This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the dark underbelly of Farmington.
The 1974 Indian Rolling case is a disturbing glimpse into the racism belying Farmington. It also set off a civil rights movement that has resounding effects today. You should pick up a copy of The Broken Circle to understand how racial tensions almost always erupt into violence.
In spring of 1974, three white high school students kidnapped Benjamin Benally, John Harvey, and David Ignacio, all Native American, and took them out to a mesa near Farmington. There, they beat the mens’ heads and chests in with large rocks. They then proceeded to light off firecrackers on their bodies and burn off their genitals. The teenagers were arrested and convicted to reform school. Since two of the teens were 16 and one was 15, they only served a few years for their heinous acts. As adults, they were free to live their lives, unlike the victims whose lives they had cruelly taken.
While the insidious 1974 incident is what gave rise to public awareness about Indian rolling, it had been going on for much longer before. The practice of Indian rolling refers to finding a drunk Native American, kidnapping them, and taking them out to the mesa or desert to be beaten and possibly raped. Most of these Native Americans were beaten and left on the mesa to find their own way home while brutally injured.
Apparently, Farmington teenagers also liked to cut off fingers from passed-out Navajo and Apache men and display them in their lockers at school. Going to the “Indian part of town” and assaulting and robbing vulnerable Native Americans – namely, the elderly and the drunk – were favorite pastimes of Farmington High School’s white students. The 1974 triple homicide was merely a part of a much larger and more insidious racist culture pervasive in Farmington.
The Native American murders and subsequent slaps on the wrist for the white murderers set off a historical civil rights movement in the Farmington area. Native Americans were sick of being marginalized, abused, and murdered with impunity. They decided to fight back. Protesters came into Farmington, bearing signs, organized by the American Indian Movement. While the protests were peaceful, they were not afraid to become very vocal when their protest permit was denied after the three murderers were sentenced to reform school.
Farmington’s national image was thus tainted. The Civil Rights Commission came to Farmington and released a disturbing report on the race relations in 1974. They demanded that Farmington’s elected officials take cultural sensitivity training and work on hiring more Native Americans into positions of power, such as in the police force. The courts were ordered to offer Navajo interpreters.
The Civil Rights Commission returned again in 2004 to see how things had fared over 30 years. They found mild improvement, but ultimately, they released another gloomy report. One of their findings was that healthcare was at a “crisis stage,” as Native American patients are often turned away from the hospital in Farmington and Native Americans do not receive the same healthcare as white people. They also noted low numbers of Native Americans in positions of power, such as city government and the Farmington police force.
Duane Chili Yazzie at the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation states that things have improved. He notes most people in Farmington are not racist. The policies have improved and racial tensions have eased. But there are still problems. He believes that alcoholism is a huge reason Native Americans are discriminated against now, but there are roots to the alcoholism which come from evil behavior by Catholic missionaries in the settlement days. In the 15th century, the Catholic church would send edicts from Spain for Spanish missionaries to kill and enslave Native Americans. The violence and disrespect of Native Americans has continued, just in subtler ways.
And the violence continues. You already read about Robert Fry and Leslie Engh’s sickening killing spree, which closely resembles the Indian rolling incident of 1974. Paul Napoleon and many of the other cases highlighted in part 1 (link) are examples of Native American who were murdered in New Mexico with impunity. On June 4, 2016, three white men beat a Navajo man named William Blackie nearly to death. He survived and the men were charged with committing a hate crime. Shortly after, on June 10, 2016, a white cop shot and killed a Navajo man named Clint John, who was beating his girlfriend and resisting police. Again in 2023, police went to the wrong address in response to a domestic violence call and the door was answered by a 52-year-old man named Robert Dotson who was bearing a shotgun. Police shot him in what they claim is a justified use of deadly force.
As a result, people began to ask if the evil was returning, or if it had even left to begin with. Members of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation called for a protest and a boycott of Farmington businesses in time to disrupt their Fourth of July parade. This certainly got the town’s attention. But ultimately, no boycott happened.
A boycott could be disastrous. Despite the chokehold white people have on the town, Farmington is a border town, meaning that its economy is largely supported by Native Americans from the nearby Navajo Nation. Native Americans comprise most of the shoppers, as they do not have access to many stores on the reservation. Being victims of racist policies in the same town they economically support is not fair, but it poises the Navajo Nation perfectly to use boycotts and protests to essentially cripple Farmington until policy is changed for the better. Fear of hurting the Navajo people who run businesses or work with white people in business in Farmington prevents the tribes from enacting these powerful boycotts. If they found a way to coordinate boycotts, though, they could potentially starve the town into giving them more respect.
But fixing this issue should not be the burden of the victims. Volunteers (including from white cultures) should help this change happen by making supplies and food more available to people living in distant, remote parts of the rez with poor access to infrastructure and commodities. White people should take it upon themselves to become more culturally sensitive and more tolerant.
They should also stop being defensive and stop claiming they’re not racist. Instead of being defensive and claiming things are hunky dory now, white people need to become more mindful of the racist history underlying Farmington and other border towns. Instead of buying into harmful stereotypes that Native Americans are just drunks, they should be respected and treated with dignity and individualism. White people should work with tribes to boycott and protest unfair policy, and they should call out even subtle racism. Even something as simple as calling out your racist uncle or racist friend for making slurs against Native Americans, and raising awareness of racial tensions in border towns, can help.
Unfortunately, many people feel like things are never going to change. Hazel James is the San Juan Collaborative for Health Equity coordinator and he saw racism firsthand during the Covid pandemic just a few years ago. As Navajo tribal members often had highest numbers in the country, they were not welcome in Farmington businesses, despite needing food and other supplies just as much as before the pandemic. They also could not access healthcare like others, leading to poorer outcomes in Covid for tribal members.
Then there is the fearsome epidemic of indigenous women being murdered or going missing. The police often do not give these cases the attention they deserve. They delay or altogether ignore missing persons reports, blaming jurisdictional conflict between the state, county, and tribal federal police. The truth is that all New Mexico police forces need to prioritize streamlining a way to work together so that they can bring early attention to missing women and children from the rez, enabling some of them to be found more quickly, and so that they coordinate efforts on solving murder cases on the rez.
Farmington relies on the nearby Navajo Nation for its economy, yet racial relations continue to be problematic. Native Americans continue to be treated as second-class citizens by the police, who like to harass and even beat drunk Native Americans in the town. This treatment will only trigger more violence, such as the recent mass shooting by Beau Wilson, a white teenager in Farmington. White people have a responsibility to change this, even if the issue doesn’t affect them. We all share this land now so let’s actually share it.
https://www2.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr12f223.pdf
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/22/us/new-mexico-farmington-police-attorney-statement/index.html
https://exhibits.stanford.edu/fitch/browse/new-mexico-navajo-protest-1974?page=3
https://indianz.com/News/archive/001843.asp