TheBanyanTree: The Deer Hunter

[Sharon Mack]

When I was married my husband hunted every Thanksgiving.  We lived in
Maryland and he was black.  He felt protected because he "hunted with
his white friends."  From his lips to God's ears...he never got shot
at...but was asked to leave many a stand ....until he told the person(s)
that were asking, with whom he was hunting!

>>> "Margaret R. Kramer" <margaretkramer at comcast.net> 11/26/2004
8:30:16 AM >>>
Minnesota has a large and possibly the largest population of Hmong
people in
the United States.  Hmongs were agricultural mountain people living in
Cambodia and Laos.  They didn't have a written language until the
1950s.
Hmongs helped us during the Vietnam War.  Fearing retribution from the
Khmer
Rouge, the Hmong war veterans faced many dangers as they found their
way to
Thailand and other SE Asian nations and from there, began immigrating
to the
United States in the 1970s and 80s.  The last Hmong refugee camp in
Thailand
has begun to close and the final wave of Hmong immigrants began coming
to St
Paul, MN this past summer.

Minnesota has welcomed Hmongs.  Many churches set up sponsorships.  And
as
families moved to Minnesota, they beckoned other family members, and
they
came, too.  Many Hmongs started off on welfare, but quickly learned
English,
went to colleges and technical schools, started their own businesses,
and
began integrating within the community.  Yes, there are some Hmongs who
are
still on welfare and have a very difficult time with the culture here,
but
every population has people they will always have to take care of and
the
Hmongs are no different.

Hmongs work hard at keeping their culture alive.  Family clans get
together
often.  Hmongs gather at funerals, markets, and this weekend is their
Hmong
New Year, which will bring 50,000 or more Hmong together for a three
day
festival in St Paul.

But there are differences.  Some Hmongs sacrifice animals.  It's not
unusual
for me to see my neighbors chasing around chickens in their yard. 
Some
Hmong males take multiple wives.  Some Hmong clans try to marry off
their
children while they're still in their early teens.  They have three
day
funerals which can only be on weekends when family members can attend,
so
the two Hmong funeral homes have a large backlog.  They have HUGE
family
gatherings, which are annoying to their neighbors, as the street gets
clogged up with hundreds of cars.

However, like a lot of Minnesotans, Hmongs enjoy hunting and fishing. 
The
Department of Natural Resources has made an effort to recruit Hmongs
for
conversation officers to help explain the rules and regulations of
hunting
and fishing in Minnesota.

But Minnesotans are a funny people.  On the outside, we're
welcoming,
charitable, and always willing to help, but there is a dark side to us
which
distrusts people with dark skin, dark hair, and a last name that
isn't
Scandinavian.  And there are certain things white Minnesotans hold
close to
their hearts, like hockey, golf, and fishing and hunting.  In some
Minnesotans' minds, people with dark skins are not allowed to do
these
activities.

Hmongs have always lived off the land and hunting and fishing come as
naturally to them as those activities come to white Minnesotans. 
Fishing
trips and deer hunting expeditions have become a focus of bonding for
Hmongs
just as they have been for white hunters.

But some people don't want to share and other people don't
understand the
rules.  And then they clash.  Some Hmongs have wandered onto private
property to hunt and some whites have responded by harassing and
scaring
them.

And so last Sunday a Hmong deer hunter from St Paul wandered onto
private
property and climbed into a deer stand in northeastern Wisconsin.  The
white
people saw him and asked him to leave.  He started to leave and then .
. .
the whites say he began to shoot them without provocation.  And he says
they
whites surrounded him on their ATVs and shot at him.  Whatever the
real
story, the deer hunter shot eight people and killed six.

>From what I can gather reading the various accounts from the newspaper
and
seeing reports on TV, I would bet the deer hunter was harassed.  Why
else
would he begin to shoot people?  But to shoot eight people? 
Obviously,
something in him snapped, and he let the years of frustrations,
prejudice,
and culture clashes transform into his rifle and let it all fly. 
It's not
an excuse, and he should be locked up for life, but why couldn't
those
people let him leave the property without trying to scare him?  Why
are
whites so threatened by dark skinned people?

I think that's why so few black people in Minnesota go hunting.  I
think
there's a real fear in their community that they will be picked off
and shot
just like the deer.  "I'm so sorry, Officer, I didn't see that
dark man in
an orange vest standing by the tree.  It was just an accident." 
Yeah,
right.

White Minnesotans fight with the Indians in court constantly about
hunting
and fishing rights, although we are the people who took away those
rights in
the first place.  Now, we're trying to take away the one big source
of
revenue Indians have and that's their casinos.  Share with us, we
plead.
Have we ever shared with them?

"It's not a racial thing," the whites in Wisconsin are saying. 
But why
would the deer hunter's family have to be removed from their home in
protective police custody?  Why are the white deer hunters staking out
the
jail in order to catch a glimpse of the Hmong deer hunter?  Why was
the
local sheriff taken off the case?  Why are Hmong people canceling
hunting
trips?  Why would the actions of one person condemn a whole culture? 
It is
racial, very racial.

America's strength is the melting pot.  The bringing together of
many
cultures forms a wonderful country with riches beyond anything on
earth.
Yet the cultures, the ones out of the mainstream, pay a price for
their
freedoms.  Think of our treatment of Native Americans, blacks, the
Germans
during World War I, the Japanese during World War II, and the Iraqis
in
prison and now the shooting of unarmed Iraqis in their mosques. 
What's
wrong with us?  Why do so many of us who say we are Christians and try
to
follow the very loving and peaceful teachings of Christ so intolerant
and
hateful towards other people?

All peoples share fundamental values.  We need to respect and
understand
those values to get along.  Wasn't that why Bush was re-elected? 
Values?

The whites will go shopping this weekend.  The Hmongs will gather for
their
New Year.  But we'll be tiptoeing around each other, leery and
unsure.  The
deer hunter is in jail.  The families of the men and woman he shot
will
mourn forever.  The rounds that were fired last weekend exposed our
dark and
we'll never be the same.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net 

http://www.polarispublications.com 
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org 
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but
be
careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.
~E.P. Powell