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"The way I feel, he mocked us and degraded us," Hofer said. "The first time I met that guy, you know what he said? `I'm not out to hurt any of the people.' And he turned around and that's what he did. Our simple way of life was not exciting enough to him. "
The King Ranch colony was paid $100,000 to participate in the production, and that money has been spent, he said.
Bertha Hofer, a mother of three children who was featured prominently in the series, said the first three episodes were accurate depictions but then producers began presenting them with storylines. She said they rejected some ideas but went along with others.
"It was just like they corrupted your mind. We just fell for it," she said.
Hofer said the elders from Canada told them they wanted the colony members to tell the truth.
But Hofer said she also feared that she would be punished after the show followed her and her daughter Claudia looking at a college in Great Falls.
She said she is fighting for a full education for her children, while the elders believe in an eighth-grade education for most colony members, she said.
"We're just waiting to see what will happen, it's just day-to-day," she said.
Colony spokeswoman Mary-Ann Kirkby said the levels of Hutterite education differ by colony and by sect. In general, she said, the elders are not against education but are concerned that young Hutterites who leave for public school may never return to the colony.
Claudia Hofer wrote in a statement released by the Hutterite colony through a spokeswoman that most of the scenes she was in were staged and scripted.
"None of them sounded bad in any way but I was totally shocked when I saw the edited version of the episodes," she wrote.
Another colony member, Wesley Hofer, said in another statement released by the colony that an episode in which he was rushed to a hospital for what was believed to be a heart attack was staged.
Collins denied creating storylines, saying that life on the colony is so foreign to a newcomer that there is no way to make up stories for them, and they wouldn't have gone along with it, anyway.
Collins also said he believes the statements from colony members disavowing the show were coerced by elders who have threatened members with excommunication if they don't write them.
John Hofer said the statements were written voluntarily. Bertha Hofer said she was not coerced to write a statement, though she said she would not speak of others' statements, including her daughter's.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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