Ancient Homeland & Early Migration
This country is the original ancestral homeland of the Hmong people, where they are also known as Miao.
What is China?
This U.S. government agency was responsible for recruiting and training Hmong soldiers in Laos.
What is the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)?
Following the communist victory in 1975, Hmong refugees primarily fled Laos by crossing this major river into Thailand.
What is the Mekong River?
Hmong society is traditionally organized into a number of these groups, whose membership is determined by paternal lineage, and within which marriage is forbidden.
What are clans?
This U.S. state, home to the Twin Cities, has the largest concentration of Hmong people in America.
What is Minnesota?
This agricultural practice, where fields are cleared and burned, then abandoned when soil fertility declines, was traditional for the Hmong.
What is slash-and-burn?
The Hmong were recruited to fight against the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese during this wider, and officially neutral, conflict.
What is the Secret War (in Laos)?
The Hmong soldiers and their families initially sought safety in these temporary settlements in Thailand.
What are refugee camps? (e.g., Ban Vinai)
The Hmong New Year celebration typically occurs at the end of the harvest season in these two months.
What are November and December?
Along with Minnesota, this state on the West Coast is home to one of the largest Hmong-American populations.
What is California?
Starting in the 19th century, Hmong migrated from their homeland to the mountainous regions of this Southeast Asian country, as well as Vietnam and Thailand.
What is Laos?
This military figure, who was Hmong, was recruited by the CIA and became the leader of the Special Guerrilla Units (SGU).
Who is General Vang Pao?
Unlike economic immigrants, Hmong people arriving in the U.S. were classified with this legal status, due to fleeing war and persecution.
What is a political refugee or asylum seeker?
The two major, mutually intelligible dialects of the Hmong language spoken in the U.S. are Hmong Daw and Mong Njua, also known by these colors.
What are White and Green/Blue?
In the U.S., Hmong people are often referred to as Hmong-Americans, reflecting their status, as opposed to simply "immigrants."
What are political refugees?
This crop, which the Hmong began to cultivate in the late 19th century, was sold to traders for silver.
What is opium poppy (or opium)?
Hmong soldiers played a crucial role in disrupting supply lines along this infamous North Vietnamese route that ran through Laos and Cambodia.
Ho Chi Minh Trail?
The most challenging aspects for Hmong refugees in America are:
1. Language barriers
2. Limited previous education and job skills
3. Cultural misunderstandings
This visual form of storytelling, which evolved in refugee camps, used embroidery to depict scenes of the Secret War, jungle escape, and resettlement.
What are story cloths?
The Hmong were initially relocated from Laos primarily to these three Southeast Asian nations, where large Hmong communities still exist.
What are Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Burma)?
The two major rivers the Hmong crossed from China to Southeast Asia that often displayed on Hmong story cloth.
What is the Red and Yellow river?
The CIA's initial promise to General Vang Pao offered not just arms, but also this essential supply, which was a significant incentive to the poor farming communities.
What is rice (or food/humanitarian aid)?
This term, meaning "flower cloth," is used for the traditional Hmong textile art, sometimes embroidered with symbols to record history and journeys.
What is Paj Ntaub?
This writing system, developed in the 1950s by Western linguists with Hmong assistance, is the most widely adopted for the Hmong language today.
What is the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA)?
This traditional ceremony, which involves calling the soul to the body, is an important practice for health and spiritual well-being.
What is Hu Plig (soul calling)?