Former Secessionist Turns "Green Nazi" Combatant
Montana Human Rights Network News
May 2001

John Stokes, the founder of Washington's county secessionist movement, bought Kalispell's KGEZ radio station in April 2000. Ever since, he's been filling Flathead Valley's airwaves with anti-government and anti-environmental diatribes. Stokes' rhetoric is threatening. He repeatedly demonizes and makes veiled threats against government workers, environmentalists and others with whom he disagrees. The rhetoric doesn't materialize out of thin air, and the substance behind it is just as disturbing. Stokes has a long history of supporting extremist ideologies and activists.

Over the past few months, MHRN and local citizens have asked Stokes to stop filling the Flathead with his extreme rhetoric. However, it has continued. Lately, he's taken to calling those who disagree with him "Green Nazis." During Stokes' radio show on February 1, 2001, he made the comment that "perhaps someone should burn down a Green Nazi's house." After a short pause, he said, "No, no. We don't want to go there." He has advocated running down environmentalists with snowmobiles, saying, "If you're a greenie and want to protest my snowmobile riding, stand in front of me, so I can get a good target at you when I hit that throttle of that 800cc machine. Because your gonna [sic] be jumpin' [sic] out of the way or get run over. One of the two."

Stokes' rhetoric poses a threat to free, open and civil democracy in the Flathead. Issues concerning land-use and government authority need to be addressed. However, Stokes' rhetoric only divides Flathead's citizens into camps of warring enemies and threatens, demonizes and dehumanizes those who disagree with Stokes. What the Flathead needs is civil debate and democratic decision-making processes. All Stokes offers is offensive name-calling, implied threats of violence, and calls for a boycott of local businesses.

His use of the term "Green Nazi" is both extremely offensive and unjustifiable. Environmental activists have nothing in common with the Nazis. The term trivializes the death and suffering of the Nazis' victims in the Holocaust. It also belittles the sacrifices made by our veterans who fought the Third Reich. It would appear Stokes has forgotten that the Nazis actually murdered millions of innocent people.

Stokes and Washington's County Secessionist Movement

Stokes is much more than a radio personality. Before moving to Montana in 1994, he spearheaded what is known as the "county secessionist movement" in Washington state. He and his followers tried to establish new counties that they believed would allow them to circumvent land-use laws. The movement combined issues of property rights with the traditional anti-government movement.

County secessionists gathered signatures that they believed would create new counties. Stokes said if the Washington Legislature wouldn't immediately pass the enabling legislation to create "Freedom County" he would demand the resignation of the entire legislature. In 1995, Washington's Secretary of State found that 40% of the signatures collected were invalid, and, even counting those, Stokes and his cohorts were 3,000 short. In 1997, Stokes petitioned the United Nations and asked that it intervene and establish the new counties. The UN never acted.

During the process, Stokes frequently used the kind of rhetoric he continues to use today in his KGEZ diatribes. He told the Seattle Post Intelligencer, "I'm surprised no one's been shot. I wouldn't want to be wandering around here if I were with the Department of Ecology or any bureaucrat." He also told the Seattle Weekly, "Before all the liberals in the city get all uppity about [secessionist campaigns], they ought to remember who controls the water supplies. One little 50-gallon drum of PCP in the reservoir out there and [city residents] are all fu**ed up."

Freedom County "Lives"

Although the claims of the county secessionist movement were struck down in the courts and legislature, it would not disappear. The "new county" most closely identified with Stokes, Freedom County, made headlines in October 2000 when officers were sworn in for this non-existent county. The current leader, Thom Satterlee, is an old cohort of Stokes.

The secessionist movement's ties to "patriot"ideology are substantial. Satterlee has tried to file bogus freemen documents in Washington, and is linked to the Washington State Militia. He has also sent notices to legitimate county commissioners threatening to seize their homes if they refuse to recognize Freedom County.

Satterlee isn't the only "patriot" representative of this bogus government. The "auditor" had his home sold by the IRS for failing to pay taxes. The "sheriff," Robert Victor Bender, refuses to pay taxes, obtain a driver's license, or use a social security number. All of these are hallmark practices of freemen.

Stokes' New Venues: Montana and KGEZ

Immediately upon moving to Montana in 1994, Stokes became a vocal opponent of the Flathead County Master Plan, a land-use plan. He continued framing land-use planning in warlike terms. He told The Daily Interlake, "They have declared war on us, make no mistake about it. We just haven't joined the battle."

Stokes' current enthusiasm for uncivil attacks on those who disagree with him, and for boycotting local businesses, isn't new. In 1994, he handed out fliers at a planning meeting, titled "Boycott Utopian Socialist Planners." It encouraged people to avoid businesses who gave money to "Eco freak socialist" groups. He said businesses would be given ten days to withdraw their support from the "socialist Master Plan" or they would be included on a boycott list to be distributed to the public.

In 1998, he ran for the Montana Senate. His platform included a number of extreme positions on education: selling the university system and forcing public schools to teach creationism. He also advocated terminating Indian reservations and changing Montana's enabling act to require the federal government to cede all its land within Montana's borders to the state.

Since taking over KGEZ, Stokes has used the medium to promote his agenda. He supported "gate opening days," actions in which citizens forcibly and illegally open gates on federal land. He claims environmentalists are Nazis. He told The Daily Interlake, "Keep your Green Nazi #@$ out of Montana. We've had enough of you."

Civility in Civil Discourse

MHRN sent a letter to Stokes in early March asking him to rethink his rhetoric, especially the use of "Green Nazi"when referring to those with whom he disagrees. In late March, Flathead County officials signed a letter asking for a "civil level of public discourse" around the valley.

MHRN is currently working in the Kalispell area. A local affiliate group has formed, the Flathead Valley Human Rights Coalition, and is currently focusing on Stokes and KGEZ. However, this is just because Stokes is the manifestation of the larger problem the group hopes to address' the lack of civil discourse around land-use and economic issues in the Flathead. Contact MHRN at (406) 442-5506 or network@mhrn.org if you are interested in getting involved.

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