Are echoes of the Freemen ringing in Eureka?

But among the petition's several claims - including accusations that Anderson failed to fully investigate alleged rapes (see related story) - is one charge that even the sheriff admits is true: He denied a concealed weapons permit to Eureka-area resident Paul Stramer.

Anderson made that decision last fall, and stands by it still, saying Stramer was deeply involved in the "Freemen" uprising of 1996, when federal agents squared off against the leaders of an anti-government group. The radical right-wing Freemen had holed up in eastern Montana, at a place they called Justus Township, after rejecting the authority of the federal government.

The self-styled Christian patriots placed bogus liens against public officials, issued counterfeit checks and money orders, held mock trials of government officials and at one point allegedly tried to purchase $1.4 million worth of firearms, ammunition and body armor.

Following an 80-day standoff, several Freemen were arrested and convicted on charges ranging from fraud to tax violations, threats and firearms violations.

Stramer was arrested, too, alongside another Eureka resident named Cajun James, but was not among those convicted; he said he merely sympathized with the group, and was trying to sell them some communications equipment.

Paul Stramer now heads a small group called Lincoln County Watch, where leaders of the unsuccessful petition drive attend meetings.

The group gathers in Eureka to talk about the "banksters" at the Federal Reserve, the judges "bought and paid for," the conspiracy that took America off the gold standard, and the need to "prepare for the worst."

Stramer has set his van up as a high-tech mobile communication base, he said, and is collecting silver against the collapse of the dollar.

"There may come a time," Stramer said at a recent Eureka meeting, one of many posted by the group on YouTube, "when the precious metal of choice is lead, because at least you can make some bullets out of it and shoot something to eat, and defend your family."

Participants at Lincoln County Watch meetings have told of Black Hawk helicopters landing in the rural area, and mysterious SUV's with dark windows and no plates, men in black, and C-130 planes flying low over the remote border town, the YouTube videos show.

Stramer, in turn, recommends that citizens carry radios and cameras to track covert government activity - creating a "local patriot network."

Most recently, Stramer invited both Anderson and former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack to Eureka for an Independence Day rally. Mack once was top lawman in Graham County, Ariz., and leapt to national fame when he joined Montana's own Ravalli County Sheriff Jay Printz in challenging part of the federal government's Brady Bill.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Mack and Printz succeeded in overturning a requirement placing the burden of background checks on local law enforcement.

The case did not alter much in the way of gun control, but it did signal a victory for states' rights. Mack has since lectured widely on the topic, and most recently wrote a book titled "The County Sheriff: America's Last Hope."

In that book, Mack makes the case that sheriffs have tremendous powers, especially with respect to controlling federal activities within local jurisdictions.

"The battle for America will be decided right there in your county, at your front door," Mack said in a phone interview with the Missoulian. The local sheriff, he added, "absolutely can and should stand against federal incursion. Montana is sovereign. I believe honestly that the state of our nation is in the hands of the county sheriff."

The president of the United States, he said, "cannot tell your sheriff what to do."

In an earlier 2009 address, also posted on YouTube, Mack said: "I pray for the day that a sheriff in this country will arrest an IRS agent for trespassing or for trying, or attempting, to victimize citizens."

"It's the old Freemen days," Anderson said. "That's what we're seeing here again. And it's not just Lincoln County."

Lincoln County Detective Capt. Jim Sweet agrees that "there's an uprising of anti-government groups that's definitely connected to the election of the Obama administration."

Law enforcement agencies throughout the multi-state region, Sweet said, are "talking about the patterns. It's obviously bigger than Lincoln County."

People are afraid of losing gun rights, he said, and they're stockpiling weapons and ammunition, and they want a sheriff who will stand up to federal agents.

"It's a power thing," Anderson said. "They want the power to buck the fed and federal gun laws."

Anderson said he traveled recently to Kalispell for an "intelligence meeting" with several federal, state and local jurisdictions - including the FBI, county sheriffs and city police - to discuss "this radical response to Obama's election, and to make sure we all know what's going on."

And Sweet said he likewise met with authorities in northern Idaho to discuss the same "resurgence of the radical right. It's not something you can ignore at this point."

Certainly, Anderson said, people have the right to gather and debate and prepare, but authorities similarly have an "obligation to try to stay ahead of the game, so things don't get blown out of proportion like they did before."

Sweet believes the Eureka petitioners are likely "harmless in and of themselves," but he worries that opportunists - more dangerous elements with increasingly radical anti-government sentiments - might be attracted to the activity in Lincoln County.

"Our fear is that, once it fails, their recall petition won't be good enough for them," Sweet said. "We have people tied to the Freemen trying to take over the sheriff's office. We'd be foolish not to pay attention."

The Montana Human Rights Network has been paying attention, ever since the Freemen uprising of the mid-1990s, and interim director Travis McAdam now says "anti-government activists are trying to mobilize fear and resentment in our communities, due to the current financial crisis and a new presidential administration."

"We have repeatedly seen extremists hide behind erroneous interpretations of the Constitution and issue shallow calls to patriotism," he said. "They've given us the Montana Freemen and the Oklahoma City bombing."

McAdam criticized Mack and Stramer as radicals, and Montana towns, he said, "should not be fooled again."

Stramer insists he's no radical - just a patriot who wants honesty and openness from his government, and a return to constitutional rule.

He and others are deeply concerned "about our freedoms disappearing, and about rogue government agencies." The Independence Day rally with Mack will provide "lawful solutions," he said, grounded in a return to constitutional governance.

Trying to tie that to the recall petition - or worse, to an apparent militant uprising - is a mistake, Stramer said, warning that people shouldn't "read anything into it that isn't there at face value."

But that, in fact, is precisely the advice Anderson has for Stramer - don't read into things, and don't make too many far-flung connections, when it comes to government conspiracy theories.

Perhaps. But Stramer still wants to know what Sheriff Anderson will do if the Obama administration tries to tighten federal gun laws.

"They're all going to have some decisions to make," Stramer said.

And Anderson, for one, already has made his.

"I might not agree with these people on everything," the sheriff said, "but I would lay my badge down before I'd knock on a single door to take a gun away from a fellow Montanan."

Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 at mjamison @missoulian.com.