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It reads like a teenager鈥檚 offer to work for a local political campaign or write for a neighborhood newsletter. Jeff Weise鈥檚 tone was respectful, articulate, and more than a little eager.
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鈥淚鈥檓 interested in joining your group, as I support your ideals,鈥� he wrote on March 19, 2004, 鈥渁nd even though I am young, I still want to join. What is the age requirement (if any)?鈥�
Mr. Weise鈥檚 inquiry, however, was anything but typical by the standards of most American high school students. Those comments appear to be the first of 34 postings the 16-year-old Native American youth made on an Internet forum run by the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party, an organization espousing neo-Nazi views, in the year leading up to his deadly armed assault at Red Lake High School in Minnesota last week.
The commentary Mr. Weise is believed to have submitted to the site has drawn renewed attention to the influence of neo-Nazi and other extremist organizations in schools and among teenagers across the country. Those who track the activities of 鈥渉ate groups鈥� say they have seen increased interest in such organizations among students in recent years, as well as an effort by those secretive communities to appeal to the precollegiate age group.
鈥淭hey are trying to recruit more mainstream youth,鈥� said Randy Blazak, an associate professor of sociology at Portland State University in Portland, Ore., who has studied school violence and the influence of extremist organizations.
Extremists have modified their message to teenagers in recent years from outright advocacy of racism to a more subtle emphasis on the loss of ethnic identity in an increasingly diverse American society, Mr. Blazak said. Those themes pervade the Internet postings believed to have been written by Mr. Weise.
鈥淭hat tends to be the awakening for the kid,鈥� Mr. Blazak said of questions of racial identity. 鈥淭o a [teenager] who doesn鈥檛 have a historical frame of reference, that鈥檚 a [tangible] issue.鈥�
鈥業nterracial Mixing鈥�
Mr. Weise鈥檚 apparent infatuation with Nazism, of course, comes with a bizarre twist: As a member of a minority group, Mr. Weise would most likely have been a target of Germany鈥檚 Nazi Party, which espoused white supremacy. The teenager appears at times to have found the Nazis鈥� views on racial and cultural homogeneity appealing, believing that worldview applied not only to whites, but to American Indians.
The Libertarian National Socialist Green Party says Jeff Weise posted these comments on its Web site under the subject lines below.
Re: A hero for the black community
July 13, 2004, 5:48 a.m.
鈥淲here I live less than 1% of all the people on the Reservation can speak their own language, and among the youth wanting to be black has run ramped. We have kids my age killing each other over things as simple as a fight, and it鈥檚 because of the rap influence. Wannabe-gangsters everywhere, I can鈥檛 go 5 feet without hearing someone blasting some rap song over their speakers. Under a National Socialist government, things for us would improve vastly鈥� That is, if we haven鈥檛 already become too soft from the way this materialistic life-style has made us, and that is why I am pro-Nazi. It鈥檚 hard though, being a Native American National Socialist, people are so misinformed, ignorant, and close minded it makes your life a living hell, but I know if we achieve what we set out to, it will be worth it all.鈥�
Re: Is this place for real?
July 18, 2004, 3:55 p.m.
鈥淏reeding out the purity in all races is not the way to go. Not the way to go at all. I disagree with you on that, as well as your idea to create a 鈥渕aster race.鈥�
Re: What is your heritage?
July 19, 2004, 1:30 p.m.
鈥淏oth my parents were Native American, though from what I understand I also have a little German, a little Irish, and a little French Canadian in my blood as well.鈥�
鈥淎s a result of cultural dominance and interracial mixing, there are barely any full-blooded natives left,鈥� he wrote in one posting.
鈥淲here I live, less than 1 percent of all the people on the reservation can speak their own language.鈥�
Paul A. McCabe, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the agency was still investigating whether the Internet postings on the Nazi-oriented Web site were actually written by Mr. Weise, despite the messages鈥� descriptions of life on the Red Lake reservation and at Red Lake High School.
The Minnesota shootings have drawn parallels to the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colo., where investigators also explored the assailants鈥� interest in extremist ideology. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teenage perpetrators of that assault鈥攖he deadliest school shooting in U.S. history鈥攁re believed to have dabbled in Nazism and launched their attack on Adolf Hitler鈥檚 birthday.
Yet even while observers believe extremists鈥� influence among teenage students is rising, Mr. Blazak and other experts discounted the notion that Nazi ideology, or any single cause, was behind Mr. Weise鈥檚 rampage. They pointed to various media accounts detailing the Red Lake youth鈥檚 problems at home and at school, a common theme among assailants in a series of school shootings over the past decade.
鈥淚f it hadn鈥檛 been Hitler, it would have been Satan,鈥� said Mark Potok, the director of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization in Montgomery, Ala., that monitors the influence of extremist groups. 鈥淥bviously, this was a kid in serious trouble.鈥�
Hoping to overcome a sense of isolation and powerlessness, minority youths are sometimes drawn to extremist organizations, some after concealing their racial identity, Mr. Potok said. Aside from Mr. Weise鈥檚 ethnic heritage as a member of the Chippewa tribe, he appeared from news reports to fit the profile of many teenagers who seek out such organizations, Mr. Potok added: a troubled family, isolation from his peers, and a sense that his community was unraveling in the face of demographic changes.
In recent years, some extremist organizations have grown increasingly brazen in attempting to appeal to students. Last year, a reputed neo-Nazi organization in Minnesota called the National Alliance launched 鈥淧roject Schoolyard,鈥� an effort to distribute music to teenagers espousing white-supremacist themes. Mr. Potok believes that effort has since fizzled.
Jeff Weise鈥檚 apparent postings on the neo-Nazi site also demonstrate extremist groups鈥� efforts to target school-age youths through the Internet, the Anti-Defamation League said last week. Such sites are designed to 鈥渓ure young people to join a community of like-minded racists,鈥� Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the New York City-based league, wrote on March 22.
Last year, league officials noted that a 2001 report by the U.S. Department of Justice found that 33 percent of known 鈥渉ate crime鈥� offenders were under the age of 18.
But extremist groups鈥� recruitment campaigns are likely to have little appeal to American Indian students, said Gordon Adams Jr., the school board chairman of the Nett Lake Independent 707 district, located on the Bois Forte Band of the Chippewas in Nett Lake, Minn.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen any of that in our schools,鈥� Mr. Adams said. After all, he said, 鈥淲e鈥檙e the people they hate.鈥�
