I know the scam they were running in their community near Anchor Point. Individual members would “give” all of their income to the church. No income, no income taxes. Also makes them eligible for every welfare program out there because: no income. The church buys them new Subaru cars, Quads, snow machines, commercial fishing boats, homes, etc. They don’t maintain most of their equipment, run it into the ground, and then try to sell it to unsuspecting Gentiles. By the time I left Alaska in 2002 that community had split and some members moved north to Willow to start a new scam. Send them back to Mother Russia and good riddance!
Thanks for your on the ground observations about the Old Believers in Alaska.
I hadn’t heard this during any of my years of commercial fishing in Alaska.
These certainly aren’t the Amish of the USA. They are the communists and liberals of the US, with some Mexican illegals thrown in.