The Dariusleut, also Dariusleit, are a branch of the

Hutterite Hutterites (german: link=no, Hutterer), also called Hutterian Brethren (German: ), are a communal ethnoreligious branch of Anabaptists, who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the early 16th centu ...

s that emerged in 1860.

History

Russian Empire

In 1859, Michael Waldner and Jakob Hofer (1830–1900) successfully reestablished a community of goods among some Hutterites in Hutterdorf, Ukraine, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

. This group was named Schmiedeleut. In 1860, another group of Hutterites did the same under the leadership of Darius Walter (1835–1903) also in Hutterdorf, Ukraine, but on the opposite side of the village. This group was called Dariusleut, after the first name of its leader.

America

The Dariusleut left their homes in the Ukraine in June 1874 together with the Schmiedeleut. During the first winter, the Dariusleut lived on government grounds at Silver Lake, South Dakota. In 1875, they founded their first colony on American soil, Wolf Creek Hutterite Colony in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

, the mother colony of the Dariusleut. Shortly after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, two Hutterite

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to objec ...

Joseph and Michael Hofer Joseph and Michael Hofer were brothers who died from mistreatment at the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth in 1918. The pair, who were Hutterites from South Dakota, were among four conscientious objectors from their Christian co ...

, died in an American prison. This and growing

anti-German sentiment Anti-German sentiment (also known as Anti-Germanism, Germanophobia or Teutophobia) is opposition to or fear of Germany, its inhabitants, its culture, or its language. Its opposite is Germanophilia. Anti-German sentiment largely began wit ...

caused the emigration of all six Dariusleut colonies to

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

, Canada, in the following years. In the 1930s, the Schmiedeleut started to form new colonies in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, thus returning to the United States. In 1950, there were 25 Schmiedeleut colonies in Alberta and four in Montana.

Japan

Owa Hutterite Colony The Christian Community of New Hutterian Brethren at () was a Hutterite colony of the Dariusleut branch in Japan. It was located near village in Nasu District, Tochigi. It existed from 1972 to the end of 2019. The members of the colony were eth ...

, a Hutterite colony of

ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established fo ...

Japanese that is affiliated with the Dariusleut, was founded in 1972.Lehr, John C.: ''Owa: a Dariusleut Hutterite colony in Japan'' in Prairie Perspectives: Geographical Essays (Vol: 13), Winnipeg 2010, page 32

References

External links