In her 2006 dissertation, Lisa Donaldson classifies Indian rolling as a "thrill-seeking hate crime" and traces its roots to the colonization of the Southwest which created a "power differential between groups that led to negative feelings toward minorities among law enforcement and local citizens".
[2] The assaults, which often target comparatively defenseless alcoholic men, are variously described as "rites of passage",[1] "sport",[4] and a "recreational pastime"[2] to the perpetrators.
Survivors report the act involves being assaulted with rocks, pellet guns, bottles, eggs, and baseball bats.
[5] The term first came to public notoriety in the spring of 1974 when three Navajos were beaten and murdered[4] by white teenagers in the city of Farmington, New Mexico, and their mutilated bodies were subsequently found in a nearby canyon.
Subsequent protests by tribal members turned into riots when permits to march peacefully were revoked or not granted.