Horseman rides across nation for Thai natives’ rights
SALEM – An apparition of an old-time cowboy in oil-skin coat on a tall, dark horse ambled along the side of West Main Street in light morning snow Tuesday, heading to New York City.
The pair turned out to be Matthew McDaniel on his horse Hampton, a long-legged half-quarter-horse, half-Percheron.
Matthew McDaniel on Hampton rides through the snow Feb. 2 in Salem on his way from Salem, Ore., to the United Nations in New York City to promote rights of Thailand's Akha people.
They were on Day 333, making their way from Salem, Ore., eventually to the United Nations to draw attention to the plight of the Akha hill people in Thailand. The goal of the ride across America is to create pressure on the Queen of Thailand to return thousands of acres of the people’s rice lands, McDaniel said.
On Tuesday, the pair planned to ride through Salem and go 15 miles to the other side of Roanoke before meeting up with the rest of the family who were parked in the lot of the Salem Walmart in a 40-foot-bus emblazoned with the sign “Ride for Freedom.” Smaller signs shouted “Freedom from Disease,” “Freedom from Child Trafficking,” and “Freedom from Land Grabs.”
Inside the bus were McDaniel’s wife, Michu, an Akha native from Thailand, and their five children who range from Ah Soh, who is 9, to baby Ah Pymm, 2-1/2. Michu teaches the children English and the Akha language.
Occasionally they take breaks from the road, such as the one they plan to do in Washington, D.C., so the kids can see the national landmarks. He and his horse also plan to protest the treatment of the Akha in front of the Thailand embassy.
The family also asks for contributions for their cause and to help them on their way. ”Hampton eats about 12 pounds of sweet feed a day,” McDaniel said, while stopping for a photograph in front of Marizel’s Flowers in Salem.
McDaniel and Hampton, his half-Percheron, half-quarter horse, amble down Main Street in Salem, Va., on their way to the United Nations in New York City. Photo by Meg Hibbert
“We put up anywhere we can park the bus and tie up Hampton,” he continued. Photos on McDaniel’s YouTube site show the bus and horse in the parking lot of the BP in Shawsville before heading on the next day to Salem. Hampton is tied nearby, warm in his blanket, McDaniel said, despite snow and ice crystals frosting the horse’s back and mane.
“He doesn’t mind snow,” McDaniel said, “but doesn’t like rain.”
According to McDaniel’s Facebook site, he has been working for Akha human rights since 1991, the same year he met members of the group while visiting Thailand. The Akha are about 600,000 people who own mountain rice farms in the higher elevations of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China and Vietnam, McDaniel said.
Under occupation, he lists “activist.” His hobbies include horsemanship. Why a horse ride across America?
“Nobody in America knows who the Akha are, but they know horses,” McDaniel is quoted as saying in an article in the “Bristol Herald Courier” from Bristol, Va.
After Salem and Roanoke, McDaniel’s route was Lynchburg to Charlottesville to Washington, D.C., then through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and into New York.
To learn more and to follow McDaniel and Hampton, check out akha.org.
Uhm, we here in Chilhowie definetly dont appreciate McDaniel bashing our sweet ol’ Bill Boswell and the rest of our town which had nothing to do with him. Suck it up!
This guys a phony wanting your money so he, his wife and kids do not have to work until some kind of govt. money comes his way. He’s a tradionalal “I will not worked a normal job”! Check out some of his foul-mouth youtubes and decide if you should take his cause seriosly. Happy donating to this fool!