RICO
[email protected]
NICKELSVILLE INTERVIEWS
by Tom Hastings � 2008
Rico is 47, half Mahican Indian, half Hawaiian. Rico mediates disputes and serves as security. He has been a prizefighter, fisherman, coast guard crewman, iron worker, and smoke jumper wildfire fighter.
RICO
I was an iron worker making $90,000 a year, working all over the country. I broke my back in 1997. Broke my vertebrae. I was in traction for nine months�. I had to learn how to walk again. Spent months hunched over with a cane�. No workman�s comp because it wasn�t job related. I had to pay my medical bills once my insurance ran out. Took everything I had and caused my divorce�.
I�m 47 and have a 9th grade education. I grew up in 14 foster homes before I was 14. I ran away and started working when I was 14 years old�. I lived in the woods 12 miles outside Issaquah, on the far side of Cougar Mountain, for 12 years off and on. I built a log cabin on government property�. Rangers kicked me out about a year ago.
I�m Mahican Indian so have a right to hunt deer year-round�. I had a garden and a wolf and bears and deer and a cougar. They were all friends of mine�. Had a pot belly stove. Still there, I just checked on it a few weeks ago. My animal friends been scratching on the cabin door wondering where I went.
Wild black bears were friendly to me and let me pet them. I knew about 12 of them, got them all named. I�d scold them like dogs�. I was careful to never feed them. If you feed them, they�ll raid your cabin. They would come by when they smelled me cooking, but I never fed them. I miss my bears. Every one of them had a distinct personality. First time one come to my cabin, he surprised me. I just talked to him. He just wanted to check things out and introduce himself�. They would come by as I was reading a book, and lean against my leg, wanting me to pet them�. Kemo was my 165 pound wolf�. Kemo got along great with the bears. I miss him. He passed away. Wild wolves only live about 12 years, but he lived to be 17. Best friend I ever had, besides my brother Mickey.
I have a brother Mickey who was shot and killed in Seattle. He came home from work and some guy robbing his house shot and killed him. When that happened, relatives came and I met some I never knew I had. Never seen them before or since.
My mother was one of the first full-blood natives to be in the US Navy. She married my father who was full-blood Polynesian Hawaiian. I never knew either of them. My mom did not raise me. I grew up in foster homes. My wife taught me to read when I was 24 years old�. Never learned to read in public school. That�s what happens when you have 14 foster homes and 11 different schools�. I have two boys, 18 and 20 years old. They live in Duncanville Texas, outside Dallas.
THIS IS THE NEW GREAT DEPRESSION. NICKELSVILLE COULD LEAD THE WAY TO SHOW PEOPLE HOW TO LIVE. Problem is, as more families wind up homeless now, people grow more desperate, and we might see the worst of the worst trying to sneak back in. Desperate people just won�t stand being told what to do. They won�t stand our rules. They�ll just say, �I aint gotta do a damn thing you say!� Then the camp might go downhill fast. See, we deny entrance to a lot of people already. Anyone who doesn�t follow the rules gets kicked out.
IN THIS ECONOMY WE WILL SEE MANY NEW HOMELESS FAMILIES. We�ll get desperate people. They�ll say, �I aint gonna be homeless so I�m going to take a tent and live here whether you like it or not! Screw you! I got nowhere else to go and I won�t let you kick me out into the cold. You try to evict me from this tent and I�ll shoot ya!� That�s the way government raised this generation of kids. Kids today are a selfish generation. They don�t know anything about sharing or community.
I remember summer camp where I first learned to share. Summer camp was the neatest thing to ever happen to me as a kid, only positive experience. Well, also I had a Big Brother in Seattle. Foster homes didn�t tell him where I was moving, so we lost contact for a long time. When I was living in North Bend, my brother Mickey and I were walking along the side of the highway and my Big Brother recognized us and pulled over, a great reunion. But many foster homes are abusive�. A big percentage of homeless people are foster kids or runaways.
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