'Remembering 1974: The Racism in Farmington Never Ended' Live on Saturday

'Remembering 1974: The Racism in Farmington Never Ended'

by Brenda Norrell, Censored News

Watch on YouTube

Live: Chili Yazzie thanked everyone for coming today to honor the victims and their families of Dine' tortured and murdered in the bordertown of Farmington, New Mexico.

Lunch is being served, as the live broadcast ends. Workshops are planned for the afternoon, and tents are set up outside as healing centers, at the Totah Theater in downtown Farmington, now, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.

The Keeswood family, the Sun Eagle Singers, is now singing an honor song, "for everyone to heal today."

Remembering and honoring Dodge Benally, 34, John Earl Harvey, 39, and David Ignacio, 52, tortured and murdered by white teenagers in the Chokecherry Massacres in 1974.

Live

Chile Yazzie is sharing photos from the marches of 1974.

Lucy Keeswood is shown with Mary Johnson, wife of Fred Johnson, the Shiprock councilman who died young in this fight for justice, in a suspicious plane crash. Chili said Fred was "one of our greatest modern time Dine' leaders."John Redhouse said that during the organizing, Lucy Keeswood "electrified the audience. She was a natural leader."

AIM's Larry Anderson, speaking in Hogback, on a caravan from Arizona headed to the marches in Farmington. John Redhouse said Larry was among the great leaders of the movement in Farmington in 1974.

"This is the main man, no explanation needed," Chili said during the applause for John Redhouse. John co-founded the Coalition of Navajo Liberation, leading the resistance marches in Farmington in 1974.

"These are our grandmothers, shimá sani', our Matriarchs, leading one of the marches," Chili said.

Chili Yazzie said, "This guy in the white shirt is me. As you can see, I'm slamming away on the drum, singing the AIM song with my right arm. I can say that I have been a victim of white racial violence. In June 27, 1978, I picked up a hitch-hiker in Shiprock on the hill right out here, outside of Farmington. He had a poncho on so I never knew what was going on. He shot me right up here, on the top of the hill, he took my arm off, the first bullet hit the big bone. He shot me again down below, it went all the way through, 45 magnum, two times, the Earth Mother was kind to me, Great Creator was kind to me that I could be here with you today."

"Here's a good one," Chili said, "'It says, 'Farmington is on Indian land.' That's the truth. All these communities -- Farmington, Aztec, Bloomfield -- they are on stolen land."

Chili remembered the grassroots Dine' that came out and marched, and those who faced off with the police in Farmington.

"They were facing off with Farmington police that day," Chili said. "They confronted the modern calvary," he said, of the Seventh Calvary on horseback in the parade. "They even threw tear gas at the people."  (The Coalition for Navajo Liberation blocked a sheriff's car in the San Juan County Sheriff's Posse Parade in the summer of 1974. The Coalition demanded that the Calvary unit on horseback be removed from the parade. Tear gas and brutal arrests of Navajos followed, which John Redhouse writes about.)

"The mighty warriors," Chili Yazzie said.

Chili described how John Dulles of Denver came to Farmington as director of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission as the Civil Rights Commission documented the hate crimes. "These white men had good hearts, and they really helped us at that time." Chili said, "They told Farmington: You are hurting these people, stop it!"

Chili also recognized Cheryl Redhorse Bennett, Dine' author of the book, "Our Fight Has Just Begun: Hate Crimes and Justice in Native America," named after this photo. Cheryl's book describes the hate crimes and murders in Farmington. Cheryl, in the audience, was honored with applause. Chili said, "She did extensive research, she did a good job."

Speaking now: John Redhouse, Dine'

John Redhouse, co-founder of the Coalition of Navajo Liberation, said Indian killing here goes back to the 1870's, when white settlers moved into the area from the north, after dispossessing the Utes, Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute, of their gold, and put them on tiny reservations, in the 1870's and the killings began.

"They already had a history of Indian killing and stealing Indian land."

Navajos were already living here in the middle San Juan River Valley. Navajos hid out here, and never went to Fort Sumner, Bosque Redondo. They were still here, they had farms, and grazing areas here. In reality, and physically, it was Navajo land.

In 1876, this area was opened up to what they called the public domain.

"That's when the settlers really started swarming in. It wasn't long, in the late 1870's, that they began their Indian killing," John said.

Navajos were chased out to where there was no water for farming and grazing to the dry plateau. "Here they had the San Juan River."

"Back then Indians weren't regarded as human beings, much like today -- much like today, they were considered less than human. Over here on Main Street, in 1880, they started shooting Indians for target practice."

"That is documented in some of the history books. That's where it really began."

"We didn't really take that, like in 1974 -- we rose up."

Chief Blackhorse gathered about a thousand Navajos, and they came over here and they said, "Give up those Indian killers, or we will destroy this town."

"Now, that's not AIM talking, that's not CNL, Coalition for Navajo Liberation, talking, it was our brave resistance leaders that were talking back then."

"We had a Warrior Society back then."

"That Warrior Society is what the American Indian Movement, United Native Americans, and National Indian Youth Council models our activism on. It wasn't something that just came up as a result of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's, 1960's, it goes back to 1870, to 1492, that's where the resistance began, with the first invasion."

"There were many victims there, many people fought and died in those resistance wars, they need to be included in the victims. They made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting the land and the people."

"Since 1492, over 98 percent of Indian people that lived here were wiped out, killed, by invasion, disease, colonization, deadly conditions that we were subjected to."

"That's genocide, and it is continuing, with every Indian that they kill -- that's a continuation of that genocide."

"The Indian wars are not over. We know that."

John said when white people say that there is no more racism, no more genocide, that is not true.

"They've never been on the receiving end of racism, and hate crimes."

"We're the only ones that have standing and truth to make that statement."

"In 1974, fifty years ago, the City of Farmington was the enemy of the people, of the resistance movement."

They thought the district attorney, courts would settle it, and said, "Don't make trouble."

"They called me an outsider, and a trouble maker, that wasn't true."

"I grew up in Farmington. I was born and raised here," John said, describing growing up here in the 1950's. He knew Farmington into the 1970's.

John remembered being followed in stores, being racially profiled, which didn't happen to the white kids. In high school, the racial slurs started. 

Then there was an attempted vehicular homicide attempted on a mother. That's when he first heard the term, "hate crimes."

"They always outnumber us, like three to one, like cowards."

During 1967 and 1968, in the Indian part of town, there were many people from the Checkerboard area, and they would talk about the hate crimes.

"White teenagers would go out at midnight and kidnap and beat our people."

"People would just disappear," he said, "There was a pattern of hate crimes. It goes way back."

"Don't think this 1974 was an isolated incident."

And those white hate crimes were minimized by those who said, "Boys will be boys, they're just blowing off steam."

But the ingrained racism has been here since the 1870's, it manifests itself in different ways, but it's still there.

In 2012, John was eating at Olive Garden here in Farmington, and a "redneck oil worker" started talking in a racist way to his wife, so that John and his wife could hear. John countered him, and even though the other person was younger, in his 30's, and John was in his 60's, he didn't back down. "He was drunk." John knew he could be beaten up when he went out to the parking lot, and the guy was younger and bigger. He went out to the parking lot and waited for him, but he never showed up.

"I wasn't going to back down, we should never back down. We should fight racism with our lives."

Sharing the history of the Coalition for Navajo Liberation, John shared how the KIVA Club at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque was part of the formation of the  movement. Press conferences in Albuquerque held by the Indian movements, including AIM and the International Youth Movement, made national news.

Then there was a press conference in the small Indian center in Farmington, and it was packed.

"That's where I first heard Lucy Keeswood speak. She electrified the audience. She was a natural leader."

Larry Anderson was there. And they were going to do something, they had no faith in bordertown justice. This was the continuation of genocide.

"It was that revolutionary spirit that gave birth to this modern Navajo civil rights movement. The Coalition for Navajo Liberation was made up of different organizations."

There was collective leadership, there was group leadership, and the NAACP and San Juan Civil Rights Committee, along with white allies, supported their demands. They supported a new Indian center and rehabilitation center, it was about constructive change.

John said it was much different then. The courtesy and respect shown today by the city, was not possible in 1974.

"There was no dialogue, the city was totally opposed to us."

"The mayor, one of the city councilman, said, 'The only way to handle these militants  is to shoot them.'"

"They were the ones talking violence, advocating violence. All of our marches were peaceful and legal."

John described his arrest by Farmington police at one of the marches, on June 8, 1974, when they blocked a car, and asked for the racist Calvary unit to be removed from the San Juan County Sheriff's Posse Parade in downtown Farmington.

John described the cussing and brutality of the police as they attacked Dine' marchers with tear gas. 

Police, about ten of them swinging their night sticks, came after John. Several of them tried to shove him through a plate glass window. But John was able to make a defensive move, and two of them went through the plate glass window.

"A cop came up from behind me and tried to break my windpipe." Instead of reading them their rights, the police grabbed them and threw them in the back of a squad car, with dirty, foul language.

"The bottom line was that he threatened to kill us," John said of the police officers  who arrested him and other Dine' marchers.

"I don't care who we have to call in, we'll kill all of you f--king Indians," the officer told him while arresting him.

There were 33 marchers arrested.

Larry Anderson, and Esther Keeswood, were able to mobilize people.

He said the marches were peaceful, but the police tried to agitate and provoke the marchers, so they could arrest the marchers and brutalize them.

"We didn't attack them, they attacked us."

Then, Farmington tried to keep them from marching, which was fought with lawyers. They won the right to march after a month of litigation.

John said the three white teenagers who were convicted of torturing and murdering Navajos in 1974 were sentenced to New Mexico Boys School at Springer, where they spent easy years, they were probably shooting pool and bragging about killing Indians. "They weren't going to be rehabilitated."

"There's no such thing as an Indian-friendly bordertown," he said, pointing out they  are on stolen land, and why they are referred to as "settler colonists."

Remembering the words of Norman Patrick Brown, Dine', John said of the summer of 1974, "It was a time of greatness." John said Norman was another hero, who fought for the elders, shoulder to shoulder with Peltier, at Jumping Bull camp.

John remembered the leaders, including Larry Emerson, Dine', and the mass marches in 1974.

Speaking of Leonard Peltier, John said, "He is our hero." In the 1970s, Peltier worked in construction in the Page area, and he would come to Farmington and stay at the Avery Hotel.

John said Peltier knew about the racism in Farmington, and Peltier wrote about a Navajo police officer beating an elderly Navajo here. Peltier yelled for the officer to stop, but he wouldn't.

John said there hasn't been anything like that long, hot summer of 1974.

"We were outraged, we were shocked, we were angry."

They knew there were other victims of racial hate crimes, many more.

"There were killing fields."

"It is a literal bone yard of Navajo hate crime victims in those hills," he said of the bluffs and Chokecherry Canyon, around Farmington where Navajo victims are buried.

"We're talking about mass murder."

John pointed out that he didn't come to Farmington to make trouble. He was a summer intern, working at the San Juan County Economic Council in 1974, focusing his research on Indian lifestyles and employment issues for his people, and the reasons why Dine' come to the bordertown to find work. He said the data is important for the future to build an agenda to improve Dine' lives.

"We care about our people. We love our people. They are flesh of the same flesh, blood of the same blood. It's like the three victims, they are our brothers, an attack on one was an attack on all," he said, describing the unity of the movement during those five weeks in 1974.

John said this history needs to be properly written and properly documented by a Dine', in a Navajo context.

He said the book, "Broken Circles," is written by a white person for white readers, and is offensive to many. "There's no Navajo context, there's no feeling." And he said there are many inaccuracies in the book, and opportunities want to make money off of it, make movies.

"He makes us look like savages," he said of page 96 of Broken Circle, "That's what they think of us."

"We don't talk that way." There are Dine' scholars who can write this history.

John named many Dine' authors and scholars and praised Dine' co-authors of "Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation," by Nick Estes, Melanie K. Yazzie, Jennifer Nez Denetdale, and David Correia.

Cheryl Redhorse Bennett was among the Dine' authors present on Saturday. Cheryl's  book, "Our Fight Has Just Begun: Hate Crimes and Justice in Native America," documents the hate crimes and murders in Farmington.

John recognized Chili Yazzie as a champion of Dine' civil rights and human rights leader, "He's always been there."

Speaking of the hate crimes, John said Chili and Stella Webster were victims of hate crimes.

"Chili took a bullet."

"We really need his integrity."

John said this history needs to be included in the colleges and universities. "Some people don't even know who Fred Johnson is."

Russell Means came here in the 1990s, and spoke of the hate crimes in 1974. The street people told Russell, "Russell, it's still going on, it's still going on."

"They knew their reality on the mean streets of Farmington."

John appreciated the Totah Theater, here since 1948, as a place to gather, and deal with healing. He said this is one way, but the people have to have a say, and there are other strategies to deal with racism and hate.

"We have to think outside the box, to ensure our survival as a people, in our homeland."

Read more about the organizing, and marches, in John's article, "Fifty Years Ago: Uprising and Resistance," at Censored News.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/05/dine-john-redhouse-fifty-years-ago.html

Live:

"I was a young woman in 1974," Esther Keeswood said.

Esther said her uncle John Earl Harvey and cousin Herman Dodge Benally were killed in Farmington on April 20, 1974, in Chokecherry Canyon here in Farmington, and their bodies were found the next day, April 21, 1974 by their family. They were out on an outing.

Esther was living in Hogback at the time, and John Harvey's twin sister, Jane Harvey, came to visit. Jane said, "I'm not going to just let it go. I want to do something."

Esther said, "We knew that our tribal leaders at that time wouldn't help us."

They reached out to Jimmy Anderson, whose cousin was Larry Anderson with the American Indian Movement. They met with Larry, and he said he would talk with the other AIM leaders -- Russell Means, Dennis Banks, Vernon Bellecourt and Clyde Bellecourt. AIM was headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"That same week, Larry got back in contact and said, 'I'm going to go down there and get a parade permit.' So we went with him, we came to Farmington and got a parade permit with him.'

Farmington March/Photo Bob Fitch

The first march was planned for May 4, 1974.

Larry told them that people were already coming right now in caravans from Pine Ridge.

Esther said, "The incident had just occurred with Wounded Knee, so everyone was really fired out, right, they wanted to come down here and help the Navajo people."

"They weren't afraid."

It was on May 1, 1974, when the three teenagers were arrested who killed her uncle and cousin.

Esther said two of them were 16 years ago, and one was 15. They were students at Farmington High School. 

On May 11, there was a second march. Among those she named who led the march, was John Redhouse, seated in the audience, and received applause. Esther remembered Billy Cleaver and the NAACP who helped them.

In the summer of 1974, Dine' organizers gave the City of Farmington a list of 10 demands.

Esther said there were no Native Americans employed by the City of Farmington, or on the City Council.

"The Indian Center was such a joke at that time, was small, and was with the bus station. We asked them to improve that as well."

On June 7, the three boys were sentenced to New Mexico Boys School at Springer.

Then, on June 8, Navajos were denied a marching permit because there was a San Juan County Sheriff's Posse Rodeo. 

John Redhouse was the first one there, at the Sheriff's Posse Parade, and Fred Johnson, Lorenzo LeValdo, and Taft Scott were there.

"They stopped the parade because the calvary was in there. The sheriff's posse didn't finish their parade. There were several arrests from that incident."

The next day they raised funds and got everyone out of jail.

Albuquerque attorneys, including the Toulouse law firm, represented the Navajos pro bono who were arrested.

During her talk, Esther recognized James Toulouse's granddaughter, Maggie Toulouse, New Mexico Secretary of State, and thanked her for coming.

Esther recognized Fred Johnson's wife and daughters, and the families of Dodge Benally, John Earl Harvey, and David Ignacio. She recognized her family members present, who stood and received applause, and remembered her mother, Lucy Keeswood, who with Jane Harvey. "They are the ones who started all of this."

Chili Yazzie also remembered and recognized the family of Clint John, Dine', who was murdered by a white Farmington police in 2006.

https://www.facebook.com/ksje90.9/videos/404424622404557

"The scourge of racism remains," Duane 'Chili' Yazzie, Dine' of Shiprock, told those gathered at the Farmington Civic Center, to remember Dine' tortured and murdered here 50 years ago.

"We know that racism is alive," Chili said, speaking now in Dine' and English, as the gathering at the packed Totah Theater began.

Chili said white privilege is prevalent in this community.

Referring to the Farmington mayor's statement, "We don't want this to be just words."

In the struggle for justice, Chili said, "Not only for here, but in other bordetowns throughout our land."

Stella Webster, Dine', speaking now. She said they moved to the area when her husband began working with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1966.

She described how the commemoration for today came about, to remember 1974, 50 years later. She said from the start, Farmington city officials were part of the planning of the event. Speaking on the need for unity and healing, as well as the racism, she said they want to see a permanent monument established for the three Dine' men who were tortured and murdered.

The live broadcast begins at 11 am:

Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett's statement is being read, on unity, healing, and resilience. Mayor Duckett did not attend.

Live broadcast today, Saturday: San Juan College KSJE radio on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/ksje90.9/videos/404424622404557

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWJdz2pb13M

50th YEAR COMMEMORATION OF THE 1974 PROTEST AND BOYCOTT OF FARMINGTON, NEW MEXICO



BLESSING PASTOR JAMES KLOTZ

BACKGROUND STELLA WEBSTER

OVERVIEW CHILI YAZZIE

REFLECTIONS ESTHER KEESWOOD

JOHN REDHOUSE

HONOREES (HONOREES WILL BE REFLECTED UPON BY PRESENTERS)

VICTIMS AND FAMILIES

LUCY KEESWOOD

FRED JOHNSON, SR

JOHN REDHOUSE

WILBERT TSOSIE

LARRY ANDERSON

REV HENRY BIRD

BILLY CLEAVER

JAMES TOULOUSE

JOHN F DULLES

HONOR SONG ELVIN KEESWOOD

COMMENTS CITY OF FARMINGTON

MAYOR DUCKETT

NOTATIONS STELLA WEBSTER

BILL GATES

CLOSING RAYMOND KEESWOOD, JR


TOOHNI’ DINÉ AND THE NEWCOMERS

From the time of the first incursion by settlers along the three rivers, a place to be called Totah, “Between the Waters”, there has been a history of negative relationship between the newcomers and the Indigenous peoples. There does not appear to have been a welcoming, there has not been a time of harmony.

As the settlers took up unceded lands and began developing towns, animosity towards the Indian people transcended into acts of racial mistreatment and unscrupulous dealing in the businesses. There were open acts of violence as in the murder of Desnah Clauschiscillage, a former Navajo Tribal Chairman.

The racial bias and violence increased from the 1950s into the 1970s when white teenagers murdered 3 Diné men John Earl Harvey, Herman Dodge Benally, and David Ignacio, in their game of “Indian Rolling." There have been many other victims. It was imperative that the racial violence be addressed.

The call by Diné community leaders brought the American Indian Movement, NAACP, UNM Kiva Club, and human rights supporters to form the Coalition for Navajo Liberation. In the hot summer of 1974, we marched and boycotted Farmington, protesting the murders and racism. A moment of Diné greatness.

The historic marches brought light to the reality of racial hatred in our midst. US and NM Civil Rights Commissions investigated discrimination. With efforts for understandings of humanity there has been greater tolerance. Though the Indigenous people continue to live with colonialism, patriarchy, quiet racism.

In commemorating the events of 1974, we honor the victims and the families. We call for a future of respectful relationship, as we are fated to be neighbors. In living our lives of preference, our human dignity must be honored. We make strong the fire of justice to grow the radiance of our Creator’s vision of peace.

Photos: The Long Hot Summer of 1974

Chili Yazzie sounds out the AIM anthem during the March on Farmington 1974.
Coalition for Navajo Liberation photo by Bob Fitch

"During the hot summer of 1974, we marched on Farmington to protest the murder of three Dine' men. We have lived with the racism and economic exploitation by the border towns around the rez for many decades. there have been many victims of racial violence. We will march again on Sept 21, 2024 to commemorate and honor the victims and their families." -- Chili Yazzie, Dine', Shiprock, Navajo Nation

Farmington 1974 Photo by Bob Fitch

Farmington Protest 1974 photo by Bob Fitch

Farmington 1974 photo by Bob Fitch




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