ShareThisSAN ANGELO, Texas -- For four years Dan Barlow held his tongue, uttering not a word of explanation or anger about being sent away from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.Now, he is coming to the polygamous sect's defense.With many of his grandchildren in state custody in Texas, Barlow is reaching out to legislative and congressional contacts for help lodging a civil rights complaint with the federal government or the United Nations."I'm not asking them to champion our cause for us, but just to open the door," he said.Barlow was exiled from the FLDS church in January 2004, six months after he helped organize a community commemoration of the 1953 Short Creek raid.The commemoration upset sect president Warren S. Jeffs, who had a monument to the raid destroyed and a new museum exhibit closed.Barlow, then the well-liked mayor of Colorado City, Ariz., and some of his brothers were among the 21 men kicked out of the church months later by Jeffs.He left quietly and without his family, moving to nearby St. George. He refused interviews. He minded his own business.Events in Texas changed that. On April 3, Texas Child Protective Services raided the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, owned by the sect, and took 437 children into custody. Tom Green County District Judge Barbara Walther agreed with the state, which argued the children were at risk of sexual and emotional abuse because of a culture that promotes polygamy and underage marriage of teenage girls."I can't sit quiet," Barlow said. "I don't know of any time or place where government has so abused the rights of people."Barlow is the son of John Y. Barlow, one of the founders of the Short Creek community, now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.Dan Barlow was 20 when Arizona authorities attempted to "eradicate" polygamy from its northern border 55 years ago. He was married and the father of a 10-day-old daughter.Residents of Short Creek got advance notice of the government plans and set up lookouts. Barlow was one of the young men who took up a post on Berry Knoll.As a 100-vehicle convoy of law officers, government workers and news media made its way to Short Creek in the early hours of July 26, 1953, Barlow ran to town and alerted residents.They gathered in the schoolyard and were singing "God Bless America" when law officers arrived.Barlow's wife and daughter were among the 263 women and children taken to Phoenix and placed in foster homes. Unlike what Texas has done, Arizona allowed the mothers to stay with their children.It was two and a half years later that Barlow was reunited with his family, after an Arizona Superior Court ruled authorities had violated the community's due process rights."That is what is happening right now," Barlow said. "Due process was totally ignored as they went into the ranch there."By 1956, all the women and children had come home to Short Creek. An insularity set in that persists to the present day.Barlow said he has been able to speak with his family on and off over the years but never felt it appropriate to discuss events that led to his ouster from the sect -- and still doesn't."I just didn't feel like it was the right thing to do," he said."Now I feel like it is the right thing to step out and be heard on these civil rights issues and civil liberties issues."We're talking about civil rights in Tibet, in Pakistan. What about civil rights in Texas?" he said Monday.Barlow said he fears what might happen to his grandchildren while they are in the Texas child welfare system, pointing to reports circulating around the Internet about its shortcomings.Barlow said he was contacted by several of his sons who live in Texas and asked if they could list him as an appropriate relative to take their children."I said, 'Yes'," Barlow said."It breaks our hearts to see the state of Texas take such a position on such a flimsy basis and without finding out the truth," Barlow said. "I'm just trying to take a position of fairness, propriety and freedom."(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Grandfather recalls 1953 raid on polygamist sect
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