ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – A group reportedly exploring southern Missouri for expansion that received pushback from the community and leaders, now said it’s considering the St. Louis area.

It’s a group called Return to the Land. This whites-only private membership association has recently created national headlines with its homestead settlement in Arkansas that describes itself as a place for people of European heritage to preserve traditions and culture. It doesn’t allow people of color or Jews.

“We are looking to do something closer to the eastern side of Missouri, closer to a big airport, maybe not a full-time residence community. We’d like to create communities for white Americans to celebrate their unique heritage and preserve their culture, and it could be communities like we’ve formed here. It could be campgrounds or just community centers,” said Return to the Land President Eric Orwoll. “So, we’re looking to do one of those things, probably about an hour from St. Louis.”

Speaking with First Alert 4’s Springfield, Mo. sister station KY3, Orwoll said the group doesn’t own any land in the St. Louis area and is just beginning to look. Orwoll said it’s looking for someplace centrally located in the U.S. That distance covers a significant area around the St. Louis area. Orwoll said the group is more interested in undeveloped land than moving to urban or suburban areas.

First Alert 4 reached out to the group to see if a more precise area is being explored, but hasn’t heard back.

At the end of last month, Springfield leaders and community members said the group wasn’t welcome in the community after it was reported it was exploring a new settlement in the area.

Orwoll said, “We think that race is a part of our identity, but it’s not racist to believe that. If I hated other groups or wanted to oppress other groups, then I would say I was racist, but we don’t wish harm on any other group. We think that all other groups should have the same right to do what we’re doing on their own. If people want to mix their communities together and live in an integrated way, interracially, I don’t object to that and don’t want to stop that.”

According to the group’s website, the first settlement was formed in Arkansas in 2023, building a homestead on undeveloped land. It’s a private membership association that requires people to apply. Orwoll said it has a few dozen people living on the settlement and an online community.

Orwoll said, “We’re an intentional community, formed around our own values, and there are other intentional communities, whether Jewish or Black or whatever religious denomination, and that’s the freedom of American citizens.”

The group has since launched a second settlement in Arkansas.

On learning of the group’s intent to explore the St. Louis region, First Alert 4 reached out to St. Louis City NAACP President Adolphus Pruitt. He said he doesn’t think this is something people will want in their communities.

“Some might not say much, but I think counties like St. Charles and other counties that have a diverse population, I think they would voice their concern,” said Pruitt.

He also questions whether, under current Missouri laws, the state constitution and federal laws, this is fully legal.

Pruitt said, “I think it’s more cult like than anything else, so I don’t let it bother me that much to be honest about it. My only concern is if and when such an animal happens, if it in any way violates any Missouri statutes, Missouri laws, if it violates the U.S. Constitution, if it decriminates in any way, that is illegal, that those folks with the authority to address it do it and do it swiftly, not harshly but intentionally.”

Pruitt also pushed back on communities being able to be fully exclusionary.

“There’s no community that says only Black people can live here. There’s no community that says only Jewish people can live here. I don’t think you could find one Black community where they would say they don’t want any white people in our town or we don’t want any Jews in our town,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt said he doesn’t think there’s a strong movement to form such communities, and it remains important to address discrimination.

He said, “Anybody who supports the notion of any kind of discrimination, racial, religious, gender, anybody who supports any that, I would simply tell them that’s what happens when the shoe is on the other foot. If people can organize and do it against one faction of the community, people are going to organize and do it against another. It is extremely important that we address any form of bias and discrimination.”

Copyright 2025 KMOV. All rights reserved.