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Alcohol, cultural differences play role in murder on Ute land
Herald Staff Writer
Clifton Joseph Greany, 31, was killed early Aug. 23, 2007, in a remote location southwest of Ignacio. Three women pleaded guilty to murder, and a fourth defendant, Isaac Headman, 27, is on trial for murder in Durango.
According to plea agreements signed by the three women - April Watts, Monica Williams and Johnita Taylor - the events turned ugly about 4:30 a.m. when Taylor and Greany began discussing their Indian ancestry in Oklahoma. The factual evidence as outlined by the government is the same in all three plea agreements.
Taylor and Greany realized they were from different tribes, and Taylor began to sing powwow songs. She wanted Greany to sing with her, but Greany didn't know the songs.
This is when Taylor suggested that Greany's long hair should be hers, and a fight broke out.
After Greany was knocked down and while he was fading in and out of consciousness, Watts cut off chunks of his hair using a kitchen knife.
Watts then used scissors to cut Greany's hair while Taylor placed the cut hair in a plastic bag. Headman then used electric clippers to cut Greany's hair, but there was too much blood for the clippers to work.
The foursome put the dazed Greany in a car trunk and drove him to a remote location off County Road 318, southwest of Ignacio, where they continued the beating and eventually killed him.
Alcohol played a significant role in the beating death. At the time of his death, Greany's blood-alcohol level was about three times the legal driving limit in Colorado. And in a two-page statement detailing the crime, Watts expressed regret for drinking.
"I'm really, really, sorry," she wrote. "I was really, really drunk, and I didn't mean for that to happen. I regret everything that night. I wish I could go back and change everything that happened that night. I wish I would have never drank."
On the witness stand Thursday in federal court, she said through tears: "I know if I was sober, I wouldn't have done anything."
In most American Indian cultures - and other cultures throughout the world - hair and hair length play an important role in spirituality and religion.
For Indians, long hair is a sign of wisdom and long life, said Robert Baker, an employee at the Southern Ute Museum and Cultural Center. If a family member dies, some Indians will cut their hair. The amount cut depends on how close that individual was to the deceased, he said.
Some tribes believe it is important to keep one's own hair or throw it on the fire, because it is a part of them, and if their hair ends up in the wrong hands, it can be a bad omen, Baker said.
It is clear that the defendants knew the cultural significance of cutting the victim's hair.
In an interview transcript from Aug. 28, 2007 - five days after the beating death - Taylor told FBI Special Agent Peggy Russin about the significance of cutting Greany's hair.
During the interview, Taylor denied cutting the hair, but in her plea agreement, she admits to participating.
"Traditionally, our men, they hold their strength, their power, their medicine - everything's in their hair," she told the investigator. "We cut our hair like our men cut their hair - when our fathers and our mothers pass and their children die."
Earlier in the interview, Taylor said she was suffering from nightmares, even though she denied involvement.
"I can't sleep," she said. "Remember when you said they cut his hair? I remember who did it now, and I sit there at night and I feel them hairs, and (prison guards) turn on the light, and there are hairs all in those blankets and they're all over me. I just, I can't get it out of my head. And it's just playing, playing, playing and playing. And it's killing me."
shane@durangoherald.com
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