Someone giving comment at a city council meeting this week mentioned that MT highway troopers have the numbers "3-7-77" on their badges, the code that 19th century vigilantes used to warn people to get out of town or be killed. I never knew this and so I had to look it up!

It's true, MT Highway patrol added "3-7-77" to their patches (not badges, my mistake) in 1956. According to their association website it's to honor "the first men in the Montana Territory who organized for the safety and welfare of the people." Hmmmm....

A 1956 article on the change also praises the vigilantes. The MTHP chief who designed the patch himself, said in 1968: "This was the first group of citizens to organize as a body to uphold the laws of this state." Were these vigilantes as great as the cops make them out to be?

(Spoiler: no)

Almost 40 years before MTHP chief Alex Stephenson decided to honor the vigilantes on his dept's official uniform, vigilantes lynched union organizer and Montana hero Frank Little in Butte. They left a note on his mutilated body featuring, you guessed it, the vigilante code.

Little wasn't a "robber." He was helping miners organize for better working conditions. No one was ever prosecuted for his murder, but suspects had ties to the mining company. By this point, "3-7-77" was considered old, so maybe it was co-opted by bad corporate guys? Not so fast!

"3-7-77" was ALWAYS a number of intimidation, not justice. And despite this idea that they only targeted murders and thieves that preyed on innocent (white) people, they targeted anyone considered "undesirable." Check out this 1881 newspaper clipping.

This 1882 clipping:

This 1885 clipping:

Vigilantes didn't keep peace, they terrorized and murdered people. Even those already in police custody. This great piece about MT's romanticization of vigilantes mentions Ah Chow, a Chinese American Helena resident who was lynched in 1870. https://www.hcn.org/issues/51.11/history-montanas-vigilante-obsession-obscures-the-truth

Celebrations of MT vigilantes often obscure that they inflicted terror on Montanans, and non-white Montanans especially.

As the 1881 newspaper clipping hints, anti-Asian racism was particularly rampant in this time. And it seems like MT has never really reckoned with that history meaningfully. Campgrounds named "Chinaman" are only now being changed in Helena. Meanwhile: https://twitter.com/annehelen/status/1278881311558471681?s=20

There's sooooooo much more history of vigilante violence and racism in MT that someone smarter and more knowledgable than me could get into here. My point is "3-7-77" has, in my opinion, a pretty scary legacy, but it's treated like a neutral part of the state's history.

Hell, even @BigSkyBrewing added it to its logo to make it look more Montana-y. Most people don't know the history. I didn't!

So WHY does the MTHP have the number on its official patches? Because policing has always been rooted in terror, violence, and racism and we live in a settler colonialist nation! It's all out there in the open!

If you learned anything from this thread and have some $$ to spare, please donate to the MT BIPOC Mutual Aid fund. Right now, they are helping housing insecure folks stay in their homes. Indigenous people SHOULD NOT be homeless ON THEIR OWN LAND.