Huckleberries: Skinheads — then and now — make headlines

The 100th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birthday April 20, 1989, attracted a circus here.

On Rimrock Road, north of Hayden Lake, the nation’s media flocked to the old Aryan Nations compound to document the first skinhead conference staged by racist Richard Butler.

On the U.S. 95 bike trail, 1,000 protesters, most from out of town, marched for six hours in inclement weather toward Butler’s 20-acre headquarters.

Spreading from downtown Coeur d’Alene, advocates of passive resistance showed their contempt for skinheads by tying 6,500 orange ribbons on automobiles, buildings, signs, streetlights and trees.

And a phalanx of law officers from Coeur d'Alene and Kootenai County, the state and the FBI kept the groups apart.

For decades, neo-Nazi Butler orchestrated events that triggered media attention and protests, like his Sherman Avenue parades and his Aryan Nation World Congresses. But his 1989 skinhead gathering from April 20-22 had a unique twist: It split the local human rights movement.

The Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which later played a key role in bankrupting the Aryan Nations, refused to acknowledge Butler’s events. Rather than confront Butler and his disciples, the task force sponsored alternative activities that focused on human rights, like the display of orange ribbons.

In 1989, however, Lisa Anderson, a task force board member, decided that the non-confrontation approach wasn’t enough. For months before the skinhead confab, she pleaded with national civil rights groups to resist Butler by joining her Citizens for Non-Violent Action Against Racism.

She called her effort “shoestring activism.”

“I don’t have any money,” she told the Coeur d’Alene Press, explaining that she organized the “whole march on a Greyhound bus” while traveling to various places to enlist march participation.

Norm Gissel, then task force president, thought the march was “a tactical mistake.”

“The only difference I’ve ever had with her is over this particular event,” he said.

Meanwhile, the 30 skinheads who attended Butler’s gathering were enjoying their 15 minutes of fame. They met in “skin shops” (workshops designed to improve dialogue among them). They burned a cross. And they taunted the media mass at a press conference.

“Giving us all this publicity has turned me and many others" to the white supremacist movement, taunting a skinhead known as White Man. “You guys are doing wonders and costing me nothing.”

Afterward, several journalists told The Press that ignoring the event would be a mistake.

“Any phenomenon that has the potential for evil and violence should not be ignored,” said Bruce Buursma, national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune. “What we’re basically doing is letting people see what goofballs these guys are.”

Cd'A success

Today, Coeur d’Alene Place is a pleasant blend of single- and multi-family housing, with tree-lined streets, paths and greenspaces that provide an older neighborhood feel.

But 30 years ago, it was a 640-acre grass field, owned by a family that dreamed big.

On April 15, 1994, the Coeur d’Alene Press pictured realty owner Gary Schneidmiller standing in the farm field his family called its “Coeur d’Alene place.” A month earlier, he’d received approval from the Coeur d’Alene Planning Commission for his ambitious project — at the time, one of the biggest planned unit developments proposed in the Northwest.

Gary planned to build a subdivision with 2,500 living units, more than half of which would be single-family — the equivalent of a small town — on Coeur d’Alene’s northwestern edge. A major attraction for Coeur d’Alene Place was the adjacent, soon-to-open Lake City High.

A build-out of such size takes years. But Gary was confident: “As it unfolds, I’m absolutely convinced that people will love what they see.”

Play ball

Such a rivalry has developed between Coeur d’Alene and Spokane that it’s hard to imagine now that the Spokane Indians once had a strong fan base here.

Of course, that was in the '60s and '70s when the Indians were the AAA affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. And their players were a plane ride away from the big time.

At the Brunswick Cafe (now part of the Iron Horse), manager John Freligh was all in on the Indians.

The Brunswick gave a free game ticket to customers who ordered the fried chicken dinner on Spokane Indians Fridays. Also, the restaurant sponsored a candidate for the Indians annual Baseball Queen Contest and furnished waitresses with club uniforms to promote the team.

From 1962-64, the Brunswick candidate was waitress Pat Stephenson. Pat, the lone contestant from Coeur d’Alene, was a finalist in the 1964 contest. She then joined Queen Frankie Streiner and her court as a guest of honor in the Spokane Lilac Festival’s Torchlight Parade.

Huckleberries

· Poet’s Corner: To be a Nazi must be boring/without a Hitler and a Goering;/when it is fun you want to have/you goose-step right down on Sherman Ave. — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Aryan Parade”).

· On This Day — In 1994, the school district announced the sale of Harding School to North Idaho Head Start for $400,000, giving the vacant, 70-year-old building new life.

· At Peace: You know that the Aryan Nations compound is no more. But did you know it’s now a private pasture? The North Idaho College Foundation sold it four years ago to fund a human rights scholarship. Philanthropist Greg Carr bought the place after that $6.3 million verdict bankrupted the Aryans in 2000 and gave it to the NIC Foundation. Peace reigns where hate once did.

· About Face: On this day 15 years ago (2009), the City Council rejected a proposal for commercial tours on Tubbs Hill — two daily ones of up to 14 people at $19 to $59 per customer. A grassroots signature drive against the idea gained 600 names. “If this passes, what’s next?” asked organizer Linda Wright, a retired teacher. Ah, a Marriott Hotel on Sherman Avenue?

· A Big Deal: How big was the Tea Party movement in its heyday here? Big enough to attract 1,000 followers to Independence Point on Tax Day 2009 to protest government spending and taxation.

· In Memoriam: Marine Sgt. Ray Garland was so close to the action aboard the USS Tennessee on Dec. 7, 1941, that he saw the goggles of an enemy dive bomber. On that date of infamy, he was badly burned and earned one of his two Purple Hearts. Ray, the last member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, died at age 96 on April 18, 2019. RIP.

Parting shot

I started writing this version of Huckleberries for the Coeur d’Alene Press four years ago (April 17, 2020) as the COVID pandemic took hold. It didn’t start out as a column about recent Coeur d’Alene area history. Nor did it have all the vintage photos that now accompany the text. It evolved into what it is today, due to the limitations caused by the epidemic. The library is now a place of delight where I unearth news nuggets hidden in the old bound volumes of the Coeur d’Alene Press. My research has deepened my regard for this special place. I enjoy reminding you of the people and events that built modern Coeur d’Alene. And pray that we can protect the legacy they left to us.

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D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.

    The national media flock to the Aryan Nations compound to hear Richard Butler and chronicle the skinhead convention.
  

    These North Idaho College students tie an orange ribbon on the student union building to protest the skinhead convention. From left, Pat Kraut, Elaine Wilches-Pena, ASB President Mary Jo Hansen and Doug Hayman.
  

    Real estate broker Gary Schneidmiller stands in a grass field that became Coeur d’Alene Place.
  

    Manager John Freligh of the old Brunswick Café coaches waitresses dressed in Spokane Indians uniforms to promote the Spokane team. Waitresses are, from left, Bonnie Currier, Frances Crider, Babe Williams, queen candidate Pat Stephenson and Sharon Eilers.
  

    Head Start Director Maggie Tallman poses outside the boarded-up Harding School.
  

    About 1,000 local Tea Party members protest on Tax Day 2009.
  

    USMC Staff Sgt. Dustin Pfister assists Ray Garland, a decorated World War II and Korean War veteran, to the edge of Lake Coeur d’Alene to lay a wreath on Memorial Day 2018.