The Hat That Decides Who Leaves a Hutterite Colony

Every few decades a Hutterite colony gets too big, and it cuts itself in half. Every family packs everything they own into crates — and only then is a lot drawn to decide which half leaves. Nobody knows beforehand. Not the minister. Not the manager. Nobody. My name is Andreas Wurz. I keep the books on a colony in southern Alberta, and I have sat on the council that does this three times. In this video: why a new colony costs more than twelve million dollars before a single nail is driven, how you divide a living community so that both halves can run a farm by the first morning, what is actually in that hat and where the practice comes from — and who pays for all of it. Some of that bill is ours. Some of it, I have come to think, is paid by our neighbours, and they never agreed to it. SOURCES · Hutterites.org — daughter colonies; election of ministers and the use of the lot · Acts 1:23–26 — the casting of lots for Matthias · Peaceful Societies (UNC Greensboro) — Hutterite land expansion in Glacier County, Montana: a 20,000-acre purchase, 77,000+ acres held, over 14% of county cropland, colony bids of $550–650/acre against local bids of $300–400 · Hutterite population census 2024 — 58,392 people, 544 colonies If you find an error, put it in the comments and I will pin the correction. I would rather be right than look right.