The Broken Circle — 30 Years Later
Residents Say Racism Still a Real Issue

By Laura Banish 
The Farmington Daily Times  
April 2004
   

FARMINGTON — A Native American civil rights movement incited by the brutal murder of three Navajo males at the hands of Anglo teenagers shook the city of Farmington in 1974.

For the first time, Native American protesters said they were tired of being treated like lesser people by businesses, restaurants and the citizens of Farmington. But did it make a difference?

In the past, Stella Webster had been slighted in restaurants and ignored in department stores, but the most explicit act of racism she ever endured took place along Auburn Avenue.

Webster and her husband Jim, who are both Navajo, were walking home from a movie in downtown Farmington when several Anglo youths in a blue sedan started tearing after them in an attempt to mow the couple down with their car.

“They charged at us, then they turned around and came at us again. We were scared and started running. One of us was about to knock on a door to call for help, but after the third time, they just drove away,” Webster recalled. “It was a very frightening experience.”

That was 1971.

In 2003, Michelle Rasor, a young woman in her late 20s, experienced one of her most blatant encounters with bigotry on East Main Street. Rasor, of Apache heritage, was stopped in her car at a red light near Wal-Mart when a young white male in a pickup truck started screaming racial slurs at two Indian men on the side of the road who appeared to be homeless.

“I turned the radio down to hear what he was saying. He was screaming, ‘F------ Indians, drunk Indians, and then the guy sees me watching him and started yelling at me, calling me all these names, like F----ing Squaw,’” Rasor said.

When the light changed to green, Rasor attempted to avoid the man, but he drove beside her and continued to shout offensive phrases.

“I was shocked and really mad. After that I was really hurt that someone would yell at me like that,” Rasor said.

Today, people don’t like to talk about the events that unfolded in the spring of 1974. Several people refused to be interviewed for The Daily Times series, dubbed “The Broken Circle” after Rodney Barker’s novel about that fateful year. They denied that racism ever existed in Farmington or pointed the blame on outside agitators. Others asked to be interviewed responded defensively, saying, “It was a long time ago, it was bad, but it’s over” or asked, “Why do you want to stir things up?”

“It was something really bad at the time and it’s passed. We don’t want to deal with it anymore,” said one Anglo woman who asked not to be identified.

To many, this is a sign that not much has changed in the way of attitudes.

“You can still see it, feel it. It’s still a problem because people don’t want to talk about it and get upset if you mention it,” said Pauline, a Navajo woman who stated that to this day she is still skeptical of Anglos. “It’s a really touchy issue for we older people who went through it. It’s hard to let go. I think both sides really need to talk to each other and not be afraid.”

There are people who would rather forget the turbulent times in the ’70s, dubbed by some as “The Indian Wars.” Others say it would be detrimental to forget.

“We don’t want to turn a deaf ear to problems. You have to talk about it, discuss it. It’s the only way to have better relationships,” Farmington Mayor Bill Standley said. “(The city is) always looking at ways to improve and inspire the value of healthy relationships. We’re trying, but we still have a long way to go.”

“It needs to be something to be remembered. It was a very significant event in our modern history in terms of social justice. If people are not talking, it says something,” said Shiprock Chapter President Duane “Chili” Yazzie. “I think racial tolerance is probably more the practice than intentional abuse. But the ravages of racism are still there, it’s just more sophisticated, more of an undercurrent.”

Native American complaints voiced in 1974 were against the city’s white business owners and white government, but the wall between the two cultures was not built by the Anglo society alone.

“It takes both sides. We both have to come out and be honest about it, but someone has to make the first move,” said Francis Mitchell, a Navajo medicine man. “I don’t judge people. You’re supposed to treat people with respect because you are not better than the next person.”

Several Navajos indicated that there are Native Americans who harbor ill feelings toward Anglos because of events that occurred long before 1974. These include historical wrongs committed by the federal government, such as broken treaties, the Navajo Long Walk and the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools.

“You’ve got to go back 100 years. The Navajos have been under some form of ownership of the federal government for a long time. We no longer know how to set our own destiny,” former Navajo Nation Vice President Marshall Plummer said. “I think we’re all wrestling with that. Whether grudges or grievances, Natives have lost the ability to say, ‘It is my problem.’ We sometimes spend too much energy working on these grievances.

For Kirtland resident Vern Lee, it took 30 years and the help of God and a supportive pastor to reconcile his hate for Anglos.

“I was really racist,” said Lee. “I was holding in a lot of anger toward white people because of what had happened to me in boarding school where I was controlled and they tried to make me become a white man. They said I wasn’t an Indian, that Indians were no good ... It was a part of me. It attaches to you, grabs onto you until it becomes part of you.”

Lee said racism can’t be blamed on just one side or the other.

“It’s on both sides. The Navajos are also racist people. How we name people is racist. One of the words we use to describe whites is ‘ana’ i, which means enemy. Navajos will say don’t trust the (whites), they will sell your mother,” Lee said.

Despite the people who have prejudices in both societies, Lee believes it’s possible for the two cultures to live as equals.

“I think it’s possible, if you have spirituality,” he explained. “I discovered that for me to heal, I had to forgive the white race. Those people who mistreated me, I don’t know where they’re at, probably dead or moved on, but you have to look at people and say you’ve done nothing to hurt me. It was really hard, but I did it.”

Said Webster, “When you look at others, under the skin, we’re all the same. We all have a need to be accepted, to be loved, feel safe, be valued and know that you matter.”

In the end, the actions of three boys changed the history of Farmington. The boys could not have known the impact of their doings on that fateful Saturday, and only they know the effects of the events on them.

Jesse Howard Bender, Matthew Clark and Delray Ballinger each served between one- and two-year terms at the New Mexico Boys School at Springer. When their time was done, they went their separate ways.

Bender died at the age of 20 in Lubbock, Texas, in 1977. He was jogging on the side of the road with another man when he was struck in the head by the side mirrors of a van. His parents refused to be interviewed for this story.

Clark hadn’t been released for long when he found himself in trouble with the law again. Between 1977 and 1979, Clark was convicted of forgery, theft, unauthorized use of a vehicle and escape in the state of Texas. It appears Clark then moved to Washington state where he was put behind bars again; this time on a sexual abuse charge, forgery and fraudulent use of a credit card. His last place of residence seems to be in the Portland, Ore., area, however when The Daily Times contacted his last known address listed in October 2003, a man named Don answered and said, “I’ve never heard of him. I bought this house 18 months ago.”

As for Delray Ballinger, he has since altered the spelling of his first name and resides in a city near Austin, Texas. A woman who answered the phone at his home said, “He has no comment. Don’t ever call here again.”

Laura Banish: laurab@daily-times.com 

 

    


Reprinted as an historical reference document under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html