The Killing Fields in the Bordertown

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.

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


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

John Redhouse, cofounder 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.

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

Navajos were already living here in the middle San Juan River Valley when white settlers arrived. 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.

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