Our Fight Has Just Begun: Hate Crimes and Justice in Native America

Our Fight Has Just Begun is a timely and urgent work. The result of more than a decade of research, it revises history, documents anti-Indianism, and gives voice to victims of racial violence. Navajo scholar Cheryl Redhorse Bennett reveals a lesser-known story of Navajo activism and the courageous organizers that confronted racial injustice and inspired generations.

Illuminating largely untold stories of hate crimes committed against Native Americans in the Four Corners region of the United States, this work places these stories within a larger history, connecting historical violence in the United States to present-day hate crimes. Bennett contends that hate crimes committed against Native Americans have persisted as an extension of an "Indian hating" ideology that has existed since colonization, exposing how the justice system has failed Native American victims and families.

While this book looks deeply at multiple generations of unnecessary and ongoing pain and violence, it also recognizes that this is a time of uncertainty and hope. The movement to abolish racial injustice and racially motivated violence has gained fierce momentum. Our Fight Has Just Begun shows that racism, hate speech, and hate crimes are ever present and offers recommendations for racial justice.


Author: Cheryl Redhorse Bennett
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 03/01/2022
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.98w x 0.63d
ISBN13: 9780816541676
ISBN10: 0816541671
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies
- Social Science | Discrimination
- Political Science | Colonialism & Post-Colonialism

About the Author
Cheryl Redhorse Bennett is an enrolled citizen of the Navajo Nation and also descends from the Comanche Nation. She is an assistant professor at Montana State University.