Foreign Teen Samples Culture, Fills His Deer Tag

Niels van Keken considers America a land of great opportunity. “In Holland, nobody can hunt with a gun,” said the 18-year-old exchange student.

In a program sponsored by Rotary International, van Keken will live with four families during his senior year at Colville High School. He’ll absorb a different slice of American life from each household.

The past three months with Pat and Glenda Scott were a truly foreign experience, including the chance to sample Western delicacies such as cougar and elk.

Hunting and fishing are a way of life for the Scotts, who own a taxidermy shop in Colville.

“I had no idea about hunting,” said van Keken. “My parents made a trip here first and met the Scotts and knew about them. But I had no idea.

“I know only one person who hunts in Holland and he does it with hawks.”

Falconry, he said, is the only form of hunting open to the public in his country.

Game numbers still must be kept under control to prevent damage to crops. However, instead of hunters paying fees to do the work, roe deer, wild boar, waterfowl and sometimes even pheasants area killed by government rangers. The meat is turned over to restaurants.

“Going hunting with Niels makes me appreciate what I take for granted around here,” said Pat Scott during an unsuccessful morning of deer hunting last week. “He’s so enthused by the wildlife.”

“I can’t hunt in Holland,” van Keken said. “But if I lived here, I’d definitely do it.”

The Scotts gave him the chance.

“With another family, he might have pursued some other type of American activity,” Scott said. “We pursued hunting.”

But van Keken had to earn the privilege.

Dr. Bill Nerud, a certified hunter education instructor and member of Safari Club International, welcomed vanKeken into his home for four days to complete an intensive one-on-one hunter education course.

“We cleared it through Olympia, knowing that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for this young man,” Nerud said. “He’d never even held a gun when he came here.

“Before the training was over, he’d shot everything we have that burns gunpowder,” including handguns, rifles, shotguns and a muzzleloader.

“In Holland, you’re not allowed to have a gun in the house unless your a member of gun club or have a special license,” van Keken said.

Of his first encounter with a gun, the student confessed, “I was definitely scared.”

Nerud had tutored the teenager in safe firearms handling, but didn’t demonstrate live firing before handing him a 12-gauge shotgun.

“We went out in the field and he told me to shoot it,” van Keken said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

“Niels was concerned at first, but once he found the first shot didn’t bite, he got a smile that never left,” Nerud said.

Incidentally, van Keken vaporized the the first two clay targets Nerud tossed. “And I only missed two (out of 75) questions on the test,” he beamed.

The Scott’s have given the young Dutchman the chance to follow the baying song of hounds in a pursuit-only black bear hunt. Following the dogs and crashing through the brush was exciting, he said, but the highlight was seeing a huge moose.

After a 90-day waiting period, van Keken was eligible to get a Washington hunting license.

After three days without seeing a buck, the Dutchman filled his tag in the last half hour of daylight on his last day to hunt.

“It was the weirdest and best moment of my life,” he said, adding that the field-dressing part “was a little messy, but a good experience.”

“He still had a couple of days left in the season,” Scott said. “But it was the last day he had to hunt.”

“I wanted to go to the CougarHusky football game,” van Keken said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo