John Redhouse -- The Killing Fields in the Bordertown: Hate Crimes in Farmington

The Killing Fields in the Bordertown

John Redhouse: Hate Crimes Didn't Begin, or End, in Farmington in 1974

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, Sept. 23, 2024

FARMINGTON, New Mexico -- John Redhouse, Dine', shared the history of the resistance to the torture and murder of Navajos in 1974, and made it clear that the racism, hate crimes and murders of Dine' in Farmington did not begin, or end, in 1974.

Speaking during the "Remembering 1974: Paths to Healing," on Saturday, Redhouse joined Dine' to honor the victims and their families, and the resistance at the Totah Theater in downtown Farmington.

Dine' remembered John Earl Harvey, Herman Dodge Benally, and David Ignacio, tortured and murdered by white teenagers in 1974.

Redhouse, co-founder of the Coalition for 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 putting them on tiny reservations. In the 1870's, the killings began here.

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

Redhouse said this area was Dine' land when the settlers arrived here, and the killing began of Native people. But the genocide of Native people, and the resistance, began in 1492.

"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."

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

Redhouse 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."

Rising up, and organizing, after the torture and murder of Dine' by white teenagers, Dine' led the marches through Farmington in the summer of 1974.

"In 1974, fifty years ago, the City of Farmington was the enemy of the people, of the resistance movement," Redhouse said. 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," Redhouse said, describing growing up here in the 1950's. He knew Farmington through the 1970's.

Redhouse remembered being followed in stores as a child, and the racial slurs in high school.

"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."

"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," Redhouse said.

There was collective leadership, which included the American Indian Movement, with press conferences in Albuquerque, and support from the University of New Mexico KIVA Club. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission began documenting the hate crimes, and the NAACP, human rights groups, and attorneys supported the movement.

Redhouse said it was much different then. The courtesy and respect shown by the City of Farmington at Totah Theater on Saturday, was not possible in 1974.

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

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

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

"There's no such thing as an Indian friendly bordertown," he said, pointing out they are on stolen land.

Remembering the long hot summer of 1974, Redhouse said there hasn't been anything like it since.

"It was a time of greatness," Redhouse said, remembering the words of Dine' Norman Patrick Brown.

Read more from the speakers on Saturday at Censored News:

John Redhouse: The Killing Fields in the Bordertown

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/the-killing-fields-in-bordertown-john.html

Remembering 1974: Paths to Healing: Live coverage

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/09/bordertown-racism-remembering-murders.html