Northwest Territorial Imperative | |
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 The proposed flag of the Northwest American Republic.[1] | |
 A map that shows the suggested boundaries of The Northwest Territorial Imperative in red. |
TheNorthwest Territorial Imperative (often shortened to theNorthwest Imperative) is awhite separatist idea put forward in the 1970s–1980s bywhite nationalist,white supremacist, white separatist andneo-Nazi groups within theUnited States.[2] According to it, members of these groups are encouraged to relocate to a region of theNorthwestern United States—Washington,Oregon,Idaho, andWestern Montana—with the intention to eventually turn the region into awhite ethnostate.[3] Some definitions of the project include the entire states ofMontana andWyoming, plusNorthern California.[4][3]
From this idea,Harold Covington founded the organization.[5] Harold Covington died at the age of 68 on July 14, 2018, and his death threw into question the continued existence of the Northwest Front.[6]
Several reasons have been given as to why activists have chosen to turn this area into a future white homeland: it is farther removed fromBlack,Jewish and otherminority locations than other areas of the United States are; it is geographically remote, making it harder for the federal government to uproot activists; its "wide open spaces" appeal to those who believe in the right to hunt and fish without any government regulations; and it would also give them access to seaports and Canada.[7]
The formation of such a "White homeland" also involves the expulsion, euphemized as the "repatriation", of allnon-Whites from the territory.[8] The project is variously called "Northwest Imperative", "White American Bastion",[9] "White Aryan Republic",[7] "White Aryan Bastion",[10][11] "White Christian Republic", or the "10% solution" by its promoters.[12] White supremacist leadersRobert E. Miles,Robert Jay Mathews andRichard Butler were originally the main promoters of the idea.[4][8][9]
The territory which is proposed by the Northwest Territorial Imperative partially overlaps with the bioregion proposed by theCascadia independence movement,[13] and the two movements share similar flags,[14] however they have no ties to each other as the Cascadia movement is based inbioregionalism.[15]
TheOregon black exclusion laws of 1844, an attempt to expel allAfrican Americans from the state, are cited as an early example of such a racist project in the region.[3] White supremacist journalist Derek Stenzel, thePortland-based editor ofNorthwestern Initiative, emphasized that the 1859constitution of Oregon explicitly stated that "no free negro, mulatto or Chinaman" could reside, vote, hold contract, or make business in the state. In his view, the Northwest Imperative project would be in line with the "high racist ideals" of the original settlers.[4]
The primary proponents of a separatist white homeland in America wereRichard Butler (1918–2004), the leader of theIdaho-basedAryan Nations,[8] andRobert E. Miles (1925–1992), awhite supremacisttheologian fromMichigan. In the early 1980s, the latter introduced the idea of a territorial separation in the Northwest in his seminarBirth of a Nation, where he urged whites to leave the American multicultural areas and "go in peace" to this region where they would remain a majority.[4] In July 1986, the Aryan Nations Congress was organized around the theme of the "Northwest Territorial Imperative", and was attended by over 200Ku Klux Klan andNeo-Nazi leaders, as well as 4,000–5,000 racist activists.[16] During the Congress, Miles declared that the project could be achieved "by White nationalists moving to the area, buying land together or adjacent to each other and having families consisting of five or ten children [...] We will win the Northwest by out-breeding our opponents and keeping our children away from the insane and destructive values of the Establishment."[17][4] His solution of setting aside the northwestern states (10% of thecontiguous US territory) for a white nation was endorsed by the Knights of the KKK fromTuscumbia and key activists moved to the area. Different from fighting within a homeland like in theDeep South though, the imperative required a large migration of white supremacists from throughout the country,[3] and it was generally rejected by Southern extremists.[18] The project was also advertised by theAryan Nations Church under the name "White Aryan Bastion".[11]
A secondary supporter wasRobert Jay Mathews (1953–1984), who lived inMetaline Falls, Washington, and advocated further colonization of the area. Fearing theextinction of the white race, he endorsed the creation of a "White American Bastion" in the Pacific Northwest. In 1983, he delivered a speech before theNational Alliance, a white supremacist organization which was led byWilliam Luther Pierce, calling the "yeoman farmers and independent truckers" to rally behind his project. Mathews received the only standing ovation at the conference.[9]
The idea has been endorsed by various organizations includingWhite Aryan Resistance,Wotansvolk, theWhite Order of Thule, Aryan Nations and Northwestern Imperative.[4]
The defunct Oregon-basedwhite power skinhead organizationVolksfront advocated for the Imperative, andHarold Covington founded the Northwest Front to promote white migration to the region.[19]
The Northwest Territorial Imperative was the motivation forRandy Weaver and his family to move to Idaho in the early 1980s; they were later involved in theRuby Ridge incident.[3] The plan was also the motivation forChevie Kehoe andDaniel Lewis Lee torturing, robbing, and murdering a family-of-three inArkansas in 1997.[20]
Neo-Nazi terroristDavid Lane believed that the terrain of the Pacific Northwest was similar toVietnam, such that a white separatist movement could successfully wage a guerilla war against the US government, comparable to theVietnam War.[21]
Rinaldo Nazzaro, the founder ofThe Base, is a supporter of the Northwest Territorial Imperative.[22][23]
Die Trying, aJack Reacher novel, features a militia trying to implement the Northwest Territorial Imperative.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)Spear, who claims to be anIraq andAfghan War veteran, is a self-proclaimedwhite nationalist with a significant online following. His latest act involves bringingneo-Nazis together, regardless of affiliation andideology, into a militantfascist umbrella organization. His tool for doing this? Asocial network which he calls "The Base," which is already organizing across the US and abroad, specifically geared toward partaking interrorism. Advertisement