The small town of Leith is not the only place in North Dakota where white supremacist groups are declaring territory, according to The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead.
Craig Cobb, a white supremacist who has purchased nearly a dozen lots to transform into neo-Nazi enclaves in Leith, is joined by other white nationalist groups in the state.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights group, shows three other similar groups in North Dakota on their hate map.
"None of these groups are in question; they are blatantly white supremacist organizations," said Heidi Beirich, director of the center's Intelligence Project, which tracks the groups.
The center believes the American Freedom Party, a white nationalist political party formerly known as the American Third Position, is located in Grand Forks and led by Jamie Kelso. Two chapters of Crusaders for Yahweh, a white supremacist group linked to Aryan Nations, have a presence in Bismarck and West Fargo, and a third group, Vinladers Social Club, is in Alexander.
Beirich said the center is certain of the hate groups' presence through confidential sources and online activity, specifically through Facebook.
Kelso, 65, formerly worked as the personal assistant of Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and now directs the American Freedom Party in Grand Forks. The center calls him "an extremely hyper organizer and serial joiner of religious sects."
"I'm the guy up to my eyeballs in this movement," he said. "If there is anything going on in this movement, I'm the guy to know it."
Kelso, who is married with two children, said each white supremacist organization has the same goals in mind.
"We want to preserve our country as a people, not as a place or location," he said. "We have to preserve our family, which means we don't turn over our real estate to Africa, we don't give our jobs to people from Mexico and don't give trade secrets and skills to greedy capitalists in China."
He also does not associate with terms like neo-Nazi.
"I'm a red-blooded American."
