The Idaho Attorney General's Office is being asked whether the state parks department should issue a group-camping permit to the Aryan Nations.

Without its former compound, the white supremacy group wants to conduct its annual Aryan World Congress this summer at Farragut State Park.

The camp-out in the state park and three parades planned this summer "will show the people of North Idaho that we're not going away," Shaun Winkler, staff leader of the Aryan Nations, said Wednesday.

The former Aryan compound is scheduled to be sold Feb. 13 at an auction to satisfy creditors in a bankruptcy action filed by Aryan founder Richard Butler.

Creditors include Victoria and Jason Keenan, who won a $6.3 million civil judgment against the Aryan Nations and Butler.

Winkler showed up with Butler at a court hearing Tuesday where the Aryan leader unsuccessfully attempted to delay the auction.

Then Winkler paid a $325 deposit for the use of the Nighthawk camping facility in the 4,000-acre Farragut State Park near Athol.

Winkler said he booked the site, which can accommodate 100 tents, for July 5-7 at a total cost of $900.

"I'll be paying for it myself," Winkler said.

The annual Aryan World Congress is attended by skinheads, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and Christian Identity followers who believe they are the true children of God.

The planned camp-out in Farragut is intended to coincide with an Aryan parade scheduled for July 7 in downtown Coeur d'Alene, about 30 miles south of the state park, Winkler said.

The city of Coeur d'Alene has issued a permit for the parade, Winkler said.

The Aryan Nations also has applied for a parade permit on April 21 in Sandpoint. City officials there are processing the "special event request form." Winkler said the group also plans a parade in Rathdrum, but hasn't obtained a permit for that event.

Bryan Rowder, manager of Farragut State Park, confirmed Wednesday that he had accepted the deposit from Winkler but forwarded the application to regional park boss Rick Cummins in Coeur d'Alene.

Rowder said he saw no reason to deny the camping permit but told Winkler that the group couldn't conduct its ritual cross burning because of fire restrictions in the park.

Cummins forwarded the Aryan application to Bill Dokken, deputy director for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation.

Cummins then asked the state attorney general to render a legal opinion about renting a state park campsite to a racist organization.

"Our director, Yvonne Ferrell, is aware of this, too," Rowder said.

Ferrell and Dokken couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday at the state park headquarters in Boise.

In Sandpoint, city officials are asking Winkler to identify one of three possible routes for the proposed Aryan Nations parade there. Two of the routes include use of a state highway in downtown Sandpoint.

If Winkler chooses one of those routes, he'll also need permission from the Idaho Transportation Department.

Meanwhile, the city doesn't yet have an ordinance for granting parade permits on Sandpoint's streets.

Sandpoint only recently won jurisdiction over city streets in a lawsuit against the Sandpoint Independent Highway District.

The draft ordinance is in the process of being written, City Clerk Helen Newton said.

While it's too soon to say whether the parade permit will be granted, it's unlikely that the city will allow parade participants to carry Mace or "other forms of legal self-defense," as Winkler requested.

"That's what the police are here for," Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood said.