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Aug 19, 2003 American Indians are the longest standing class of hate victims in the United States. Historic incidents of brutal exploitations and victimization of Native peoples have been portrayed in numerous books and films. Unfortunately, such occurrences are not confined to Americas distant past. American Indians continue to bear racist crimes, harassment, intimidation and even murder. Yet racist crimes perpetrated against Indians are the least likely to appear in print. The above information is quoted from a 1994 report compiled by the Klanwatch staff of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. But are things really any different nine years later? No, not really! The following appeared in the August 19th, 2003 edition The (Farmington, New Mexico) Daily Times headlined Frys Second Trial Set: AZTEC Robert Fry will face a jury Aug. 25 in Albuquerque a jury determining whether the Farmington native should receive a second death sentence for allegedly killing Donald Tsosie in 1988. Fry currently resides on death row for the June 2000 murder of Shiprock resident Betty Lee. He is also charged with the 1996 Eclectic double homicide of Joseph Fleming and Matthew Trecker a case set in November. Continuing from the Klanwatch Report. These hate crimes are sometimes organized events, sometimes random outbreaks perpetrated by individuals. They are most prevalent where white communities border large American Indian reservations where water, hunting and fishing rights conflict with white interests. But they are no means limited to the rural west. In Lansing, Michigan a cross was burned on the front lawn of a Native American mother witnessed by her two mixed- heritage six year old sons Sioux City Iowa, an Indian family was harassed and threatened. Racist graffiti was sprayed on the outside wall of the home. The suspected perps called the mother and grandmother, You Indian trash. Billings, Montana, vandals sprayed a young couples home with swastikas and racial epithets. The man is white, his companion is a Native woman. In a Seattle, Washington suburb, two young white men approached an Indian man standing in front of the Muckleshoot Tribal Center and began yelling racial slurs and beating him with baseball bats. In Farmington, New Mexico three white assailants used baseball bats on a Navajo man who was left with permanent brain damage. This morning, my Navajo friend, Amos, was here to trim my yard. I let him read the article from the Farmington paper. He told me that some years ago when he was a kid of thirteen he went up for the summer to live with his aunt in Farmington to work in the fields. A couple of days after I was there, five white guys beat me up and cut off my hair which was down to my waist. My aunt sent me back home following the attack. I guess things havent changed much in thirty years, have they? No, Amos they havent! Its time for law enforcement, the criminal justice and the judicial system to become more aware of and take part in stemming the hate crimes still being perpetrated against the Native American segment of our society. It is also time for Indians, themselves, to cast aside their reluctance to report these crimes perpetrated against them. Without these changes, the violence against Native peoples will go unchecked, continuing a shameful past that should have been buried long ago. ------------ About the author: Bobbie Hart ONeill is a retired print media journalist, CSU-Sacramento, 74, with 40 years experience in the field. She has worked as a reporter, feature writer, columnist, public relations writer, magazine/newsletter editor and publisher. She is currently a freelance writer residing in Yuma, Arizona and has published a childrens book, written three screenplays and a novel. In addition, she is interested in civic affairs, politics, current events, ethnology and animals. Email Bobbie: bobbieo@digitaldune.net Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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