The son of militia leader Stewart Rhodes spent years plotting to help his family escape from his father’s control. Now that the elder Rhodes faces decades in prison, the rest of the family is rebuilding their lives.
The time had come. It was a dreary February day in 2018. Dakota had it all planned out.
His mother and five younger siblings were in the truck – some of them crouched out of sight on the floor.
They’d bundled into it as much as they could and made up an excuse – ostensibly they were heading to the trash dump just off the main highway, slick with black ice and crusted snow.
But just as they started to pull away, Dakota’s father burst out the door of their remote cabin in the mountains of northwest Montana.
Dakota and his mother Tasha stiffened. The leader of the Oath Keepers militia had dominated their lives until that moment. Tasha and Stewart had been married for nearly 25 years, and she was familiar with his manic periods. He’d been up all night on a tear – working out, listening to music, practising Filipino stick fighting, pacing the floor.
It was a pattern of manic activity, Dakota said, that was familiar throughout years of emotional abuse and heightened paranoia.
Would he now stop them from fleeing? Had he noticed his favourite gun was missing? Would he question why John-Boy, the family dog, was along for the ride to the dump? Dakota gripped the wheel while Tasha looked down at her daughters, hidden under the windows, their eyes opened wide.
“Hey,” Rhodes growled. “Pick up some steak on your way back.”
Dakota and Tasha murmured assent, and drove off towards the highway without a backwards glance.
