{"id":25929,"date":"2024-08-26T23:46:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-27T05:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chokecherry-massacre-protests-shocked-farmington-50-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:30:46","slug":"chokecherry-massacre-protests-shocked-farmington-50-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chokecherry-massacre-protests-shocked-farmington-50-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Chokecherry Massacre, protests shocked Farmington 50 years ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Navajo
Navajo protest march in Farmington after the Chokecherry Massacre. (Bob Fitch photography archive)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fifty years ago, in April 1974, three Navajo men were murdered by three Farmington teenagers in Chokecherry Canyon area near Farmington. The murders and resulting activism and protest marches gained national attention and federal response.<\/p>\n

Local activists have organized a commemorative march and rally in downtown Farmington on Sept. 21, which will culminate with a gathering at the Totah Theater, 315 W. Main St.<\/p>\n

Duane \u201cChili\u201d Yazzie, who was involved in protest marches 50 years ago, along with others, met with Farmington Mayor Nate Duckett on Wednesday, seeking support and cooperation from the city.<\/p>\n

In the introduction to his 1992 book, \u201cThe Broken Circle: A True Story of Murder and Magic in Indian Country,\u201d Rodney Barker, a Durango resident at the time, describes the riot that resulted when the Sheriff\u2019s Posse Parade was protested by Navajos and a riot ensued. Barker and more than 50 others were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a community that was rocked by racial violence a half-century ago to still be striving \u2013 or is the word struggling? \u2013 to come to terms with a shameful episode in its past, says something positive about Farmington,\u201d Barker said in an email.<\/p>\n

The racial, cultural, socio-economic and legal factors created a fractured community. Some people agreed that Native Americans faced inequitable treatment while others, many of whom had migrated to the region for quick, good money in the oil and gas industry saw things differently.<\/p>\n

\"Rena
Rena Benally, wife of slain Herman Benally, and their daughter led one of the marches. (Courtesy Rodney Barker)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
The murders and protest marches<\/div>\n

A thorough investigation of the historic events were detailed in \u201cBroken Circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barker was in Farmington during the protest parades organized by the Coalition for Navajo Liberation Navajos, who protested the Sheriff\u2019s Posse Parade, who wore traditional U.S. Cavalry uniforms, same as worn by soldiers in the Long Walk<\/a> when the Din\u00e9 were relocated from their ancestral lands.<\/p>\n

When the Navajos blocked the horseback sheriff\u2019s posse, things turned violent and the disturbance became a riot. Farmington police, wearing gas masks used tear gas and began arresting people.<\/p>\n

The Coalition for Navajo Liberation formed by Wilbert Tsosie, was targeted by Farmington Mayor Marlo Webb, who accused them of instigating trouble and not truly representing the Navajo people.<\/p>\n

Tsosie felt the marches demonstrated their purpose to show sympathy and respect for the families of the slain and the call for justice, Barker wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Coalition
Coalition for Navajo Liberation protest. (Courtesy photo)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cHe wanted to rattle the sensibilities of Mr. and Mrs. Farmington. He wanted to shake awake the white community to the news it could no longer count on passive acquiescence from Indian people,\u201d Barker wrote.<\/p>\n

The protests gained the support of the American Indian Movement, and local commander Larry Anderson mobilized his members to provide security during six weekends of marches held in Farmington.<\/p>\n

Anderson had pledged the support of AIM, stating he had been in touch with its leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks. At the second march, national AIM chairman John Trudell showed up.<\/p>\n

Trudell, who had been active in the takeover of Alcatraz, which raised the level of concern from Webb and the business community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd those were the ones we were the most fearful of \u2026 they had shown a history of violence,\u201d Webb was quoted in Barker\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

It took almost a year for the 188-page report <\/a>prepared by the New Mexico Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to be released. Titled \u201cThe Farmington Report: A Conflict of Cultures,\u201d there was no mistaking its conclusion that a verdict of discrimination against Native Americans had been reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin the year, a number of lawsuits were filed by the Justice Department accusing the county and city of pursuing policies and practices which discriminated against Indians, and ordering them to discontinue these practices and take immediate steps to correct the present effects of past discriminatory policies,\u201d Barker wrote.<\/p>\n

The report and its orders were met with disdain and disgust by Webb, as he branded it a \u201ccollection of half-truths, innuendoes, statement out of context, falsehoods, and unrealistic and illogical conclusions,\u201d Barker wrote.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman Sterling F. Black, said, \u201cThere appears to be little awareness on the part of the general population or elected public officials of the complex social and economic problems,\u201d wrote Barker.<\/p>\n

\"AIM
AIM leader speaks at rally in Farmington. (Bob Fitch Photography Archive)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Sentencing of the convicted teenagers<\/div>\n

The teenagers, Jesse Howard Bender (Vernon Crawford in Barker\u2019s book) and Del Ballinger (Oren Thacker), both 16, and Matthew Clark (Peter Burke), 15, admitted to the gruesome crimes committed on consecutive weekends in Farmington, known as a border town to the Navajo Reservation. All three were Farmington High School students.<\/p>\n

The robbing and rolling of intoxicated Navajos was a common pastime among some teenagers in Farmington. They looked at it as kicks and grins \u2013 giving intoxicated Natives what they deserved, according to Barker\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

The boys shared a common trait as outcasts and loners within the student population.<\/p>\n

The issue facing the prosecutors and Judge Frank Zinn was whether to hold over the two 16-year-old boys to adult court. At 15, Clark could not legally be held over to the adult jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The perplexing decision, especially given the common sentiment within the Native American and much of the general community that they should face the stiffest penalties, was dictated by the psychological evaluations done by the court-appointed psychiatrists.<\/p>\n

Their psychological evaluation was that Bender and Ballinger were not irreparable criminals, incapable of rehabilitation. Zinn, after reviewing the evaluation of Clark, did not feel that he was capable of feeling remorse. His instincts for justice pushed him toward trying the other two as adults.<\/p>\n

However, based on the legal requirement to consider all court-acquired input, Zinn believed he was bound to make a decision that was \u201cright in the light of the law.\u201d He said the sentence had to fit the individual and not the crime.<\/p>\n

All three admitted to the crime. Burke stated he participated to a lesser degree.<\/p>\n

The youths were sentenced to attend the New Mexico Boys School at Springer for an indefinite period, not to exceed their 21st birthdays.<\/p>\n

Bender, considered the ringleader, found incarcerated life unbearable and suffered from extreme nightmares and inability to sleep. He was allowed to stay up and clean floors. Eventually he did well academically, earning his high school equivalency degree and he found religion through Christianity.<\/p>\n

After spending a few months living with a family in Raton, New Mexico, he attended Lubbock Christian College in Texas, but continued to show his dark side with sadistic art and talk of death.<\/p>\n

Bender died at age 20 after spending two days in a coma on life-support after being hit by the mirror on a recreational vehicle while jogging.<\/p>\n

Ballinger, who vowed to never be locked up again, got married and had a family, but was regularly haunted with a fear of reprisal and being hunted down, according to Barker\u2019s interview with him.<\/p>\n

Clark led a life of drug use, crime and was consistently in and out of jail. He was constantly tormented by feelings of inadequacy, according to Barker\u2019s book.<\/p>\n

\"Grave
Grave of John Earl Harvey, 39, of Fruitland, who along with Herman Benally, 34, of Kirtland and David Ignacio of Blanco Trading Post, were the victims of the Chokecherry Massacre. (Bob Fitch Photography Archive)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Two locals recall, share perspectives<\/div>\n

Esther Keeswood, a niece of John Earl Harvey, said she was \u201csad and overwhelmed\u201d when as a teenager she heard about the murders.<\/p>\n

Her \u201cauntie,\u201d Jane Becenti, Harvey\u2019s twin sister, informed Keeswood and the immediate families began to organize with the assistance of Larry Anderson, the local American Indian Movement representative.<\/p>\n

Keeswood, a tribal court advocate, said there was a mob of people at the sentencing hearing and they were not allowed in the courtroom because the boys were juveniles.<\/p>\n

She said the Navajo community was disturbed because nothing like that ever surfaced if it happened it was isolated.<\/p>\n

Regarding the current climate and how her people are treated, Keeswood said, \u201cI think to the educated people they\u2019re not really experiencing that, but the older ones \u2026 they still get ripped off somewhat \u2013 especially by the car dealers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keeswood, who will be one of the speakers at the commemorative march and rally in September, said I hope \u2026 on both sides Navajo, white people and all colors do not hurt each, get along and not hate other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lela Holmes, who moved to Farmington from Albuquerque in 1968, said, \u201cWell, of course, we were all pretty much in shock. I thought the Native Americans might rebel against us and became violent toward us.\u201d<\/p>\n

She knew the parents of the boys who committed the crimes and her older daughter attended school with them. Her daughter came home from school and said the Sheriff\u2019s deputy checked everyone\u2019s shoes looking the match boots with a bootprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this was a thing that just built up \u2026 started with young people taking advantage of the Native Americans when they\u2019ve been drinking \u2026 like taking their hat,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n

When they got automobiles and started taking them up to the canyon it got out of hand, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the silver lining is, I think Farmington began to realize that the Native Americans are very important to us, not just for their culture, but for what they do for our economy. I just really felt that was a change in the attitude toward the Native American people,\u201d said Holmes.<\/p>\n

Justice through belief<\/div>\n

The Din\u00e9 community did not feel the sentence handed to the guilty was commensurate to their senseless, malicious acts of torture, genital mutilation and murder.<\/p>\n

There was talk that a medicine man had done a ceremony to curse the admittedly guilty teenage boys to see that justice was done.<\/p>\n

Barker asked Pinto Begay (name changed), a cemetery caretaker, if the fates met by the three boys would have served justice.<\/p>\n

Begay said, \u201cThat would be justice the Navajo Way. Then the universe could be put back in place, and those who suffered restored in beauty.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the afterword, Barker explained it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a circle is closed there is no way for evil spirits to get out, they are trapped within; and the break in the circle serves as an escape route.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was updated on Aug. 28 to correctly identify Larry Anderson as the then-local representative of the American Indian Movement.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activists, locals plan a march Sept. 21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[799,28,1655],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-navajo-nation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79156,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25929\/revisions\/79156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25929"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}