A four-hour drive from Rogers with views of nothing but trees, Return to the Land (RTTL) is an all-whites society and a private membership association (PMA) in Ravenden, Arkansas.
According to their website, Return to the Land preaches “traditional values,” in “European heritage communities” bringing back culture, positive change and common ancestry in a community built for them, by them. However, this language is nothing but a front for what the group truly believes — whether it is one of their written ‘values’ or not.
Through the veil of homesteading, RTTL inscribes its racist, homophobic, antisemetic and hateful extremist worldview in a way that harms not only its own community, but Arkansans as a whole.
“Lots of people honor traditions—food, language, holidays—and that alone isn’t harmful. But this is where I pause and go, ‘okay… let’s unpack that,’” said Carla Jurgensmeyer, AP psychology teacher.
Although other communities such as the Amish and Bidsfoot Farm in New York have similar principals of homesteading, RTTL inverts the idea of euro-centric traditions and culture by implementing segregation by ancestry.
“When ‘European traditions’ are paired with rules about who gets to belong, it becomes less about culture and more about gatekeeping,” Jurgensmeyer said.
The RTTL community is small, totaling around 30 people, mainly due to strict entry restrictions: a $6,000 entry fee, multiple essay-length questions and a deep ancestral investigation about any potential newcomer.
Return to the Land’s ‘goal’ in their segregated community comes from the founders desire to facilitate their community’s way of life, with a priority to escape a “failing modern society,” according to the RTTL website. However, this is easy to see through when listening to the founders’ racist rhetoric.
“When people are in tight groups, beliefs tend to get more extreme — that’s group polarization. So you can see more echo-chamber thinking, more polarization, and more tension,” Jurgensmeyer said.
RTTL members in an interview by Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan made statements putting down those who are not “pure-race.”
In an interview with Channel 5 News, an RTTL member went so far as to claim that ‘figures’ Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan were “cool.” Founder Eric Orwoll also praised Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
“Only people entirely (and willfully) ignorant of history and outright racists or amoral people would think Hitler is ‘cool,’” said John Raybourn, AP government teacher.
With the presence of a racially segregated community, it begs the question of how this is affecting the rest of Arkansas. Return to the Land is effectively cementing a harmful prejudice and fundamentally racist mindset as a legitimate viewpoint. While the vast majority of Arkansans would disagree with the extremist views of RTTL, the existence of this community suggests to the rest of the country that these beliefs represent Arkansas as a whole. The existence of an all-white community reinforces these ideals and harms Arkansans across the state.
Return to the Land declined to comment or give any information regarding their community to the Mountie Spectrum’s writers.
