley with more respect, and said the workshop gave him a better idea of how to do that.
“Listening keeps getting reiterated, before reacting,” Gerson said.
Tuhy said the event received more interested participants than it could accommodate. She said the groups hope to continue holding other workshops and opportunities to connect in the future.