Supremacists drop plan for nearby site

Buffalo News/June 1, 2002
By Lou Michel

The Aryan Nations' attempt to make Potter County, Pa., its national headquarters has been scrapped, according to a white supremacist who just stepped down as the group's leader.

Before resigning as the national director, Ray Redfeairn said he removed August B. Kreis III from the organization and acknowledged the Rev. Richard G. Butler, an Idaho resident, as Aryan Nations leader.

Kreis, who owns a hilltop property in the Potter County hamlet of Ulysses, about a three-hour drive south of Buffalo, admits to a falling-out with Redfeairn, but maintains he remains part of Aryan Nations.

"Aryan Nations consists of a Web site and a post office box in Ulysses," Kreis said. "If kinsmen and supporters want a church building and grounds, it has to be financially supported. I can't build it on my own."

Aryan Nations, the political arm of the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, was founded by Butler, who lives in Hayden Lake, Idaho. Plans called for moving the organization to Potter County because of its mostly white population.

Redfeairn now says any reports that Kreis is starting up a national headquarters for the nation in Ulysses should be ignored.

"The only Aryan Nations that exists is the one founded by Pastor Butler," Redfeairn said. "If anyone hears Aryan Nations is setting up camp in Ulysses, it is fiction. That place couldn't attract flies."

Reasons for recognizing Butler and Hayden Lake as the home of Aryan Nations, Redfeairn explained, include recent statements by Kreis reneging on donating his property to the nation.

In Idaho, a spokesman for Butler praised Redfeairn for his actions against Kreis.

"What Ray Redfeairn did was the honorable thing to do, bring back the leadership to Pastor Butler," said Shaun Winkler, the Aryan Nations' staff leader. "Thankfully, Redfeairn has realized that a lot of people support Pastor Butler, who never had any intentions of moving Aryan Nations from Idaho."