KUER Local News
(2005-05-16)
BOUNTIFUL, BRITISH COLUMBIA
(Boise State Radio) -
(Oregon Considered) - A polygamous community just north of the U.S. border in Canada is sparking a difficult debate about religious freedom. Idaho officials are concerned about a group of people who call themselves fundamentalist Mormons. Authorities fear they are expanding into the northwestern U.S., committing welfare fraud and trafficking underage girls. Correspondent Elizabeth Wynne Johnson brings us the story of Bountiful, British Columbia, and the women who are defending their way of life.
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Half a dozen boys and girls bounce, flip and tumble on a trampoline in their front yard. The air is sweet with the smell of fresh-baked oatmeal cookies.
Child: Momma, I want a drink of milk!
Inside, Twyla Blackmore balances a baby on her hips while stirring a pot of macaroni and cheese. Her daughter set the table.
Child: Mommy?
Twyla Blackmore: What?
Child: I love you. [laughing]
Blackmore: I love you, too.
A typical day in Bountiful, British Columbia. This hamlet near the town of Creston is home to roughly a thousand people. Blackmore lives here with her husband and their eight children, as well as the man's other wife and their four kids.
Twyla Blackmore: There are definitely challenges. It's not simple. We're human; we're all human (laughs). But it's what we believe, it's what we work for. It's what we want. And there are a lot of benefits, too.
Blackmore has four sisters who live close by. They share the work and responsibility for all their children. Outsiders ridicule her for practicing polygamy, but she says plural marriage is a blessing.
Twyla Blackmore: It's our culture, our heritage. We haven't just decided to do this. For most of us, it's been four or five generations, it's been the way it's lived. It's a basic, fundamental belief of our church.
Polygamy is prohibited by both Canadian and U.S. law. Historically, it was part of the Mormon tradition, but no longer. Still, it's been flourishing in Bountiful for decades.
Now officials in the US have begun taking notice. For several years, the Bountiful group has been buying property and establishing a presence in North Idaho. Bonners Ferry mayor, Darrell Kerby:
Darrell Kerby: While I'm certain neighbors and others initially may have been suspicious of a household that may have had 3-4 adult women and multiple children residing in it, it took a whole for perhaps people to put two and two and 2 together.
Long lines of cars waiting to cross the border on Sunday mornings prompted Idaho officials to wonder about a cross-border connection. There's a litany of concerns.
A book written by a former member of Bountiful claims there's abuse of women and children. Human rights groups say the women are brainwashed. Girls as young as fifteen are married to adult men.
Eric Anderson: My issue is child welfare and welfare fraud if it does exist.
Idaho State representative Eric Anderson of Priest Lake says families might be collecting welfare from both the U.S. and Canada. A special legislative committee to investigate human smuggling in Idaho is expanding its probe to include the religious group.
Eric Anderson: From my standpoint, I'm not on a witch hunt. I'm more inclined to determine what the truth and facts are on these issues.
The heightened scrutiny has caused the Bountiful group to get proactive about its image.
Speaker: For this time on, the women of this community will be silent no more! (loud applause)
A group of Bountiful women staged a three-hour public meeting to, as they put it, set the record straight. The event put on a positive face for public officials and for the leaders of other polygamist communities.
A young girl named Julia challenged the notion that she lives an isolated life.
Julia: I'm as educated as anyone in pop culture--Dr Phil, Oprah. I wouldn't trade with anyone. (applause)
The women categorically denied charges of abuse, unequal education, trafficking, welfare fraud and more. This clash is raising difficult questions about culture, tradition, religious freedom and social welfare.
John Kettle: Persecution's right close to where we're at on this line. I mean, they're getting beat pillar to post because they're different.
John Kettle is a local official in British Columbia who says he's personally against polygamy.
John Kettle: But we shouldn't presuppose that our values are better than theirs. And I don't. If they want to make the choice it's up to them, it's not up to me. But I fully support their right to make that choice, and I would fight to the death to defend the right of anybody to have a religious preference.
But south of the border in Idaho, officials like Bonners Ferry Mayor Darrell Kerby are framing the debate differently.
Darrell Kerby: And whenever you're dealing with people's lifestyles, it's automatically controversial. But in terms of- as a society, that's what we do. That's what societies are about, is to establish norms of behavior that we collectively believe are in the best interests of the communities.
Idaho officials say no charges have been filed been against anyone connected with the Bountiful community. Idaho's legislative investigation begins in May.
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