Idaho Legislature: Polygamists are coming

BOISE -- The wives of polygamists are spilling out of Canada and into Idaho to apply for public assistance, according to the Idaho Legislature. Senate and House leadership decided to study that problem Wednesday along with several other issues when the Legislature adjourns.

"I didn't think this was a problem in the state of Idaho until we went to Bonners Ferry," Speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, told a meeting of House and Senate leadership.

Newcomb and other representatives visited Boundary County leaders who are worried about the polygamy problem, which may involve members of a religious group in Bountiful, B.C., near Creston, B.C., Canada, that is aligned with a similar group in Hildale, Utah, on the Arizona border.

The Legislature is concerned child brides are traded between the two communities and isolated from the outside world.

In his book, "Under the Banner of Heaven," Jon Krakauer highlights these two groups as Mormon fundamentalists who practice polygamy and sometimes take wives who are in their early teens. The groups do not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but share common roots.

Officials worry about the strain on public welfare programs as well as the possibility of child sexual abuse.

"I welcome that (study)," said Boundary County Sheriff Greg Sprungl.

The topic is a hot issue in his community, said Sprungl.

"There is a long-standing polygamist group in Creston, B.C., up above us here across the border," said Sprungl. "There are people from that Blackmore group (by Creston) that live in the area."

The Blackmore group was started by a polygamist named Winston Blackmore as an offshoot of the Utah group, according to Krakauer's book.

"Our interest is not in the church that the polygamists are involved in," said Sprungl. "If there is any sexual abuse to minors, that's our only interest there."

Federal, state, county and city law enforcement have met to discuss the problem, said Sprungl.

"There are no active cases of sex abuse of minors that are wedded at an early age."

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare investigators have not sought help from the sheriff's office to investigate possible welfare fraud cases either, said Sprungl.

The northern Idaho polygamists are only part of the interim committee's focus on human trafficking.

Southern Idaho lawmakers are concerned about reports in the Nampa area of men bringing home wives from other countries and then exploiting them for prostitution or slave labor.

It's human trafficking if people are "forced to remain but brought under false circumstances," said Rep. Donna Boe, D-Pocatello, who cosponsored the study proposal.

Boe said federal laws have taken on the human trafficking problem. However, victims of human trafficking, who may not know English, do not know how to get help. The human trafficking committee will consider the extent of the problem in Idaho and how to make state laws to back up the federal laws.

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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson@lmtribune.com.