Hmong News – Laos
Forever chasing rainbows…
The Miao are also known elsewhere as the Hmong. Their diaspora has spread as far as the United States, where Hmong refugees from Laos resettled after the war of the US against communist forces in South-east Asia. The souvenir shops sell specialities …
Book Review: A Great Place to Have a War (Laos)
The United States would build a vast proxy army of hill tribes in Laos—mostly Hmong but also several other ethnic minorities—that would number in the tens of thousands. Overall, by the end of the war in 1975, some two 200,000 Laotians, both civilians …
A Great Place To Have A War America In Laos And The Birth Of A Military CIA
This is what President Eisenhower believed when he approved Operation Momentum, a plan for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to create an army of primarily Hmong to fight communist forces in Laos on the United States’ behalf. Largely hidden from the …
A few thoughts occasioned by seeing Vietnam and Laos
I have never seen such abject poverty as that I observed in a Hmong village just outside of Luang Prabang. The Hmong live in primitive wooden shacks built on clay soil that turns into slick, gooey mud when it rains. Through open doors we could see cooking …
Book Review: A Great Place to Have a War
The United States would build a vast proxy army of hill tribes in Laos—mostly Hmong but also several other ethnic minorities—that would number in the tens of thousands. Overall, by the end of the war in 1975, some two 200,000 Laotians, both civilians …
Refugees from Africa, Iraq find homes in Missoula
The community has a history of helping refugees. The latest efforts come more than 30 years after last of some 550 refugees from Southeast Asia, most of them Hmong who supported U.S. efforts in the secret war in Laos, were brought to western Montana.
Tallest Mountains In Laos
The mountain has witnessed several conflicts between government soldiers and the Hmong guerilla soldiers. Tourists and mountaineers rarely visit the mountain due to military activities in the area and the presence of large volumes of unexploded mines.
Of freedom and frangipanis
I grimace. She returns to her calculator. I nod. And we conclude the deal to our mutual satisfaction. Haggling is serious business at the Hmong Night Market in Luang Prabang, a serene little town in north-central Laos, at the confluence of the Mekong and …
Follow Me: Waterfall treks and story time, Laos part three
We lurch over red clay ruts into cloud-misted foothills. In an hour we arrive at Ban Long Lao, a traditional village, home to both Khamu and Hmong ethnic peoples. This village is used by cyclists and trekkers who bring sleeping bags to overnight in a lean-to.
From Spying to Killing
Operation Momentum began in 1961 as a modest effort to recruit, train, and arm guerrilla fighters from the Hmong, one of the largest ethnic minority groups in Laos. Concerned about what a stronger national government under the Communists would mean for the …
The Peopling of Indochina
There was some sort of similar large movement into Laos. In addition, in the last 300-400 years, there was a large movement of Southern Chinese Hmong people into the north of Laos. The indigenous people are composed of a number of small Mon-Khmer speaking …
Missoula refugees now number 46
The IRC returned to town in July, more than 30 years after bringing to western Montana the last of some 550 refugees from Southeast Asia, most of them Hmong who supported U.S. efforts in the secret war in Laos. The latest round coincided with a contentious …
Elk Grove’s Steve Ly sworn in as 1st Hmong mayor in US
Steve Ly will be swornm in Wednesday as Elk Grove’s new mayor, making him the nation’s first Hmong mayor. Ly was a refugee from Laos who came to California as a child. Elk Grove voters elected him in November The public is invited to Wednesday night’s …
Immigrant of the Day: Steve Ly, Mayor of Elk Grove, California (Laos)
“When Hmong refugee Steve Ly was elected mayor of suburban Elk Grove . . . was celebrated worldwide. His successful campaign to become the nation’s first Hmong mayor was backed by Hmong in Minnesota and Wisconsin, who contributed more than $10,000 to …
More than thousand Catholics attend the beatification of 17 Laos martyrs in Vientiane
The group of 17 included Fr Mario Borzaga Omi and catechist Paul Thoj. Communist guerrillas killed the two in 1960 as they made their way to Hmong villages. Both were very young, 28 and 19 respectively. Some of the martyrs’ relatives and residents from …
The Painful Struggles Of America’s Older Immigrants
More than two-thirds of recent older immigrants don’t speak English well. Bee Yang’s situation is illuminating. Yang is a Hmong song poet in St. Paul, Minn, originally from Laos, with seven children and six grandchildren. Warm and friendly, he’s …
Podcast Out
Ostensibly, they asked whether a mysterious yellow powder falling from the sky was a chemical weapon deployed by the Soviets as part of a genocidal war against the Hmong people in Laos, or whether a mass bee defecation just happened to coincide with …
For the book lovers on your list, 21 picks from this year’s best
“The Song Poet” by Kao Kalia Yang (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt) — Yang’s father was a Hmong song poet in his native Laos, the keeper of stories of his people who invokes the spirits and the homeland. But he stopped when his mother died in 2003 …
