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In October 2023, a group calling itself Return to the Land established its first "" in the . They followed that with a second enclave nearby in 2025.

The group, which describes itself as a "" that helps groups form "European heritage communities," , including another location in the Ozarks and two in Appalachia.

Return to the Land believes that by calling themselves a private membership association they can create a white —a type of state in which residence is limited to white people—and people based on race, religion and sexual orientation.

If you read the words of Eric Orwoll, the group's co-founder, : "You want a white nation? Build a white town … it can be done. We're doing it."

As a , I have examined several groups calling for a white homeland in America. The creation of a white ethnostate is often seen as an ultimate goal of such , which argues that white people form part of a genetically and culturally superior race deserving of protection and preservation. While Return to the Land doesn't identify as white nationalists, their statements often align with the ideology.

White ethnostates, big and small

One of the best-known plans for a white ethnostate is the , popularized by white nationalists during the 1970s and '80s. The plan involved certain citizens taking 10% of the United States—the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana—and excluding all nonwhite people from living there.

Proponents of the plan argued that these states were already majority white and contained large tracts of undeveloped land, making the territory ideal for white-only settlement. High-profile extremists of the time such as , and supported the plan.

Still today, groups such as the , a white nationalist group founded in 2009 and located in the Pacific Northwest, continue to promote variations of this idea.

While the Pacific Northwest has a , the proponents of whites-only communities have also targeted areas of the Northeast as possible locations for a white ethnostate.

In 2018, for example, Tom Kawczynski, town manager of Jackman, Maine, was fired when his , including views that have been characterized as "."

More recently, in 2023, the , a splinter group of the neo-Nazi organization , introduced themselves on the online platform Substack. There, the group laid out its goal of establishing the six states of New England—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont—as white-only.

The goal of gaining control of multiple states is unrealistic, of course, at least peacefully. Therefore, a popular alternative, along the lines of Return to the Land's actions, is to establish smaller all-white communities.

In 2013, that was buying land in the small town of Leith, North Dakota, to build a white nationalist community. The town rallied to .

Later that year, Cobb was related to confronting residents with a gun. He was sentenced to probation for four years and in 2014.

And in 2021, revealed that , a former U.S. Marine and founder of the neo-Nazi group , wanted to establish a whites-only community in Springfield, Maine. Pohlhaus was developing a military training facility as part of these efforts when media coverage led him to .

The danger of a white ethnostate

These various attempts to develop a white ethnostate are not simply individual, isolated cases. They form part of a larger movement toward achieving .

A major part of white nationalism today is focused on anti-immigrant hatred. That has spurred major acts of extreme violence such as the in El Paso, Texas, the majority of whom were Hispanic.

The "," a conspiracy theory popular among white nationalists, argues that various policies are leading to the destruction of the white race. This theory inspired the of 10 Black Americans in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

The shooter selected the supermarket because of its location in and left behind a .

Communities across the U.S. have successfully resisted the establishment of white ethnostates.

The residents of Leith, North Dakota, did this by informing people about what was happening in their community. also met .

As for Return to the Land, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in July 2025 that his office is and whether they violate the law.

"Racism has no place in a free society," he said, "but from a legal perspective, we have not seen anything that would indicate any state or federal laws have been broken."

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