Hmong find hunting in U.S. strange
American rules, regulations very different from Laos
By Keith Uhlig
Wausau Daily Herald
kuhlig@wdhprint.com
When Houa Lee stalks through the woods in search of that big buck this deer hunting season, he'll be both hearkening back to his roots in Laos and assimilating into Wisconsin culture.
The 39-year-old Weston man first hunted as a small boy. "When I grew up in Laos, we worked on the farm and all that," Lee said. "My uncle taught me how to hunt with a Hmong crossbow."
Lee's hunting was put on hold when he immigrated to the United States. He worked to educate himself and eventually landed a job as a student transition support specialist at Northcentral Technical College. Eight years ago, an NTC colleague talked him into hunting once again. Only this time around, he'll be taking part in a great Wisconsin tradition - a nine-day gun season that begins today.
"Being out there in the woods is physical therapy for me," he said. "Being up close with nature kind of reminds of me of my homeland. Getting away from civilization and the distractions, it's kind of like a time of renewal." Hunting and fishing is as much a part of the Hmong lifestyle as it is for those born and raised in Wisconsin, said Thomas Lee, Wausau's minority affairs director.
The difference is that in Laos, regulations requiring hunters and anglers to buy licenses and adhere to bag limits didn't exist. And sometimes Hmong people don't realize how many rules exist.
"I would say particularly in the older folks, who can't read and can't understand the regulations," Thomas Lee said. "It applies to all kinds of sports, such as fishing. Certain fish you can keep, certain sizes you can keep. These can be troublesome for folks."
The subject even got a mention in the Thursday morning performance of Tou Ger Xiong, a Woodbury, Minn., comedian, storyteller and diversity consultant, who spoke in front of an audience of students at the Grand Theater. Back in Laos, Xiong said, people could just hunt and fish. "Here, they've got licenses for everything," he said.
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