Background of the Wisconsin shooting area

I was born within 50 miles of the shooting area. I will refer to this area as the "North Woods" as it is common among the local population. I grew up there, and spent my youth roaming the woods and rivers. I became an accomplished woodsman, hunter and trapper. I financed a significant fraction of my college education with the proceeds from the trap line. I was a game warden in Wisconsin for a short time early in my career.

Much of the information that I recently read about the area is speculation and prejudice, based on little or no personal experience. I have kept in touch with the area during my career and maintain close ties with family and friends. I feel fortunate to report that none of my relatives or friends was immediately involved in the shooting itself. I would not be surprised if peripheral connections are discovered in the course of the next few weeks. What follows are my personal opinions and observations formed over the last half century.

Northern Wisconsin has a culture that has formed primarily during the last 120 years. A look at the lives of some of the early settlers can be found in Laura Ingles Wilder's famous "Little House in the Big Woods". Prior to 1880, most of Northern Wisconsin was covered in "Virgin" pine forest that had grown up since the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. After the Civil War, increasing interest in the lumber potential of the area resulted in the harvest of nearly all of the forests by 1920. The cleared land was sold to farmers of primarily German, Scandinavian, and eastern European extraction, who found the area flora, fauna, and climate similar to that of their ancestral lands. Their populations vastly surpassed the remnant of the Chippewa and Ojibwa and other tribes, who had displaced earlier groups of Indians.

The glacial till that covers the area has only small pockets of fertile land. Most of the land is suitable only for growing poplar, white pine, Norway pine, jack pine, and various hardwoods, while tag alder swamps, lakes and streams, cover considerable area. The primary industries are dairy farming, lumbering, and tourism. The area is famous for its hunting and fishing. Since World War II, much of the marginal farmland has been abandoned, with vast forests once again covering much more area than cultivated land. More than half is public land, owned by various government entities. County forest cropland, National forests, and Indian reservations cover significant areas of the North Woods.

The dominant culture in the area is this mix of self-reliant farmers, small businessmen, lumbermen, and resort holders, with a small minority of Indian tribes remaining on the reservations. Considerable numbers of Indians have integrated with the more recent immigrant populations. This culture is extremely law abiding. Murder is especially rare, with most cases confined to the Indian reservations, where alcoholism is rampant. Some proto gang activity apparently aimed at taking control of Tribal casinos has resulted in an increased murder rate in the last decade. Remove the tribal component, and the murder rate for the area falls well below that of Canada. The people in the area are reliable red county folk, with the Indian reservations forming the rare rural blue county.

There is however, an underlying sympathy for socialism, transplanted to the area with 1900's German and Scandinavian culture. For example, my family was intimately involved in the formation and sustenance of a rural farm cooperative to supply needs not provided by the early local merchants.

People are, in large majorities, church going Catholics, Lutherans, and Baptists. Nearly everyone is familiar with and trained in the safe operation of firearms. Open carry of firearms is legal, but not common when not hunting, although a burgeoning black bear population has increased the number of individuals who routinely carry guns when out in the woods. An amendment to the state Constitution, passed in 1998, enshrined this familiarity in a state right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, security, hunting, recreation or any other legal activity. However, a statue in effect before the amendment passed prohibits carry of loaded firearms in a vehicle, and has not yet been repealed or tested in the state Supreme Court. This prohibition has made the regular open carry of firearms for security or defense too inconvenient and unsafe for most people. The constant loading and unloading of firearms every time one enters or leaves a vehicle is judged by many to create more security problems than it solves, when the extremely low crime rate is considered.

Most people are strongly patriotic. Careers in the military are respected, as is service in the National Guard. The National Guard in the area has received awards and national recognition. My next-door neighbor was an officer in the Guard who rose to become the Commander of the State National Guard.

Deer hunting is the area sport, surpassing all others. I believe that more people participate in deer hunting than are football fans. Arrangements are made for children to take off from school during the traditional nine-day deer season, which always starts the weekend before Thanksgiving. Junior High and High schools take on a deserted appearance at this time. A vast lore of deer hunting traditions and stories form part of the popular culture. Going deer hunting is a rite of passage for young people. During the last two decades, there has been a considerable increase in the number of women and girls joining the hunt. My sister in law and niece have both shot many deer, and in the last three years each has shot a black bear.

Hunting parties hunt in familiar territories. After a decade of two, territories become as well known as an urban neighborhood. The phrase "move down along the swamp to the end of the pine plantation has as much meaning and precision as "driving down Fifth Avenue to Joe's Deli". Territories often overlap and tend to cover both public and non-posted private land, usually by tradition and permission. Neighbors often exchange hunting privileges, sometimes with pertinent information, such as " sure, you can do a deer drive, but watch out for the horses" or " there's been a big buck hanging out around the field down by the river. Larsen's gang saw him the other day, but he was too quick for them to get a shot off".

Hunting with a handgun is legal, but the firearm of choice is the rifle. Only expert shots and hunters use handguns as a handicap in order to introduce a greater challenge to the hunt. Calibers used to hunt deer are limited to those fired in center fire rifles. As most handgun calibers are available in center fire rifles, this does little to limit the choice of handguns, however the barrel length for hunting deer must be at least 5 inches. There is no magazine limitation for hunting rifles or pistols. If a shotgun is to be used, it must be at least 20 gauge, and must be used to fire a single projectile per shot. Buckshot, despite the name, is not legal for hunting deer. Hunters are required to wear at least 50% blaze orange clothing, and a back tag (a little smaller than a license plate) with an identifying number.

During the last decade, a combination of mild winters and the sustainable harvest of softwoods have resulted in an enormous deer herd. The herd is so large that not enough hunters can be found to reduce the herd to sustainable numbers. As a consequence the bag limits are generous. In some management areas, an antler less deer must be harvested before the hunter can legally take an antlered buck. Additional permits are available at $12 each. There is no longer any reason to poach deer, as people can legally harvest more than they can eat during the year. When I was growing up, giving a deer quarter to a family was a sign of generosity. Today, it can be difficult to give away a deer, as few people seem willing to process the meat themselves. It is a prosperous land, and the people have no shortage of good food.

Despite the large numbers of hunters and deer; the requirement to wear blaze orange, increased firearms safety training, and improved firearms technology have reduced the number of fatal firearm accidents enormously during the last decades. Now fatal accidents are rare, though not unknown. Hunting is far safer than baseball or other sports. Violence involved with hunting is almost unheard of. Other than the murder of a game warden about 20 years ago, I cannot recall another single intentional homicide resulting from a hunting situation. Compared to national averages, the area has an extremely low crime rate. Like Switzerland, it boasts both a strong tradition of firearms use and an extremely high proportion of firearms ownership. I am not surprised that no one shot back at this assailant. The event is so rare as to be far outside normal experience. No one shoots another person deliberately in deer season! The occasional fatal accident provided all the necessary cover for the shooter, as others drawn to the scene were almost certain to believe that a terrible accident had occurred. I suspect that even those who were shot did not realize that they had been shot deliberately for some time.

There is little racial or ethnic tension in the area. I was raised to be tolerant of others, and tolerance in the area has increased over the past decades. I have two cousins that are half Indian, and another who married a very beautiful young woman of Vietnamese ancestry. I do not know if she is Hmong. I have never asked. The highest tension came with court decisions in the 1980's to enforce tribal hunting rights in existing treaties with the tribes. There was considerable talk about the pending destruction of the deer herd. The burgeoning deer herd and generally increasing game populations have removed that source of tension. No one was ever shot, the talk died down, and I have not heard the subject discussed for more than a decade.

Taverns are common, with beer a popular beverage. Outside of the Indian reservations, none of the counties are "dry". While many hunters drink during deer season, it has been my experience that most drinking occurs at night, after the day's hunt is done. Drinking inhibits sharp senses, fast reflexes, and good judgment. All of these are desirable while hunting. Alcohol is also a diuretic. When you are wrapped in multiple layers of clothing for warmth, urinating can involve some time, effort, and discomfort!

The people of the area are resourceful, hard working, well educated, friendly, and community oriented. The limited number of high paying jobs means that many young people leave the area to seek their fortunes elsewhere. I did so, and never felt handicapped by my upbringing, values, or education. Instead, I felt privileged. I often pitied urban dwellers for their poor, deprived existences. Now, I realize that many of them pitied me!

While this has been an exceedingly long vanity, I hope that it has been some help as background to the recent shooting. I only hope that time will shed more light on this perplexing and shocking event.

I thank you for the well written post marktwain. I think it puts a noose of perspective upon those too liberal to look at both sides of this tragedy. Your description of the Wisconsin area just about mirrors the people and the town I grew up in.

I am new to this forum and I stumbled upon it trying to find out more facts about this incident. Although I sense some "racial prejudices" from some of the posters, I can tell that most of you just want the facts so that there can be some justice done here. At the same time I will not condemned those here who have been racially discriminatory either because it sounds like they may have had good reason to be so. I would just like to have an opportunity to give you a HMONG perspective on this.

I am Hmong from the Vang clan, but I do not know or have any connections with the suspect. Hmong are a tribal people much like the American Indians and thus they take their last names from the clan that they belong too. I live in the Pacific Northwest, but I have been to Wisconsion and Minnesota and have experience with the situations down there. My father was a Hmong Captain in the U.S. Army or better known as the U.S. Secret Army in which he served valiantly and was wounded severely in combat. It is noted that the Hmong were the only group of people in the Vietnam War truly loyal to the Americans and were trusted implicitly, specializing in covert military operations. All the same my father and most of the Hmong people wanted the American Freedoms that were promised and thus served with both Hmong and American soldiers in hopes that Laos and Vietnam could become a country of equal opportunity. This did not happen, and when the U.S. pulled out he and thousands of other Hmong loyal to the U.S. had two choices, execution or move to America. The U.S. was kind enough to offer him this for his service. The plane was too crowded and so he had to leave his mother and father behind. Much later on, my father would begrudgingly allow his younger brother to take his place in a rescue mission to bring my grandparents back to America. My grandparents made it to America, but my uncle was captured, mutilated, and executed.

With help from the Christian church my father settled his family to an all white rural town in Oregon which he raised his 6 children. My father was on welfare and food stamps for 1 year until he was on his feet. He and my mother worked multiple menial jobs just so that they could be self reliant. Unlike what some of the statements posted on here, Hmong are not lazy unappreciative people. The Hmong toiled night and day and had to work harder than most to survive in the harsh mountains of Laos. Eventually my my father settled on a goal and ended up working 30 years for the state, first as a janitor, then finally retired as a supervisor but only made $14.00 by the time he retired, so there was no preferential treatment.

During my childhood all my friends were white and we spent most of the days trekking through the woods, swimming, hunting, fishing, etc… I had a great appreciation for the outdoors and learned to hunt and fish from my father. Throughout most of my childhood in this all white town I remember things in much as the member marktwain described his Wisconsin town. People were cordial and helpful and everyone knew one another. Of course there were a few racists and bullies that I had to contend with, but I felt more sorry for the fat kid or nerd than I did for myself. My father always told me to channel my anger and my energies to assure that those who would judge my character based upon my race would NEVER be right. As long as I knew who I was and worked to get where I was, it didn’t matter. In my eyes, affirmative action serves only to discredit all my hard work and sacrifices and I see it as a weapon of division not equal opportunity.

To make an already too long story short, I am a god fearing conservative who voted for Bush. I got straight A’s in school, went to work at age 14, went to college, bought my own car, bought my own house, started my own business, and yes pay my taxes and go to church. Many of my Hmong brethren have done the same. There are thousands of them living very meaningful lives and they should not be disparaged by the actions of the few that seem to make headlines and leave all of us with a racial wound. I once managed a government subsidized apartment complex where the government would pay all or most of the rent based on need. All the tenants happened to be white and many of them were able bodied middle aged white males. Most of them did nothing, but drink and work on their broken down cars. Needless to say the cops were a common spectacle around the complex as domestic disputes and fights were common place. I worked here for 3 years and had only 1 tenant move out and this was a single mom, who was going on to better things. I left this job in disbelief at the extent of human depravity and sloth. This could have just been an apartment full of Hmong, or blacks, or Hispanics or whatever. It is not a race issue, it is a statement to the failure of a government system and idealistic liberals that believe hand outs are the answer.

How about Hmong gangs? They are becoming more rampant as they become more separated from their heritage and their society due to negative social forces and parents who fail to see the extent of these influences. Look at the recent Columbine shooting, these kids grew up in a good neighborhood and had good parents yet they lost touch with their family and their community. This kind of behavior is not race biased it is a by-product of living in a godless me me me society. If nothing has any meaning other than your whims, then as Nike says, “Just Do It”. It is up to the parents to understand this and keep kids grounded as to what it means to be a good human. In a larger scheme of things we must get back to being one nation under god. Those young Hmong who become criminal gangsters are heavily influenced by rap and MTV culture and are lost to the values of a strong society. The gansters seem to want no part in their heritage or society even though they often have gang names like HP(Hmong Pride). Ironically most of their crimes are committed on their own people. They are criminals like any other gangsters and should be punished harshly.

Do Hmong Hunters have a problem? I have hunted with many Hmong hunters and hunting groups all my life and I can tell you that they do have issues they need to address. The old timers who have hunted in the traditional ways in Laos DO have a problem keeping with bag limits as they seem to go into survival mode when it comes to hunting. This is good in the fact that the do eat EVERYTHING and do not waste game, but it is bad in that they try to harvest everything as well. In Laos, a Hmong family would be lucky if they ate meat more than twice a year as most of their daylight hours were spent tending the fields on the mountain slopes. The older Hmong hunters have a stockpile attitude towards hunting as well as fishing which needs to be addressed. I have found myself un-invited on many hunting and fishing trips due to my adamant intolerance and protest of such practices. This being said I have seen this same problem with other groups of people as well, most recently with the Russian community. It is not a race issue but a cultural issue. People this is America we do things different here, there is no need to kill and stockpile everything that moves in order to survive. It is imperative that the Hmong community and especially the elders MUST address this issue in order to dispel this stereotype. The Hmong do have a problem with unmarked property boundaries but no more than any other hunter I have hunted with. During all the many hunts I have participated in I have not experienced anyone ever purposely crossing into known private property nor have I heard of any disparaging sentiments towards local land owners. The Hmong are historically a peaceful people who have always fled a conflict. Traditional Hmong are among the kindest and most respectable people I know, with deep belief in honor and duty.

I am not sure what exactly happened in the woods of Wisconsin, but I think we should be careful in condemning or stereotyping a group of people over the incident. Lets allow the evidence to present itself before we start condemning an entire race of people. Lets not act like France and forget about the ties that united us. The Hmong and the Americans fought side by side and so we should be able to live side by side.

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