A walk to prevent child abuse

CHINLE, May 1, 2008

The problem of child abuse is so widespread it may make you feel helpless. Eugene Tso decided the least he could do was walk.

Tso finished a 175-mile journey from the Whiteriver Apache Reservation to Chinle Monday. He carried no sign, just a wooden staff with three eagle feathers attached: one from the Apaches in Whiteriver, one from Chinle, and one he found along the way.

"I feel like it was kind of a blessing on my journey," he said.

Tso took the walk to focus attention on child abuse, but he was pretty subtle about it. He waited for people to ask him what he was doing.

One reason child abuse remains hidden, the Chinle man believes, is that people don't talk to each other any more.

"Back in the old days, people would run into each other at the trading post and give them a big hug and ask what they were doing," said Tso, 55. "These days, we're all strangers."

On the Apache reservation where Tso started his walk, no one knew their neighbor had bound his children and left them in their room for hours at a time - at least, no one reported it to authorities until it had been going on for some time.

Tso read of a just-uncovered case in Europe where a man had imprisoned his daughter in a basement for 24 years and impregnated her seven times. Even the man's wife, who lived with him, was unaware of the daughter's plight.

Those are extreme examples, but Tso believes most parents are guilty of subtle forms of abuse. During his own divorce, for example, Tso says his children suffered.

"They got caught in the middle," he said. "We need to learn that, even if you don't have anything any more with your spouse, you still have those children with him or her. You still have to treat each other with respect because that's your children's parent."

Most people who stopped to talk with Tso on his walk were worried about the lone man with an eye patch and his little white dog walking in the dust-laden wind.

"People brought me water, people brought me sandwiches," Tso recalled shortly after reaching Chinle Monday morning. "One Mexican family who could barely speak English left me two water bottles every three miles for about nine miles."

The little acts of kindness touched the walker's heart, and made him hopeful that by looking out for each other just a little bit more, our society can end the problem of child abuse.

But there were the bad stories as well. One woman who brought Tso a sandwich recounted her own experience as a child, being raped repeatedly by her father and uncle.

"She still has to see those men," said Tso, shaking his head. "She said sometimes she just sits still, staring into space. She can't do anything."

A group of Apache and Navajo child advocates and Apache County officials accompanied Tso on the last leg of his journey Tuesday to the packed Chinle Chapter House, where a rollicking "Earth Day/Healthy Relationship Awareness Day" was in full swing.

Council Delegate Harry Clark (Chinle), who can be counted on to wax eloquent about pretty much any topic thrown at him, was expertly tying together the two themes and putting in a good word for nutrition as well, as the local New Dawn director, Wanda Clark, prepared to hand out fruit trees and garden seeds.

It was a fitting end to Tso's journey. He didn't have a problem sharing the spotlight with the planet.

"To me, I feel everybody is made by one God," he said. "He put us here to enjoy this earth and enjoy each other, not to tear down and destroy."

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