More than 250 people marched Saturday morning in downtown Farmington 50 years after three white teenage boys killed three Navajo men. The march was followed by a ceremony at the Totah theater honoring the families of the victims.
Kicking off shortly after 10 a.m., the march began with a prayer by Duane “Chili” Yazzie, who asked the honored families to lead. American Indian Movement members provided security.
The city of Farmington blocked off Broadway from West Main Street to Miller Avenue, then north to East Main Street, west to the Totah theater.
As the drumming and singing began the primarily Native American marchers headed east on Broadway graced by beautiful weather on the eve of the autumnal equinox.
Tisa Bernally, a march escort, said she has done a lot of grassroots organizing over the last 10 years as a member of the American Indian Movement.
“I'm really excited because we get to start the dialogue about white supremacy, border town racism in this community, that's been ongoing for a lot of years now, over 150 years,” she said.
Bernally said a march usually happens in May, hosted by two AIM chapters. This year the First Presbyterian Church in Farmington and other Navajo organizers decided to hold it in September.
She said Native Americans still face ill treatment.
“It hasn't stopped. A lot of our unsheltered relatives get Indian-rolled on a daily basis by young white kids. They get shot at with BB guns? They get bottles thrown at them at night. How I know is because – as a Native social worker – they come and tell me”
Farmington resident Bill Gates said he was there in solidarity, “to recognize that we're all different (yet) we're all the same.”
In 1974, Gates had returned to Farmington after graduating from college.
“So I was just starting a career here, and I remember it. I wasn't as involved as I am now,” he said. As a white teenager, he was aware of “Indian rolling.”
“There's still a lot of work to be done … that's for sure. We made a lot of progress, but there's a lot of work to be done,” Gates said.
“It's meaningful … a first step to healing,” said Liesel Dees, an event organizer. “We have a lot of different healing resources here today.”
“It’s awesome, a very good turnout. Hookah hey,” said Elvin Keeswood, carrying a traditional drum.
Keeswood said he came aboard about two months ago when he found out the walk was going to happen.
“So anyway, that's how I end up contacting my uncle, Chili Yazzie, and then he's the one that said, come to our meetings,” he said, adding that his late mother, Lucy Keeswood, was instrumental in organizing after the Chokecherry Massacre.
Keeswood said he was involved in the protest marches in 1974 and that John Trudell and other AIM leaders camped at their house.
“It's not quite as obvious as back then, but it’s still going on. Yeah, the term might be quiet racism,” Keeswood, who retired after 26 years working for the city of Farmington. He now teaches the Navajo language in the Shiprock Associated Schools Inc.
Cordell Jones set up a table with cold water in front of his business on South Miller Avenue, Simply Solid cabinets and countertops.
William Brewster Bird said his father, Henry Bird, inspired him to attend the march.
“My father was the one of the vicars at the (San Juan Mission), here in the early 1970s. We moved from Maine to here in January of ’73. I was a high school student,” Bird said.
By that time, the Coalition for Navajo Liberation had started, Bird said.
“My experience was I took a class at Farmington High School in construction trades, and one of my fellow students in that class was one of the three accused of murdering three grown-up Navajo men. And I knew one of the three grown-up men because they lived with us at the church. I knew both sides,” he said.
Organizer Karen Dearing greeted people with programs in the Totah theater lobby. She said their group began organizing at the beginning of the year.
“It’s really good, it's really reflective, happy and peaceful, very nice,” Dearing said.
Dearing, who’s been in Farmington for 30 years, said, “There's a lot more people of color in jobs, in better-paying jobs. But the issues of people not being treated as equals or not treated well, it’s still happening.”
Yazzie opened the ceremony, which was slightly behind schedule, by saying, “We’re on Indian time.”
He introduced Dees, who announced that the event was being broadcast in real time on KSJE radio’s Facebook page.
She began with a statement from Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett:
“We commemorate the 50th anniversary for a tragic chapter in our history, we gather not just to remember but to acknowledge the pain, the injustice and deep scars that this tragedy left on our community.
“We must also recognize the journey this time has made since then, together, we have worked to heal, to grow and overcome the strength of our regional community lies not in the hardships that we have endured, but in the resilience we have shown in moving forward, determined to build a better, more connected future.”
Dees quoted James Baldwin: “’We cannot change everything we face, but nothing can be changed until it is faced, until it is named and until it is spoken out loud.”
“We gather together to remember 1974 and to name injustice,” Dees said.
Stella Webster, representing the First Presbysterian Church, read the statement the group wrote and received applause when she said they want to create a permanent monument in tribute to this event.
Yazzie, who spoke Diné for a few minutes, said, “We are gathered here … to commemorate that time in 1974 when, when a number of our … people were brutally murdered. They were tortured. We want to remember them.”
He said they also want to honor those who are among the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Missing Murdered Indigenous Relatives.
“We submit that the racism that is perpetrated on people of color is concentrated in a small segment of the community,” Yazzie said. “There are people that are truly hateful of another people because they're different. There is that reality.”
He said there are many people who are indifferent, and many of good heart.
“And we appreciate those people. We regard them as brothers and sisters,” Yazzie said.
He said one of the reasons that racism is alive and continues is “this business of white privilege.
“We want this to be a serious work to address a tremendously serious condition that this community has, not only here, but other border towns,” he said.
Esther Keeswood’s uncle was John Earl Harvey, one of the men killed April 20, 1974. She said her family organized with the help of Larry Anderson, a local AIM activist at the time. Anderson contacted AIM leaders Dennis Banks and Russell Means, and support came from South Dakota.
Keeswood recognized families of the victims as they stood for applause. Also recognized was James B. Toulouse, the Albuquerque attorney who took the case pro bono of those arrested in the protest.
John Redhouse, who traveled from Nevada and grew up in Farmington, said, “Indian killing, at least in this area, goes back to the 1870s when white settlers came into the area.
The region was opened up to public domain even though it was Indian land. And the white people started swarming in, he said.
He recounted the invasions, disease and deadly conditions that Native Americans faced.
“Every Indian that they kill, that's a continuation of that genocide,” Redhouse said. “The Indian wars are not over.”
The environment in Farmington is much different from in 1974, Redhouse said.
“The city is at least extending this courtesy and some respect. It would have been impossible in 1974,” he said.
Lunch was provided by the city of Farmington and Merrion Oil and Gas.
Yazzie narrated a historical photo presentation, and Elvin Keeswood led his group in the “Honor Song.”
“The Christian church which I served was complicit in the violence perpetrated on all these peoples by Europeans and their descendants,” said Pastor James Klotz of First Presbyterian Church. “Deep in my heart, I do believe we shall overcome someday.”
