Coming home from school, her daughter had been harassed for being American Indian. It's something Plummer-Alvarez, an Assiniboine Sioux from the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, sees all too frequently in her work with the Cherish Our Indian Children organization.

Plummer-Alvarez spoke out against racism and intolerance at a "Not in Our Town" community rally Thursday night at Flathead Valley Community College. People at the meeting ranged from brokers to teachers, lawyers to loggers.

About 150 people packed into the college's cafeteria and listened to short presentations from members of a wide cross-section of the community, from government leaders to law enforcement and high school students.

The community gathering was called in response to what organizers perceive as a growing hate movement in the Flathead Valley ‹ most notably the recent discovery of Project 7, an anti-government faction that allegedly had a list of local government officials it sought to assassinate.

Speakers at the meeting gave perspectives on racism or intolerance. Kalispell lawyer Don Murray cited the Constitution's protection of free speech. Whitefish High School student Amy Searles talked about the need for teen-agers learning to love themselves first ‹ then others.

Searles said it's important for parents to help their children learn self worth. "We know more about the world around us than we do ourselves," she said.

Plummer-Alvarez's voice shook as she described the verbal torture that her children have endured at schools in the Flathead Valley, and the racism that her clients at the Cherish Our Indian Children suffer every day. She talked about American Indian women who can't get quality medical care or who are turned down for prescriptions, or men who are discriminated against because they choose to wear their hair long.

Tanya Gersh, representing the Flathead Valley Jewish community, gave a quick introduction to Judaism, explaining briefly the Torah, kosher food and the Sabbath.

"So there it is," she told the crowd, "you've just completed Judaism 101. Now tell me, what is there to hate about that?" (She did mention that the Flathead Valley is a great place for Jewish families and that only isolated incidents of anti-Semitism have occurred.)

However, it was a rash of anti-Semitism in Billings that originally prompted the "Not in Our Town" television show on the Public Broadcasting Service. The documentary covered a Ku Klux Klan plot that sought to organize against Jews, and how the community rallied against it, ultimately shutting it down.

Kalispell meeting organizer Brenda Kitterman said she was harassed after she wrote a letter to the editor decrying racism in the Flathead Valley. She had property damaged and had her life threatened as a result of the letter.

She initially chose flight, then decided to fight, and organized Thursday's meeting with solid community support.

"It's been a tough year," she said, which prompted an ovation from the crowd.

To fight intolerance or bigotry, organizers suggest: Act ‹ Apathy will be interpreted as acceptance; Unite ‹ Organize a group of allies from school, church or clubs; Speak up ‹ You, too, have First Amendment rights; Teach tolerance ‹ bias is learned early, and at home.

Plummer-Alvarez said she hopes that someday she won't have to see her children cry as a result of racial intolerance or bigotry. "I don't my children to be casualties," she said. "I want them to have a voice. I don't want them to cry."

For more information on the Joining Hands Against Hate organization, call organizer Brenda Kitterman at 755-9543. On the Net: www.teachingtolerance.org.

Reporter Dave Reese may be reached at 758-4438 or via e-mail at dreese@dailyinterlake.com