group denies claim for sheep kill

www.wilderness-sportsman.com'

"GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) -- Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group that pays ranchers for livestock killed by wolves and grizzly bears, is refusing to reimburse a Hutterite colony for two sheep killed by a bear in September.

Minette Johnson, the group's Northern Rockies representative, said group members worked with the Rockport Hutterite Colony west of Pendroy to build three electric-fenced bedding grounds to protect the sheep. Defenders also gave the colony money in 2000 to secure its night sheep pasture."

http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/christ/cep/hutt.html

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Doctrinally the Hutterites are closest to the old order Amish. They stress separation from the world and the communal ownership of all property. Like other groups that derived from the Anabaptists, the Hutterites are total pacifists. Like the old order Amish, they retain essentially the same style of dress their ancestors wore in Europe.

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In 1874 a group of Hutterites emigrated to South Dakota in the United States. Life in the United States was free of complications until the American involvement in the first world war. The Hutterites' refusal to support the war or serve in the armed forces resulted in their being subject to frequent ridicule and harassment. In 1918 the Hutterite communities migrated to Canada where they acquired land in Alberta and Manitoba. Following the end of the war the Hutterite communities gradually returned to the United States, where they continue to lead a quiet communal existence with little to do with the outside world.

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The Hutterites are identified through their distinctive dress. The men wear black trousers, a black coat and a black hat. All men wear beards after they marry. The women wear ankle length skirts, an apron and a long jacket. At all times they wear a polka dot headscarf.