White supremacist activity in Alaska has dramatically increased this year, according to a group that tracks extremism.
Historically, white supremacist groups have not been very active in Alaska, but according to Morgan Moon with the Anti-Defamation League, that started to change in January.
“These groups seem to be growing, becoming emboldened,” she said. “I expect these numbers to continue growing, their membership growing, and then that could potentially lead to an increase in criminality.”
She said she tracked only nine incidents across the entire state from 2017 through last year, but in just the first six months of this year, she has logged 21. That count doesn’t yet include July. Moon said she has yet to analyze what seems to be a big uptick in the last month.
Most of the already-logged incidents were in Anchorage, but Moon said they’re happening in other places too, like Kodiak, Kenai, Wasilla and Palmer. She said those incidents included two in-person events. The rest involved putting stickers or other propaganda in public places like on bus stops, light poles, and trail signs. Moon said propaganda is just the first indicator of an extremist presence.
“Very quickly, it turns into demonstrations, in-person events,” she said. “Then as that increases, we often will see an increase within criminality.”
Chris Barraza, with the Anchorage Police Department, said they have not had any calls about white supremacist incidents in the city.
That’s not surprising. Alaska hasn’t seen a lot of white supremacist activity compared to the rest of the country, Moon said. But she worries Alaska will follow a pattern she’s watched play out in other states, where activity has been increasing for years. She said propaganda often turns into criminal behavior, including vandalism and harassment, and, in some cases, violence, like the white man who killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2022 to prevent “eliminating the white race.”
Moon said the increase in white supremacist incidents in Alaska is likely due to the formation of a new white supremacist group in January 2025, the Last Frontier Active Club.
“This is the first time that I have tracked a white supremacist group that has formed in the state in recent memory,” she said. “But what's happening is that this group formed, it's gathering individuals of shared beliefs and ideologies that are then going out and putting up these stickers and holding these training events.”
Last Frontier Active Club is part of an international network of “active clubs,” which launched in early 2021. Members train in European mixed martial arts in order to prepare for what they see as an imminent race war.
The other white supremacist group that the Anti-Defamation League is tracking in Alaska is called Patriot Front. It formed in 2017 and is one of the most prominent white supremacist networks in the country. The group’s ultimate goal is to form a new nation state that caters to white men.
Moon said there are some commonalities between the two groups.
“These groups are frequently talking about things like the great replacement theory,” she said. “This idea that the white race is facing genocide or is being replaced by immigrants. And they often will talk about a range of other white supremacist theories, this idea that they need to make a white ethno-nation state here in the United States.”
Moon said the propaganda the two groups are placing around Alaska is not always obviously white supremacist. Last Frontier Active Club stickers have a moose head superimposed over a cross in a circle. Patriot Front propaganda often has slogans like “Reclaim America” and “Forward, for a new American nation state,” along with photos of masked men in baseball caps.
Moon said the reason the men are masked is because anonymity is a key strategy. That makes it hard for her to know how many people are involved in Alaska. But she said photos from one gathering of the Last Frontier Active Club show at least six members. There’s also evidence that there is overlap between the two groups, she said.
Moon said that anonymity and the lack of overt symbolism represent a new kind of white supremacist movement — one that’s a lot more careful with their optics.
“They want to attract a more mainstream audience,” she said. “Versus groups like the Klan, that were burning crosses and wearing robes. They were basically attracting an audience that was already bigoted and extreme.”
She said the new groups want to recruit people first, and then radicalize them.
