By Daniel Kraker
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-935740.mp3
Flagstaff, AZ – There's a long history of violence toward Navajo people in Farmington, which borders the reservation in northwest New Mexico. In the 1970s there were notorious incidents of what locals called "Indian rolling," where white teenagers beat Native American men. In 2006 a Farmington police officer shot and killed an unarmed Navajo man. And just last week New Mexico prosecutors announced they would file hate crime charges against three Farmington men for branding a swastika into the arm of a Navajo man in April. Chili Yazzie, who chairs the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, says this new memorandum of agreement formalizes a process to deal with future incidents of racism.
"It forges a cooperation between our communities to educate our constituencies to vent future incidents and as we know, racial hatred and discrimination are learned behaviors that can only be addressed by education."
The Navajo Nation has signed similar agreements with the cities of Gallup and Grants, also in New Mexico. Yazzie says they also hope to eventually reach agreements with Holbrook, Winslow and Flagstaff in Arizona.