50 Years Ago: Death at a Yei Bi Chei

Posted by Bill Donovan | Oct 16, 2014 | 50 Years Ago |

It’s not unusual these days to pick up a newspaper an read about riots happening in an American city because of people being upset at an action by local police that caused the death of an innocent citizen.

A half century ago — on Oct. 10, 1964 — that situation occurred on the Navajo Reservation and state police had to be called in to quell a near riot that occurred in the early morning hours near Thoreau.

It was a story that was covered by a number of area newspapers, including the Navajo Times, the Gallup Independent and the Albuquerque Journal. The state police report said their officers, who included Glenn Erickson and John DeLong, were called in to keep some 450 Navajos away from the scene of the accident and keep them from rioting.

The details of what happened were sketchy back in 1964 and still are but it appears from state and Navajo police records that it began with the death of Raymond Kien, 42, of Crownpoint, who was run over by a Navajo police panel truck and killed.

There was no indication that this was nothing more than a tragic accident and a later investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs found no wrongdoing on the part of anyone connected with the Navajo police.

The investigation revealed that Kien had been attending a Yei Bi Chei dance and was leaving the dance area some three and a half miles north of the Continental Divide with a friend, who was identified as Francisco Salcido.

Pat Nelson, who had been appointed head of the Navajo police department just a couple of months before, said that a large crowd was expected at the dance so Navajo police had decided to provide police protection because of situations in the past where drinking at these dances had caused fights and, in a few occasions, deaths.

One police panel with two police officers had been assigned to handle the crowd but when reports came in that several hundred people were there and that a couple of arrests had been made for public intoxication, a decision was made to send another police panel to the scene to pick up those that had been arrested and transport them to the Crownpoint jail so that the other van could stay there and keep watch.

Nelson said the second police panel arrived at the scene and picked up the prisoners and was leaving the dance when the accident happened. The following investigation by the BIA said pedestrian traffic in and around the dance was heavy with people milling around and walking to and from the dance.

Nelson said the police officer who was driving was swinging in a wide circle when he felt a bump. The later investigation said the driver, who was later identified as Leo Yazzie Joe, realized that there were a lot of pedestrians in the area but because of the lack of lighting in that area, he did not see anyone in front of his truck.

Salcido, who was reportedly walking next to Kien, later told Navajo police that he saw the panel truck heading their way and jumped out of the way at the last second.

The driver said he thought at first that he had hit a dog so he stopped to investigate and when he did he found that the truck had run over Kien who was still pinned down under it. The truck had to be jacked up to get Kien out but by that time he had died of internal injuries.

When the crowd heard of the man’s death, it reportedly became unruly and Navajo police at the scene — two more units were called to the area when the accident was reported — reported being scared that they would lose control. They also reported that angry remarks were being hurled at the police and they feared that the crowd could turn and do harm to the police vans at the scene or to the police themselves.

When Erickson and DeLong arrived at the scene, they both said that the situation appeared ready to ignite. Within a short time, BIA police also arrived on the scene and continued to try and quiet the crowd down by telling them that an investigation would be done and if it was found that any crime had been committed, that person would be prosecuted in the federal court.

The state police report said that Erickson and DeLong remained at the scene until after 9 a.m. that Sunday, holding shotguns and warning people not to do anything foolish. During this time, they said that a number of people hurled obscenities at them but no one took any physical action.

An inquest was held four days later presided over by Justice of the Peace Bill Thomas of Gamerco. The inquest jury ruled that Kien ‘came to death through injuries from an automobile accident.’ Kien left a widow and eight children.

A preliminary autopsy revealed that Kien had died instantly. Once the inquest was done, the body was released and burial took place at the Thoreau Cemetery.