Massacre in the Woods

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Every November, Wisconsin ceases to be a red state or a blue state and instead becomes a blaze orange one. That is the color donned by hunters, 650,000 of whom bought licenses to participate in the state's rifle-deer-hunting season, which begins the Saturday before Thanksgiving. As much as that holiday and Christmas, the nine-day season is a time when families and friends gather. In the woods, men, women and children all join in, and a child's first excursion is often viewed as a rite nearly as solemn as First Communion. But this year the joy was interrupted almost as soon as it began. On Sunday, Nov. 21, a man in the North Woods opened fire on a group of fellow hunters, all clad in the orange garb that is supposed to prevent accidental shootings, leaving six dead and two wounded.

The accused shooter is Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong refugee from Laos who lives in nearby St. Paul, Minn. Vang, 36, is in custody in Hayward, Wis., and was expected to be charged formally this week by the state's attorney general. In a statement to police the day after the shootings, Vang admitted to killing the hunters after being confronted when he trespassed on property owned by two of them. In fact, much of his statement matches the one given by Lauren Hesebeck, 48, a wounded hunter who survived and the first victim to talk about the incident. Both men agree that Vang was asked to leave the area. They also agree that during the shooting spree, Vang chased down and shot two of the hunters as they fled. There is, however, one crucial discrepancy: Hesebeck says Vang opened fire without provocation; Vang says he began shooting only after the group peppered him with ethnic slurs and took a shot at him. Now whites and Hmong in the area, who have lived side by side for years, are wondering whether, by invoking race, Vang exposed ethnic tensions simmering in the community or created new ones.

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Hmong started moving to the U.S. in large numbers 30 years ago. During the Vietnam War, the CIA enlisted them to help fight communists in Laos. But when that country fell in 1975, the U.S., out of gratitude, allowed Hmong to immigrate to America, and they settled primarily in the upper Midwest at the invitation of religious groups offering to sponsor them. Today 46,000 Hmong live in Wisconsin and 60,000 in Minnesota. St. Paul, home to 24,000 Hmong, has the highest concentration in the U.S. Over the years, they have established themselves as hardworking, middle-class business owners, their stores helping gentrify the once dilapidated University Avenue in St. Paul. They have gained seats on school boards and the city council, and in 2001 a Hmong woman was elected to the Minnesota state senate.

Vang came to the U.S. in 1980, settling first in Stockton, Calif., and serving six years in the California Army National Guard, where he qualified as a sharpshooter. After moving three years ago to St. Paul, where he lives with his wife and six children, he worked as a truck driver. Among the local habits he enthusiastically adopted was deer hunting, applying for and receiving a hunting license for the past four years. Hunting was a fundamental part of Hmong life in Laos, where it was done quite differently: there were no prescribed hunting seasons and rarely any delineations between public and private land. One of the few areas of friction between the ethnic groups has been caused by hunting restrictions. Some Hmong say white hunters have threatened them, and white hunters have complained that Hmong do not respect private property. In the North Woods, private and public lands abut each other, and the only way to know the difference is to consult maps issued by the state or look for NO TRESPASSING signs. Landowners routinely find unauthorized hunters on their property. Etiquette calls for asking the interloper to leave or phoning the sheriff or game warden. Physical confrontations are extremely rare.