On the Scene Ties That Blind

Noxon, Montana

THE high-school gymnasium in this tiny town in the far northwestern corner of the state is almost filled on a snowy Sunday in December for a meeting of the dread Militia of Montana (affectionately known as MOM). Down the hall is a babysitting room for some of the many small children who find it difficult to sit still through hours of lectures from Mark Koernke (a/k/a “Mark from Michigan”), a popular speaker on the growing “militia” and “patriot” circuit, and John Trochmann, who founded the Militia of Montana after the deadly 1992 standoff between federal agents and the Randy Weaver family near Naples, Idaho, just across the state line.

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Alan Bock

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Noxon, Montana

THE high-school gymnasium in this tiny town in the far northwestern corner of the state is almost filled on a snowy Sunday in December for a meeting of the dread Militia of Montana (affectionately known as MOM). Down the hall is a babysitting room for some of the many small children who find it difficult to sit still through hours of lectures from Mark Koernke (a/k/a “Mark from Michigan”), a popular speaker on the growing “militia” and “patriot” circuit, and John Trochmann, who founded the Militia of Montana after the deadly 1992 standoff between federal agents and the Randy Weaver family near Naples, Idaho, just across the state line.