Silent curse goes public
Walk brings awareness to domestic violence

Approximately 50 members of the community participate in the Domestic Violence Awareness march Saturday, traveling from the Multi-Cultural Center to Ford Canyon Park in Gallup. Following the march participants listened as Lean Eskeets talked about the loss of her daughter, Brooke Spencer, after she was stabbed by her boyfriend in June of 2006. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

GALLUP — The T-shirts said it all.“Twenty years of being kicked, put in the hospital, a gun pointed to my head ... ” read one.

The words on another said, “I lived in fear, yet I was afraid to be alone. I was afraid of the unknown. Looking at my children, I knew I had to leave.”

One other read, “It hurts when you hit me, yell, say mean things to me and make me cry.”

The T-shirts were decorated by local survivors of domestic violence as part of “The Clothesline Project,” a national initiative that seeks to address violence against women.

The shirts were on display for the annual Domestic Violence Month Awareness Walk sponsored by Battered Families Services Saturday morning.

More than 50 people marched from downtown Gallup to Ford Canyon Park to bring awareness to the domestic violence crisis.

Wearing orange vests and carrying banners, the group walked together with the occasional car honking in support.

It was the biggest turn out yet, Barbara Lambert, director of Battered Families, said.

“We’re gradually increasing in numbers,” she said.
Lambert’s message, and the message of the organization, is that domestic violence is a community problem.

“It affects men as well as women. It affects children,” Lambert said. “This event is just a way for the community to come together to show support and awareness of domestic violence and join to keep broadcasting that this is a community issue.”

To underscore her point, she said that 6,621 calls reporting domestic violence were made have been made to the Gallup metro dispatch 911 call center.

What will make the number of domestic violence incidents decrease, Lambert said, is “for people to say something about it, to stop denying that there is a problem.”

She said that if people are willing to call the police when a neighbor has loud music, they should call the police “when people are screaming or being thrown around.”

Lambert looked at the crowd noting that there were about the same number of men participating as last year and wishing that more showed up to support the effort to end domestic violence.

One of the men who did show up was Herbert Keeto.

“I’ve heard some very sad stories about kids being abused,” he said.

Keeto and nine others from the Na’nizhoozhi Center walked in support.

“It shouldn’t be a hassle to come home to a nice, happy family,” he said.

His voice trailed off as he remembered 4-year-old Alberto Johnny James who was allegedly beaten to death by his aunt earlier this month.

“It’s a heartbreaking story and we want to eliminate that type of treatment. That’s the objective — to end domestic violence, family abuse,” Keeto said.

Rebecca Lahi came with about 15-16 others from Zuni.

She said that the New Beginnings program in Zuni also held an awareness walk the early part of the month and she was participating in this walk to show support for the message to stop domestic violence.

“I think it’s all over the place, and we need to help one another,” she said. “We need to prevent it.”

Though domestic violence remains a problem in the area, Lambert said that McKinley County has slipped to No. 5 in the state for instances of domestic violence from No. 2 six years ago when she first started at Battered Families.

“The only difference is we started batter intervention classes in Gallup,” she said.

Classes are held once a week as part of the yearlong program for people who abuse their partners.

“People get upset with how long it is,” she said. However, she said, if a person grew up with violence in their homes, they think that it’s normal and it takes a long time to change their pattern of thinking.

So far, the program has done assessments for 145 people in the last three years. Classes are even held at the local jail.

The Battered Families Services helped more than 500 clients last year, offering services for both residents and non-residents of its emergency shelter. The staff members help victims with court accompaniment, helping to file for protective orders, seeking employment, housing referrals and offering support groups for victims and children.
“If we don’t know how to do it, we can find someone who knows,” Lambert said.

Information: Battered Families Services crisis lines, (505) 722-7483 or toll free (800) 634-4508, or contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline, (800) 799-SAFE.