This duty overrides fears for his own safety, aroused by the document's threatening tone. Skurdal, who used to live near Roundup, sent Walters a letter welcoming him to town, when he arrived in 1994. Skurdal, who was raised Lutheran, asked Walters his position on the superiority of the white race, hoping that he would teach the Identity racist dogma. When Walters eventually met Skurdal in jail, he began to collect Freeman literature, and began publicly proclaiming their errors in a local paper, and at meetings. He writes of the Freemen as outcasts and exiles, whose reward will be in heaven, for the revilement they receive on earth.
Any opposition only stokes their zeal.
T he Freemen's predicament, if not their rhetoric, is explained in another Gazette interview. He also claimed to have neighbors' support at the time. Sarah Vogel, currently the commissioner of Agriculture in North Dakota, thought at the time this was bluff. He decided this was unfair treatment, and appealed. Vogel, his lawyer at the appeal, said the FmHA had failed in its duty to provide Clark with management assistance.