| Women of Bountiful plan summit B.C. polygamist colony facing increasing scrutiny | |
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By Susan Drumheller The Spokesman-Review | |
Fed up with being labeled the brainwashed chattel of a male-dominated cult, women who live in a polygamous colony just north of the Idaho border are trying to clear up their image. The Bountiful Women's Society plans to share its point of view and explain recent developments within the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints during a Summit on Polygamy being hosted by the group this week in Creston, B.C. "We are human and we're on the same planet and we have feelings," said a woman who answered the phone for the society but didn't give her name. "There's so much garbage in the news." The forum follows a decision by the Idaho Legislature to study the problem of human trafficking in Idaho, including allegations that teenage girls are crossing the U.S. border north of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to be forced into polygamous marriages in Canada. Those allegations and others are under investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Previous investigations have failed to result in charges against the leaders of Bountiful, a community of 800 or more members of the fundamentalist church just northeast of the Porthill, Idaho, border crossing. Media coverage in the past couple of years, including the books "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer and "Keep Sweet" by former Bountiful member Debbie Palmer, also have galvanized a growing local movement against the Bountiful colony. Audrey Vance, a Creston, B.C., resident and member of the antipolygamy group Altering Destiny Through Education, said she was prompted to challenge the polygamists after she saw the former wife of Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore appear on television more than a year ago. Jane Blackmore, who was a midwife in Creston, told viewers that she had delivered a baby for a 15-year-old Bountiful girl who didn't want the baby and didn't want to return to her husband, Vance said. "That's what made me mad," Vance said. "How can parents do this to kids in the name of religion?" Bountiful wives In 1890, the Mormon Church abandoned polygamy, but the Bountiful sect teaches that polygamy is key to achieving everlasting life. Bountiful was established in 1946 and belongs to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, along with thousands of polygamists living in Colorado City, Ariz., on the Utah border. Both communities have been in turmoil since church prophet Rulon Jeffs died in 2002 and his son, Warren Jeffs, took control of the church, its property and the United Effort Plan Trust, the church's treasury. The younger Jeffs then kicked out many men from the church, including Winston Blackmore, and reassigned their wives and children to other men who are loyal to him. Blackmore, the former bishop of Bountiful, refused to leave. "I spent my whole life building up that trust, and I'm not going anywhere," Blackmore said Friday in a telephone interview. Jeffs, meanwhile, has been in hiding for several months and is being sued by a nephew who alleged that Jeffs sexually molested him. Another suit alleges that hundreds of boys and young men – sometimes called the "Lost Boys" – were forced out of the Colorado City community so that the women would outnumber the men for the sake of polygamous relationships, according to news reports. Blackmore continues to live at Bountiful along with his wives, children and followers. While some news reports say he has 24 or more wives, Blackmore won't divulge the exact number, except to say that estimates of 30 or more are "plain crazy." Jeffs supporters and Blackmore supporters live side by side in Bountiful, but don't speak. Blackmore said Tuesday's forum, which is organized by women who are loyal to him, is designed in part to explain the split in the church. Idaho polygamists Some of the polygamous families worshipping in the Bountiful church are from Boundary County, just south of the Canadian border. Blackmore said about 40 or 50 people from Idaho attend Bountiful's church services. Vancouver, B.C., Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has reported that Blackmore and loyalists own about $839,000 worth of property in Boundary County. Blackmore said he sold his J.R. Blackmore & Sons post and pole business in Boundary County. Shem Johnson, reportedly an FLDS member, is the current owner of the Idaho company, according to state records. The polygamist presence in the county, which may be growing with the recent split in the church, has prompted Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrel Kerby to start asking questions. "It's quite disturbing to me," Kerby said. "Even if one child is being abused, it's a big deal." When asked whether young women are taken across the border against their will for marriages, Blackmore said the allegations are an insult to Canadian customs officials, "who are doing the best they can to make sure if someone is coming or going against their will." Vance and other critics say they have no doubt that girls from Arizona or Utah are being delivered to men in Bountiful, but proving that they are coerced is problematic. They point to statements by former church members, who have gone on record saying siblings and other kin have been married off to men in Canada, or have been sent from Creston to Colorado City, at very young ages. While some girls and women may go willingly, that doesn't make it right, they say. "They're brainwashed," said Andrea Moore Emmett, a journalist who interviewed hundreds of polygamists for her book "God's Brothel." "These are young girls forced into marriages with old men. … The only reason it's being done is because the prophet said, 'It's being done.' It's a violation of civil rights, human rights." Boundary County Sheriff Greg Sprungl said that while he's heard the rumors, he's unaware of any instances of the trafficking of young women for polygamous marriages. "There's not any action at the moment in Boundary County that we can put our finger on," he said. Officials with U.S. Customs and the U.S. Border Patrol also said they had no firm knowledge of illegal crossings by members of the church. Questions in Creston Residents of Creston, a town of about 5,000 people, have lived with the Bountiful polygamists in their midst for decades. "They're members of our community," said Creston Mayor Joe Snopek, who as a businessman had dealings with the Bountiful members. "In Creston we are, you could almost call, a rainbow community. We accept a lot of things, people's colors, creeds. We look at it that way." Not everyone does. Vance said the town is split about 50-50 as to whether they should just "leave them alone." "It's not an easy thing now," Vance said. "We have over 1,000 people out there, at least. Of course, they're an economic force in the community. Nobody wants to cross Winston." And while her group's efforts are bolstered by the support of human rights activists outside the area, they are hampered by the fact that many of the women they wish to emancipate don't want their help. "I don't know of anyone being held against their will," Blackmore said. "You can ask these girls for yourself." Undaunted, the Creston group is pressuring the B.C. government to get more involved in Bountiful's schools, which are tax-supported, by making sure the children are getting input from outside their insular community. "The other main concern we have is the trafficking of these girls across the border as celestial wives," Vance said. Celestial wives are the additional wives in a polygamous relationship. Canadian police continue to investigate allegations of sexual exploitation and human trafficking and may again be forwarding recommendations to the criminal branch of B.C.'s Attorney General ministry, said RCMP Sgt. John Ward. When the police recommended polygamy charges in the early '90s, however, the ministry did not prosecute. Legal experts said the antipolygamy law was in conflict with Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution, explained Stan Lowe, spokesman for the ministry. Some former members of the group were convicted on sexual abuse charges, however. At the time, legal officials said that if the polygamy charges went to trial, a failure would be worse than the status quo, Vance recalled. "We said, 'How could it make it worse?' " she said. "They have no rights now, the women." | |
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Spokesman-Review.com Originally published April 17, 2005 | |
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