"All articles by Lisa Marie Stahl originally appeared in the Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Montana 1999-2002."

In 1969, Ann-Marie’s parents did the unthinkable, leaving a Hutterite colony with their seven children to start a new life. Overnight, the family was thrust into a society they did not understand and did not understand them in this powerful story of understanding how our beginnings often define us. “Your mother and father are running away," said a voice piercing the warm air. I froze and turned toward home. To a Hutterite, nothing is more shameful than that word.” When Ann-Marie's parents decided to leave their Hutterite colony in Canada with their seven children in tow, it was a complete shock. Overnight, the family was thrust into a society they did not understand, and which knew little of their unique culture. The transition was overwhelming. Desperate to be accepted, ten-year-old Ann-Marie was forced to deny her heritage in order to fit in with her peers. I Am Hutterite chronicles Ann-Marie's quest to reinvent herself as she comes to terms with the painful circumstances that led her family to leave community life. Before she left the colony, Ann-Marie had never tasted macaroni and cheese or ridden a bike. She had never heard of Walt Disney or rock-and-roll. With great humor, she describes how she adapted to popular culture, and with raw honesty, her family's deep sense of loss for their community. Winner of the 2007 Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-fiction Unveils the rich history and traditions of the Hutterite people’s extraordinary way of life Includes a glossary of Hutterite words and phrases, family photos, and a family tree In this insightful memoir, venture into the hidden heart of the little-known Hutterite colony. Rich with memorable characters and vivid descriptions, this ground-breaking narrative shines a light on intolerance, illuminating the simple truth that beneath every human exterior beats a heart longing for understanding and acceptance.

The highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning national bestseller, I Am Hutterite In I Am Hutterite, Kirkby took her readers on a fascinating journey inside a Hutterite colony in Manitoba, where she grew up. Known as Canada’s forgotten people, Hutterites live in higher numbers in Canada than anywhere else in the world. Drawing back the curtains on this mysterious and extraordinary way of life, Kirkby enchanted the public with a vivid portrait of her people, rich in detail and memorable characters. Could you go back? was the enduring request from her readers, hungry for more. Now in Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen, Kirkby returns to her roots and into the heart of the community and the life she was born into. She traveled from colony to colony for more than two years, working with the women in their kitchens: cooking, baking, plucking ducks, and gossiping. Kirkby reveals intimate details of the community and experiences what her life would have been like if her family hadn’t left the colony when she was a young girl. Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen is a candid snapshot of present-day Hutterite life, unraveling the inner workings of this closed society and unveiling the rituals, traditions, and food of her culture through the lens of the community kitchen. Kirkby witnesses the rites of passage from cradle to grave: births, romantic entanglements, marriage ceremonies, sacred holidays, and other celebrations. Through it all, she rediscovers what she has always known—that it is the Hutterite women who are the soul of their community.

"The Hutterites" is an ambitious undertaking for a young man who ran away from a Hutterite colony in 1983 and became successful as a writer and illustrator of classic books which document his Hutterite childhood (Born Hutterite and Dance Like a Poor Man). In his latest undertaking, years in the making, Hofer has taken on nothing less than a complete and straightforward account of the Hutterite experience, an explanation of its religious basis and the source of its communal life, the life cycles from birth to death and nearly 500 years of history of this most successful of the anabaptist Christian sects, right up to present-day schisms and struggles to survive into the 21st Century. What makes "The Hutterites: Lives and Images of a Communal People" unique among books dealing with Hutterites is the author's insightful and equitable perspective on his subject. Unlike other Hutterite who have left the "ark of communal life, Hofer has no bones to pick, no great cause to espouse. While the book is peppered with engaging anecdotes of his Hutterite upbringing, he describes the Hutterite experience with the objectivity and dispassion worthy of a professional historian or sociologist -- but in plain language stripped of jargon and pretense. His accessibility to the Hutterite communities and to others who have left the colonies has given him a wealth of stories and examples which help to make the Hutterite experience vivid and engaging. A reader comes to know not just about the Hutterites but also what it is like to be a Hutterite. The work is studded with 140 photographs, a valuable visual record in itself. While scholars will treasure this work for both its breadth and its detail, casualobservers of Hutterite life will find it both an easy and an illuminating read. Hofer has written for the common reader who is curious about the people whose dress and language have set them apart from the multitude of other cultures, not just for professors or for other disaffected Hutterites. He pierces the myth and misconceptions that have arisen about the communal people and builds a bridge of understanding that may be crossed by anyone conscious of our common humanity. In doing so, he has created that rare book that not only informs, but serves the cause of goodness.

The writing of this book is for several reasons: one of which is an attempt to clarify to young Hutterites and also non-Hutterites how different we lived seventy-five years ago. I had an eventful childhood, which the readers may compare with their own. To compile a detailed account of colony life and history would be an extensive undertaking. So the reader will have to be content with the few details I've presented which are relevant to my growing-up experience. Most events which include other people are mentioned, because they are somehow intertwined in my experience. Also, I want to bring the Hutterites closer to an intense awareness that all is not well and the solution is not in buying more land or buildings more livestock and poultry barns. There are needs which can only be met by a closer walk with God. Do I want to denounce colony life? No! But I have brought attention to some dangerous bumps in the road, which needs to be addressed in order to reverse the existing spiral. If the needed improvements are ignored, the results are predictable. If a conscious effort is not made to remedy the existing condition with scriptural guidelines, the results are predictable.

Paul Tschetter Was a Leading Figure In Late Nineteenth-Century Hutterite history, the "Hutterite Joshua," who convinced 1,250 Hutterites to leave Russia in the 1870s and resettle in Dakota Territory. Tschetter's life elucidates the way that an immigrant community fought for survival in a North American environment that stressed assimilation to radically different political, economic, cultural, and religious values. Janzen provides an in-depth narrative and analysis of Tschetter's influence based on diaries, sermons, hymns, interviews, and other primary materials. "I welcome this long-overdue book on Paul Tschetter. Rod Janzen is to be commended for continuing to preserve the Prairieleut heritage. Paul Tschetter provided much needed leadership in a very transitional period of Hutterian history."---Tony Waldner, Forest River Hutterite Colony "Much has been written on the communal Hutterites, but Rod Janzen is one of the very few scholars who have tracked the history of the more numerous Prairieleut, or noncommunal Hutterites. Spotlighting the pivotal Prairieleut leader Paul Tschetter is a giant step forward in preserving the history of the `other' Hutterites."---Timothy Miller, University of Kansas "Janzen writes the way history ought to be written ... The author builds upon, and then goes far beyond all previous studies---in content, and especially in his solid interpretation and historical analysis where socioreligious perspectives are not shortchanged."---Leonard Gross, author of the Golden Years of the Hutterites "The Tschetter family is grateful for Dr. Janzen's thoughtful biography."---Wesley G. Tschetter, South Dakota State University "Paul Tschetter's biography---so well-written by the careful and detailed research of Rod Janzen---preserves as a lasting tribute the story of a wonderful and many-sided man and the remarkable community of the Prairieleut people in the context of a forever vanished society and era."---Max Stanton, Brigham Young University, Hawaii