SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The outspoken co-founder of Return to the Land, a relatively new whites-only group based in northern Arkansas, said the group could be expanding to the Springfield, Missouri, area. 

Eric Orwoll, co-founder of Return to the Land (RTTL), told Ozarks First a group of people are considering developing an RTTL community near Springfield. 

According to RTTL’s website, RTTL is a private member association exclusively made for white people. Jewish people are also barred from membership. Members are vetted through an application process based on European ancestry.

“We seek to create a decentralized movement, formed of various individuals and societies returning to the land,” RTL’s website says. “We will promote strong families with common ancestry and raise the next generation in an environment that reflects our traditional values.”

The group’s homebase land association is based on 160 acres in northern Arkansas and has been in development since 2023. Orwoll said the draw to northern Arkansas was its “affordable land, natural beauty, abundant water resources and a conservative, predominantly white population.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a statement on X earlier this month saying this northern Arkansas development not only revives “discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation” — it should also be illegal under the Arkansas Fair Housing Act, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, as well as other federal and state civil rights laws.

“We urge the Arkansas Fair Housing Commission, local elected officials, and law enforcement to act swiftly to ensure that Northeast Arkansas remains a welcome and inclusive community, not a refuge for intolerance and exclusion,” said Lindsay Baach Friedmann, regional director of the ADL South Central, in the X statement.

Orwoll told Ozarks First that RTTL is a private association that doesn’t sell real estate.

“The attorneys we’ve consulted believe what we’re doing is legal,” Orwoll said. “Americans have the right to freely associate and form intentional communities on whatever basis they choose.”

Orwoll said he hopes to help found RTTL communities in all 50 states.

“We want to ensure that White Americans who value their ancestry will have the ability to live among like-minded people in the future if they choose to do so, regardless of demographic changes,” Orwoll said. “We’d like for a network of communities, community centers and recreational areas to be available to our members that affords them opportunities to celebrate their heritage with their folk.”

Orwoll said RTTL plans to facilitate homeschool groups, healthcare networks, legal advocacy groups and much more.

“Whites should have the ability to live among their own people if that’s what they want to do, and mass immigration is quickly making that nearly impossible in many Western nations,” Orwoll said. “If individuals decide to live in multi-racial communities, then they should be allowed to do so, but we don’t want racial forced on us in every aspect of life.”

Orwoll noted there is a group that’s considering developing an RTTL community near Springfield.

“We’re glad to facilitate communities in Missouri and think it’s a great state,” he said.

The ADL labeled the group as part of “a growing trend in white separatist organizing,” according to an RTTL press release. In the release, Orwoll contends RTTL’s criteria reflect “shared ancestral values,” not hatred or violence.