We Want to be Free: An Interview with Klee Benally

On December 30th, Klee Benally joined the ancestors. Klee was a Diné anarchist, author, musician, land defender and community organizer based in the occupied lands of so-called Flagstaff Arizona. He was an influential and powerful voice who consistently challenged anarchists in Turtle Island to kill the colonizer in their own heads, and to incorporate an anticolonial analysis into their political frameworks. This interview was conducted with Klee in 2019, as part of Trouble #18: ACAB. In it, he discusses the colonial roots of policing in the so-called United States, and the experiences of racial profiling faced by Indigenous people living in the cities that dot the colonial border between the US and Mexico. Those who haven't done so should check out Klee's writings online, including his book No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred, published in 2023 by Detritus Books. https://detritusbooks.com/