There's very little reporting that gets out of Indian country. A friend of mine has been in Farmington New Mexico recently and told me about the recent white power marches that have been going on. Farmington is famous for 'disappearing' native peoples. Think modern day lynchings. This is on top of the completely under reported disappearances of native women that continue to occur throughout Canada and the USA.

In addition white people have been coming onto native lands for recreation while folks are trying to shelter in place there.

The below text, taken from a Facebook posting, accompanied a photo of a native symbol that had been incorporated into a swastika and placed on a flag for a white power march.

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Disgusting, but I’m not surprised in the slightest. New Mexico has facilitated the ongoing genocide of Indigenous and other colonized people since its founding and continues this project of elimination and settler colonial violence. This picture was taken at a right-wing protest calling for the state to “reopen” in Farmington NM. Farmington is one of the most notoriously violent bordertowns in NM meaning anti-Indian violence is rampant, and it is carried out by police and settler vigilantes alike. It is the site of some of the most gruesome slayings of Native people like the the chokecherry canyon massacres where 3 white youth tortured and killed 3 Diné men, and never faced any jail time. Farmington is known for its tradition of “Indian rolling” which boils down to beating and killing Native people in the streets for fun. Bordertown violence is a continuation of the frontier violence which dispossession Native people to make way for the establishment of the settler state we know as the US.

It’s no coincidence that such a notoriously violent bordertown is also a major hub for the gas and oil industry here in NM, it is statistically proven that the rates of MMIW/P and sex trafficking increase when gas and oil extraction projects take place on and around Native Nations. Farmington is a place (like many other NM bordertowns) that simultaneously depends on Native land, labor, and business to keep its economy alive while still brutalizing and pushing Native people to the margins, out of sight.

Settlers have always appropriated the imagery and aesthetics of Indigenous cultures to normalize their presence as “the new Native” rather than the invader, in fact this is the entier premise of settler colonialism. This is also why “appropriation” is about much more than hurt feelings and white girls in headdresses at raves. Here in NM it takes up an especially sinister function, we often see the way traditional Pueblo and Diné aesthetics are juxtaposed against Spanish colonial art and aesthetics in public spaces as a way of reinforcing the tri-cultural myth. The tri-cultural myth being one that reduces the populations of NM to Native, White, and “Hispanic” and proclaims that these groups have always lived in perfect harmony creating a unique cultural blend that is marketable to the wealthy white gaze. Exotic enough to be fetishized but still upholding narratives of European superiority. Ultimately the tri-cultural myth works to revise and pervert history while normalizing the presence of violent settlers like this man who in the spirit of tri-cultural myth superimposed the Zia sun symbol onto the swastika, an infamous fascist symbol of hate and white supremacy.

Let us also remember the fact that the Zia sun symbol itself did non become the state flag by any sort of consensual process, but like many symbols that represent NM was violently stolen. The oral history that I’ve been told by my family is that in the early 1900’s an anthropologist named Dr.Mera got ahold of a sacred pot created by the Zia potter Trinidad Medina, my great aunt. This pot was made specifically for use by a society within the Pueblo, not to be seen or used by outsiders. Mera proceeds to enter this pot into the state fair competition for the design of the state flag and it wins. The pot would not be returned to the family for decades, nore would the Pueblo begin to receive royalties for its popular use. If you want to use it you must first consult the Pueblo of Zia.

Let’s also not forget the way self-proclaimed descendants of conquistadors in Northern New Mexico go to extremes to naturalize and celebrate European domination and superiority on Pueblo lands and how this identitarian movement is directly linked to the support and glorification of Fascist Spanish leader Francisco Franco who was a Nazi collaborator in WWII. For years the UNM Chicano studies department was run by a Franco supporter from Northern New Mexico who helped systematically breed these narratives which celebrated Spanish conquest and literal fascist ideologies and Indigenous death.

These fascists have always been in our presence and this violence has been continuous since European invaders set foot in this hemisphere. It has been visible through the disproportionate poverty amongst Native people, Indian rolling, and theft of land for resources extraction and militarization. The crisis of COVID-19 has simply emboldened these fascists to make their positions known without fear. So what does this mean for those of us who won’t stand to see something so vile become normalized?

Well to start I think about the long traditions of resistance that have existed as long as colonialism has. The resistance that gets revised out of history and out of our hearts and minds. I think about not just the Pueblo revolt of 1680 but the revolts that took place before and after, and well into the late 1800’s. The moments where Native people teamed up with the hispaño and Genizaro farmers and drove out the Americans. I think about John Redhouse, a Diné revolutionary who dedicated his life to combating bordertown violence in places like Farmington and Gallup and helped galvanize a movement for Native liberation in these bordertowns. I think about the fearless relatives I’ve met in my life who come from these places and continue to fight for the liberation of their people. The spirit of resistance never died. And it is important now more than ever that we celebrate it and take up these struggles. Last fall, for the first time in decades The Red Nation took the streets with our Farmington relatives who lead us in a march and informative tour of the city. You could feel the empowerment and joy in the air as our Diné and Ute relatives got to reclaim that space that is rightfully theirs. These moments give me hope and remind me that our victory is inevitable.