National park ranger condemned for attacking unarmed Indigenous man on sacred native land

[turbinetree]

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Written By Brett Wilkins and Common Dreams December 31, 2020

Indigenous and wilderness conservation groups were among those on Wednesday responding with outrage to video of a National Park Service ranger tasering an unarmed Indigenous man after he walked off a trail in Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico on Sunday and then refused to comply with the ranger's orders.

Darrell House, a Diné (Navajo) and Oneida U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was hiking with his sister and his dog in the Albuquerque park—which features many petroglyphs, or ancient stone carvings that are sacred to tribes—so that he could harvest dirt for ceremonies and pray.

House said he walked off a marked trail in order to socially distance himself from a large group of walkers when "this park ranger started following me."

"I guess he was upset about me going off trail before, you know, doing my prayers for the rocks," House told KOB. In a video released by the National Park Service, House repeatedly refuses to disclose his real name to the rangers.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/park-ranger/

[msfiddlestix]

1. How far reaching is the condemnation I wonder?

I suppose if this clip goes "viral" there might be some forced accountability. I hope so.

[turbinetree]

5. This just pisses me off to know end, where a Native cannot walk on his or her own land

to perform his or her rite, to keep our / his or her culture alive from within....its like he (park ranger) didn't even use any common sense, and just whip's out the taser, what kind of training do they use, shoot first and then ask questions, nope what's your name and what's or where is your id, not like how's it going, where are you going and why............nope...

[msfiddlestix]

7. No Words

Our new Secretary of Interior has a number of huge challenges. Let's give her the support she's going to need because opponents are going to put every road block under the sun to keep her from addressing these matters.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. FTP.

[MagickMuffin]

3. Those rangers should lose their jobs

And shame on them for using their positions as a position of power and force.

Darrell House you have every right to visit your sacred lands.

[marble falls]

4. Damn. Remember when a Ranger was probably a long haired hippy?

[Hortensis]

6. Tasing people strolling in national monuments BAD.

This is what happens when two assholes collide.

The ranger could have just slapped him with a fine, apparently can run as high as $5000 for individuals, depending, if the this ex- U.S. Marine couldn't produce his special "fuck you, the law doesn't apply to me" indigenous card. Then followed him while he documented the violations to make sure he didn't vandalize anything.

As it is, let's hope they fire him or at very least take his taser away permanently and assign him to data entry in Albuquerque.

And perhaps next time, Mr. House should respect the need to protect this national monument and clear what he's there for at the front office, and of course first obtain permission to remove anything at all.

[LiberalFighter]

8. He needs to be fired.