> Your information about Hmong in Vietnam coincided with what we've
> learned about the Hmong from Laos.
>
> 1. Chinese Archives dated Hmong live in along the Yellow River and
> Central China 3000 B.C.
> 2. Hmong are pushed to the southwest region by the Han Chinese and
> records found Hmong existed in Yunnan Province in 862 A.D.
> 3. Scholars dated Hmong migrating into Indochina, primarily Laos and
> Vietnam, from China in the early 1800's.
> 4. From 1840-68, revolts erupted betweent the Hmong and Chnese, which
> ended with more than 10,000 Hmong escaping persecution into Southeast
> Asia, mainly Laos and Vietnam.
> 5. By 1881, another 10,000 Hmong were found migrating to Southeast
> Asia from China mainly into Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Ha Giang Provinces
> in Vietnam.
> 6. Laos and parts of Vietnam become French protectorates in 1893.
> 7. In 1896, about 30,000 Hmong in Laos, 20,000 in Thailand and Hmong
> in Vietnam could not be accounted for at this time.
> 8. In 1960, Hmong according to the U.S. Library of Congress and CIA
> Archives indicaded Touby Lyfong and Vang Pao were Hmong's top leaders
> and about 300,000 living in Laos by this time. More than 30,000 Hmong
> troops were recruited by the U.S. government to fight the Communist,
> aka, Secret War, from 1960-1973.
> 9. 1975, the Secret War ended, forcing more than 100,000 thousand
> Hmong into exile (France, Australia, Canada, and the U.S.).
> 10. In 1988, Hmong in the U.S. number 70,000.
> 11. May 15, 1997 - U.S. Congress finally recognized, honored and
> commemorated Hmong and placed an engraved plaque in Washington DC for
> their valor sacrifice during the Vietnam War.
> 12. In 2000 - Hmong in the U.S. according to Hmong National
> Development, Inc. number about 283,239; 300,000 in Laos.
> 13. 2006 - Hmong totaled 315,000 in the U.S.; 6,000 Hmong remain
> refugees in Thailand from Laos; Hmong population in Thailand and
> Vietname remain unaccounted for.
> 14. 2006 - Hmong students in the U.S. were found in the same level as
> Whites in academic achievement from K-12 school. 70 percents of Hmong
> entered the workforce and became home owners.
>
> On Feb 24, 11:35 pm, Elchinoboatconscie...@
gmail.com wrote:
>> LOYALTY TO YOUR ex=SLAVES WHILE A PRAISEWORTHY CAUSE BUT NOT
>> If such loyalty is to cause your ex-slaves more hardship than if they
>> were to be left alone.
>> Mr Kovan was interested, which is to his credit, in the fate of the
>> Hmongs who had served him during the Nam War against present real or
>> imaginary persecution by the Vietkong who supposedly punished them for
>> past collaboration with the Kovans.
>> What I knew of the Hmong was from superficially reading US or Western
>> sources which gave me a contradictory picture of the Hmong. Where do
>> they come from ? What is there Geographical distribution and why did
>> they collaborate with the US.
>> A short trip to Ha Giang, the Northern most province of Vietnam next
>> to China last Christmas encouraged me to do an in depth investigation.
>> Ha Giang was the road by which the Hmong arrived to VN from China in
>> last 300 years in 3 waves of immigration.
>> What is new to me was before 1954, there were no Hmongs in what is
>> known later as South Vietnam. At the end of the War against the
>> French, Their main distribution was highest in China (about 70%%) then
>> North Vietnam (20-25%%) Laos (5-10%% ) ,Thailand about 1%% and South
>> Vietnam = 0%%. The Hmong in North Vietnam lived in the provinces of
>> Ha Giang, lao cai, cao bang, son la , Bac can and Thai Nguyen. None
>> of them lived in the Central Highlands of South VN in the Provinces
>> of kongtum, Darlac, Lam Dong and ban Me Thuat.
>> But from Mr Daiuy's posts and others who hated the Communists, all of
>> the persecutions of Highlanders occurred on population in the
>> Highlands of South Vietnam in the provinces referred to above. So were
>> these persecuted Hmong who came from China in last 300 years and who
>> belonged, ethnically, to the mongoloid groups called by the Chinese
>> as the Giao or Chuang and who inhabited Guichow, Quang Xi and Yunnan
>> or were they kotu, Rade', Jarai, a Melanesian group who came to
>> Vietnam from South Asia Islands (Indonesia, Borneo, Malaysia etc...)
>> tens of thousands years ago ?
>> But the records showed that the Individuals who fled to Cambodia from
>> VC persecution were mainly Hmongs interspersed with a few Melanesians
>> who were converted into Protestantism (Mennonite etc...). So the
>> Hmong in South Vietnam came to the South like the Catholic Kinh as
>> auxiliary forces (and their family) of the French Expeditionary
>> Forces after their defeat at Dienbienfu. These Hmong folks numbering
>> then at the most a few tens of thousands. But their number were
>> augmented by the Hmongs from Laos who were recruited by Ong Kovans
>> into his Special Forces to interdict the Vietkong on the HCM trail.
>> The American War in Laos lasted even longer than the American War in
>> Vietnam producing a population of collaborators headed by Vang Pao of
>> several hundreds thousands. I doubted that all of them were pure
>> Hmong. Other components like the Melanesians and Cambodians were
>> likely present.
>> After the war about 50,000 were imported to the USA settling mainly in
>> Minnesota , Wisconsin and California. Their total number reached
>> 85,000 in 1995 and 135,000 in 2004 showing vigorous proliferation
>> activity but unfortunately the Hmong very poorly integrated into the
>> Main Stream Americans. The Reason was mainly cultural but also
>> linguistic. Possibly 70%% of all Hmongs are on Welfare to certain
>> extent. Still now 70 %% of the Hmong (all figures were from various
>> Hmong WebPages) still do not speak fluently English. The most
>> successful Hmongs are Lawyer, Doctors; and the First Indohinese
>> elected to a state senatorial position was a Hmong Lady from
>> Minnesota.
>>
>> In Vietnam ,I could not come up with the latest statistic on the
>> population of Hmongs in Vietnam. The number of 231,000 was published
>> in 1967 (Museum of Ethnology , Hanoi, VN). This number increased to
>> 550,000 in 1995 then to 800,000 in 2002 a sizable increase comparable
>> to the increase in the hmong 's population in USA from 1975 to 2004.
>> The amount of rice/grain consumption was used as an indicator of
>> economical status in a dirt poor socialist economy like North
>> Vietnam's pre Doimoi for both Kinh and Hmong population. A t the
>> beginning statistics for rice consumption (around 1970) was 212 Kg/
>> inhabitant/year for the Hmonh and 280 Kg for the kinh. In 1990, it
>> was 302 kg/inhabitant/year for the Hmong. But since 1990, doimoi
>> had visited the Highlands of both South and North Vietnam.
>> Electrification was achieved. Each Hmong Village now has and
>> Elementary school (Dr Eric Cristal of UCLA Fowler Resource center
>> cited that The Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the
>> Government of Denmark, Japan and Sueden were involved in the effort
>> of eradication of Hmong illiteracy ), roads had ben built allowing
>> some, not all of course, successful Hmongs to commute in Motor
>> Cycles. Irrigation with electric pumps allowed 2 or 3 crops per year
>> improving significantly the diet of all Hmongs who do not have to eat
>> yam roots and maize in their diet. Big communal houses were built.
>> Traditional ceremonies were revived with the Gongs present prominently
>> as musical instruments to celebrate good crops of coffee, cashew and
>> pepper.
>> I don't claim hat this is paradise on Earth, Mr Kova, but it is much
>> better what the Hmongs had seen in their History.
>> I hope that Mr Moore and Mr Reese who knew the highlands much more
>> than I do to give a comment on their impression when they visited
>> these folks. I also cross post this post to the Soc. Culy. Hmong and
>> Soc. Culture.laos to hear from their inputs.
>>
>> On Feb 24, 10:50 am, Dai Uy
hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>>> The reality is that it has been reduced by roughly 30%%.
>>> I did.
