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
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