On polygamy, a crackdown and a bid for legitimacy
The practice of plural marriage comes under scrutiny as an internal struggle flares up in sect on Utah-Arizona border.
By Katharine Biele | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

SALT LAKE CITY - America's often-isolated believers in polygamy are coming into the public eye - confronted by a new crackdown even as some civil rights advocates contend that plural marriage should be legitimized.

The most sensational of the recent incidents has come in the small, tight-lipped community of Colorado City, Ariz. Recently, a power struggle has emerged within the polygamy-oriented sect that dominates the town. Some men have been excommunicated and their wives and children been "reassigned" to other men.

The turmoil there - apparently a bid by the church leader to consolidate his control of the community - comes as America's estimated 100,000 polygamists are in the spotlight on other fronts