Indian rolling (orInjun rollin')[1][2] is the assault, and in some cases murder, of often homeless[3]Navajo andApache individuals committed by non-Indians in theSouthwestern United States, especially in the border towns surrounding theNavajo Nation andJicarilla lands.In her 2006 dissertation, Lisa Donaldson classifiesIndian rolling as a "thrill-seeking hate crime" and traces its roots to the colonization of the Southwest which created a "power differential between groups that led to negative feelings toward minorities among law enforcement and local citizens".[2]
The assaults, which often target comparatively defenseless alcoholic men, are variously described as "rites of passage",[1] "sport",[4] and a "recreational pastime"[2] to the perpetrators. Survivors report the act involves being assaulted with rocks,pellet guns, bottles, eggs, and baseball bats. Victims claim, furthermore, that law enforcement officials often refuse to intervene.[5]
The term first came to public notoriety in the spring of 1974 when three Navajos were beaten and murdered[4] by three white teenagers. Howard Bender and Delray Ballinger, both 16, and 15-year-old Matthew Clark killed the three men in the city ofFarmington, New Mexico and left the mutilated bodies in a nearby canyon.[1] The perpetrators were convicted of murder, but sent to areform school until the age of 21 after attempts to prosecute Bender and Ballinger as adults were unsuccessful (Clark was too young to be tried as an adult under state law at the time).[6] Subsequent protests by tribal members turned into riots when permits to march peacefully were revoked or not granted.[7] The incident triggered a report by the New Mexico Advisory Committee to theUnited States Commission on Civil Rights and inspired thetrue crime-novelThe Broken Circle—A True Story of Murder and Magic in Indian Country by Rodney Barker.[5][8]
Concerns about the practice's revival emerged in the 1970s to 2000s after a resurgence of attacks against Native Americans in the area.[1][9] Assaults have allegedly taken place in the Arizona cities ofFlagstaff,Phoenix, andPage and inGallup, New Mexico.[3]
