White supremacy sect buys property in Tennessee
A new, whites-only community is reportedly being planned for a 44-acre rural piece of property in southeastern Tennessee by a couple with past ties to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.
Eric Meadows and his wife, Angela Johnson, both former members of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, now lead 鈥淲otan Nation,鈥� described as a community of white supremacists following a revitalized belief system spawned by early Germanic paganism called 鈥渉eathenism.鈥�
Johnson purchased the rural Tennessee property in March 2017 and site-clearing work there is now underway, the Chattanooga first reported in weekend editions.
鈥淲otans Nation is indeed on the rise!鈥� the group鈥檚 closed Facebook page claims. 鈥淭he formation and creation of an actual location and community in the works and close to becoming a reality.鈥�
The Facebook group 鈥渉as ballooned to just under 300 members鈥� in recent months, the newspaper reported.
Meadows, who uses the alias Erik Thorvaldsson on social media, and Johnson both declined to speak with the Chattanooga newspaper. The group鈥檚 web site was taken off-line and put in 鈥渦nder construction鈥� mode shortly after the article was published.
Wotans Nation 鈥渋s an actual community within Eastern Tennessee made up of Folkish Heathens coming together and working as a theologically based community,鈥� the group鈥檚 site said.
From its description and pagan-oriented symbols, the group appears to follow a religious dogma similar to those known as Asatru or Odinism, sometimes called Wotanism. With emphasis on Norse Gods, the racially based, warrior-style tribal religion targets people of European descent who describe themselves as folkish racialists or white separatists.
The group makes mention of 鈥�1488,鈥� a reference to the 14-words spoken by the late David Lane, an Odinist, one-time Ku Klux Klan leader and imprisoned former member of the neo-Nazi group, The Order. He had ties to the Aryan Nations and was implicated in a series of racketeering crimes, including the 1984 assassination of radio talk show host Alan Berg, who was Jewish.
The Wotans Nation web site said there 鈥渋s a need for our folk to have a place to practice our religion freely, without fear of social stigma and in a healthy and natural environment among other culturally and spiritually similar people.鈥�
鈥淚t is in that spirit that the Wotans Nation project has been formed,鈥� the site said, describing it as 鈥渁n actual community within Eastern Tennessee made up of Folkish Heathens coming together and working as a theologically based community."
Wotans Nation offers memberships 鈥渢o Folkish Heathens that meet the requirements and are willing to move into the Nation and become active participants in the community,鈥� the site said.
The group said 鈥渕embers who pass background checks will be able to move鈥� to the 44-acre compound where rental cabins will be constructed for visitors, the newspaper reported.
Meadows, who served in both the U.S. Army and Navy, has past affiliations聽with the League of the South. In 2014, when that group discussed forming a secret paramilitary group called the Indomitables, Meadows, who then lived in Rome, Georgia, was named director of training.
Not everyone in Meigs County is welcoming the white supremacists and their planned community, the Chattanooga newspaper said in its piece.
Jason Choate, who owns an auto repair shop near the Wotans Nation property, said he doesn't think the 12,000 mostly white residents of Meigs County will welcome the Wotans Nation.
鈥淜nowing what I do about the people around here, I don't think they'll allow it to get up and running,鈥� Choate told the newspaper. 聽鈥淚f they cross the line, they'll find themselves in a world of trouble.鈥�
