The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

Introduction

Since the U.S. Immigration Act of 1965, the United States has welcomed into its borders millions of foreigners. For many of these people, the promise of a stable economy provides the security needed to launch their new business or company. Some find themselves immigrating in order to be close to loved ones who relocated long ago. Still, others move to the U.S. in order to take advantage of the abundance of educational institutions that can provide the training they will need for future careers. While each of these reasons is sufficient in describing the situations of many foreigners living in America today, a large percentage of the U.S. immigrant population resides here not by choice, but out of necessity. Many foreigners live in the U.S. in order to escape religious persecution, genocide, and the overall political unrest that dominates their country of origin. Refugee programs and other governmental agencies assist in the effort to remove these victims from volatile situations, placing them into communities where they can live without fear.

The Hmong people of Southeast Asia are one such group that has successfully transplanted itself into American society after enduring centuries of religious persecution and genocide. Originally from China, Hmong identity has largely been defined by a string of relocations, first to Vietnam and Laos, then to Thailand, and eventually to the United States, England, and Australia. As early as the seventeenth century, Hmongs have lived as refugees throughout Asia, enduring the substantial loss of their own culture under the unceasing violence against them. As a result, the survival of Hmong literature, historical documents, and cultural artifacts is sparse at best.

Even so, Hmongs living in America today are making substantial progress in the effort to reclaim their heritage. Within the past ten years, Hmong organizations have begun popping up in cities, towns and college universities throughout the United States. With much of the American Hmong population oblivious to its own history and culture, these organizations have been instrumental in collecting historical and cultural information and dispersing it throughout the larger Hmong community. Through a careful exploration of these organizations, the communities they serve, and their methods, one will come to better understand how Hmongs in America are beginning to restore the broken fragments of their shattered culture and identity.

Hmongs in Asia

The first documented reference to Hmongs in Asia dates back to 2679 BCE. A classic Chinese history, the ShuChing, records that the Hmong, or sometimes referred to as “Miao,” were expelled from the central Yangtze region of China to north-western Kansu. [1] This early resettlement was probably the result of an expanding Chinese empire. While the ShuChing provides the earliest records of the Hmong population in China, they are not mentioned again until the mid seventeenth century by the Chinese general Ma Dao. According to his brief encounter, Dao reports that he “was ambushed in Southern China by Hmong who took all of his muskets, sparing his life in exchange for instruction on their use and manufacture.” [2] However, early Chinese sources, such as this one, must be read contextually and with an eye for bias.

Chinese landowners stereotyped the Hmong for being an uncivilized primitive people. Living in some of China’s harshest natural environments, the Hmong practiced what is known as “swidden agriculture,” cutting down forests and burning the ashes in order to fertilize the land. [3] Many historians suggest that the Chinese discriminated against the Hmong because of these agrarian ways, sparking a series of rebellions that would eventually force them into the extreme South of China, and later into Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. Because the Hmong have long been marginalized by Chinese historians, detailed accounts of this migration are only available through the oral histories of specific kin groups living today.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the majority of the Hmong population in Asia resided mostly in Laos and Vietnam. The lengthy civil wars in Laos, which lasted from 1949 until 1975, allowed only moments of stability for the Hmong. With the blessing of the French government, Laos gained full independence from France in 1946, drafting their own constitution by 1947. Hmong historian Timothy Dunnigan describes this groundbreaking moment as it pertained to the Hmong population in Laos. He writes, “The Hmong realized significant political gains under the 1947 constitution. In areas where they were concentrated they held political office at the district and provincial levels, and by the 1950s they began electing representatives to the National Assembly.” [4] Relative prosperity continued in this upward direction for Laotian Hmongs until August of 1960, when a string of coup d’etats began to fight for the leadership of Laos.

Under the guidance of Vang Pao, a high ranking Hmong official in Laos, the Hmong population mobilized to provide the only substantial resistance against the current military dictatorship of Kong Le. From 1960 to 1975, the United States C.I.A. secretly aided the Hmong resistance before finally withdrawing from the area. Hmong refugee camps quickly became targets of the communist’s revenge, and widespread fear ensued. Without the help of the United States, Laotian Hmongs were left with only one option for survival—to flee to nearby Thailand. Dunnigan writes, “Traveling in small groups, they worked their way southwestward toward sanctuary in Thailand. They had to run a gauntlet of Vietnamese military patrols, and many were captured or killed.” [5] Those who survived the arduous journey to Thailand attempted to reestablish some semblance of organization within the refugee camps.

Today Hmongs who remember their time spent in the Thai camps recall the abysmal conditions they endured there. Families were often intentionally split apart, and resources such as food and water were sometimes scarce. Those who could prove their loyalty to the Americans they had served during the Laotian civil war pleaded to the Thai and United States governments for resettlement abroad. These were among the first Hmongs allowed to immigrate to America.

According to Dunnigan, “The U.S. government initially tried to minimize the impact of resettlement on any one area by sending Indochinese refugees to many parts of the country.” [6] This dispersal process led to further fragmentation of Hmong kin groups in the United States, and many began to redistribute themselves to areas in the U.S. where significantly larger numbers of Hmongs were already present. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Hmongs live in all fifty states, with the largest populations concentrated in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The total estimate of the American Hmong population today is around 200,000 people. [7] Worldwide, Hmongs number around 3.5 million, with the majority located in China.

Hmong Religion and Culture

The history of resettlement within the global Hmong community has familiarized them with numerous religion and cultures. The dense population of European Catholic and Protestant missionaries in Asia was successful in converting much of the Hmong to Christianity during the colonial period. While approximately half of the American Hmong population identifies themselves as Christian, the other half embraces their original religious practices.

Within Asia, Hmongs were forced to uphold the state religion, which was usually Buddhism. Hmong political leaders were mindful to respect Buddhism for merely political reasons, but local communities often abandoned these practices in more private settings. This underground religion, which can be termed as specifically Hmong, emphasizes patrilineal kin groups as a means for religious organization. Dunnigan writes:
Religious beliefs define relationships between living members and their ancestors. Sacred rituals provide a means of memorializing these relationships and strengthening group bonds. Knowledge of lineage ceremonies helps define religious membership. [8]
Thus, familial relationships are the crux of Hmong religion. Belief, practice, and rituals revolve around this notion of the husband and father as the head of the household, and it is only through his ancestral blood line that power is handed down.

Gary Yia Lee, an Australian Hmong scholar, describes in detail how this emphasis on the patrilineage becomes incorporated into religious practices. Lee writes, “Close observation of ancestor worship is believed mandatory to the fortune of a family or kin group. A person’s ritual system determines his or her social groupings, and interpersonal relations are assessed in relation to one’s ancestral rites.”9 Thus, important societal activities within the Hmong community, such as farming and hunting, consist of groups joined together based upon kinship associations. The Hmong family is the most powerful societal grouping available to them, and it is the defining point for all of their daily activities.

Particular events within Hmong families demonstrate the emphasis on male ancestry. When living in Asia, for instance, the burial of placentas after childbirth signified the distinction made between males and females. Lee reports that traditionally, the boy’s placenta would be buried underneath a central post of the house, while a girl’s placenta would be buried underneath the floor of the mother’s bed. [10] According to Lee, “A boy’s placenta is consigned to this post to represent the role of a male as bearer of the household’s ritual responsibility. A girl’s placenta has no symbolic meaning since a daughter will not perform important social functions for the family.” [11] This ritual draws metaphoric value between male power and the most important structural object of the house, yet Hmong women are not merely consigned to marginal family duties either.

Gender roles within the Hmong community designate the mother as the primary caretaker of the children. She typically spends more time with her sons and daughters than does the father, and she is assigned specific responsibilities as educator and provider for the family. A mother’s duties include teaching her daughters household work and other responsibilities such as procuring firewood and water, sewing and needlework, and other household tasks.

While the familial organization suggests a highly prescribed way of life for all members, many of these duties become arbitrary or obsolete when set within the American context. For instance, Hmong childbirth in Asia usually takes place in the home, which explains the need to bury the placentas near the house. In the United States however, almost all newborns are born in hospitals, eliminating the possibility to continue this ritual. Most Hmong families who continue to align themselves with their original religion do so without letting the inhibitions of Western acculturation affect the meaning behind rituals that may now be useless. In other words, Hmongs living in America have begun to focus more on the preservation of the ideas of their religion rather than the religious practices themselves.

For the other half of the American Hmong population that associates itself with Christianity, they have developed equally effective strategies for preserving their heritage. In response to the Christianization of American Hmongs, Dunnigan writes, “Even when they are officially part of a larger, heterogeneous church congregation, most Hmong prefer to meet separately, use their native language during services, and worship under the direction of Hmong ministers and deacons.” [12] Therefore, both Christian Hmong groups and traditional ones have developed ways of overcoming acculturation obstacles within the American context, allowing for a specifically American Hmong expression to blossom and thrive.

This great success on the part of Hmong Americans is undoubtedly a product of their identity being historically defined under societal and political opposition. As a group that has lived collectively as both minorities and refugees, the Hmong have long been used to finding ways to express their culture under some of the most oppressive circumstances. In the American context, Hmongs are beginning to make use of specifically American methods to overcome issues such as illiteracy, sexual abuse, and discrimination.

The Acculturation Process

The emergence of Hmong organizations in America marks a new beginning for the American Hmong population. These organizations are confronting inadequacies within the larger Hmong community head-on by calling for increasing education among both the youth and their elders, a heightened awareness of U.S. citizenship rights, and the collection and preservation of Hmong artifacts and documents that are representative of the Hmong experience both in America and abroad.

Throughout the 1980s, Hmongs began to realize the importance of education as a necessary tool for raising the standard for all Hmongs living in America. The establishment of the Hmong Council Education Committee in 1987 marked the emergence of one of the first specifically Hmong organizations dedicated to fulfilling educational needs within the Hmong American and refugee communities. [13] Shortly after its establishment, the Committee organized a series of conferences focusing on promoting higher education as a way for Hmong students and their parents to become more self-sufficient. With these conferences taking place in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, local communities, too, realized the need for educational awareness within their areas. By 1990, over 100 Hmong Student associations within American colleges and universities were established, and five other educational organizations, such as the Hmong Council Education Committee, began operating. According to researcher, Mary Cohn, “In a very short time education has come to be tremendously valued by Hmong in the United States. Many Hmong who have given up hope of rebuilding their own lives pin their hopes for the future on the education of their children.” [14] Because of this important realization, Hmong professionals have begun to enjoy prominent career opportunities as politicians, doctors, and lawyers.

Hmong Americans have also demonstrated utilization of the American legal system in response to combating sexual assault. This is particularly remarkable considering the emphasis on the family unit rather than the individual within Hmong society. Educator Beth Goldstein outlines this distinction regarding sexual assault. “Within Hmong society, sexual assault is a matter involving the family rather than centering on individuals and gender relations. Hmong emphasis on the group over the individual assigns responsibility for actions, including individual ones, to the group.” [15] This important distinction between American individuality and Hmong collectivism suggests that sexual assault cases are more likely to be reported within the Hmong community, as the collective group is more likely to take responsibility for one person’s misdeed. In a case study analyzed by Goldstein, she describes an assault against a Hmong teenage girl perpetrated by another Hmong man. Immediately after the attack was made known to the girl’s family:
The girl’s adult male relatives gathered at her home to await a personal call from the assailant’s family. The culturally appropriate Hmong response would be for the assailant to publicly acknowledge responsibility and for his family to pay restitution to the girl’s family. [16]
The assault was not solely confronted in this manner, but was also reported to local authorities. This combination of Hmong tradition and the use of the American legal venue shows how the importance of both methods of responding to sexual violence incorporates Hmong values and mores with the benefits and the legal resources for American citizens.

The culmination of the acculturation process for Hmong Americans is evident in the establishment of the Hmong Nationality Archives (HNA). As a non-profit established in 1999, the HNA strives to research, collect and preserve Hmong artifacts and materials representative of their culture. With most of the Hmong population scattered throughout the United States, the HNA has accepted over 40,000 items donated by Hmong individuals, families, and organizations. As a non-profit, the HNA receives financial support from various sources and serves as an exemplary organization for the reclaiming of the Hmong heritage.

Conclusion

The American Hmong population today straddles two specific identities. The first is a collective consciousness that has historically defined itself against political injustices, genocide, religious intolerance, and hate. The memory of the southern trek from China into Laos and Vietnam will forever be a part of the Hmong imaginary. The separation of loved ones in the internment camps and refugee centers throughout Thailand is a memory far from forgotten. And while these atrocities remain in the minds of all who experienced them, many find themselves here, in America, experiencing for the first time the ability to express their religion and culture freely and without judgment. These two drastically opposite realities constitute the Hmong American identity.

Yet while so many Hmongs live with the burden of these memories, the landscape of American society provides vast opportunities that have only recently been realized. Hmong organizations and non-profits are now beginning to demonstrate how the Hmong community can overcome new obstacles in a new environment. The future of Hmongs everywhere depends on the success of these organizations’ efforts, not only to educate and provide services to the communities in which they serve, but also to build back the rich culture that has been lost for hundreds of years. Through this arduous, yet realizable goal, Hmong Americans can look forward to a future defined not by persecution and cultural misunderstanding, but rather by the appreciation and celebration of their unique culture with all of its rich traditions.

Presentation of Research

Currently, the scholarship surrounding Hmong history and culture remains largely untapped. Only recently have Hmong communities, with the help of migration and refugee agencies, begun to record and preserve ancient manuscripts, artifacts, and other cultural items. The Hmong Nationality Archives is the only known organization tackling this project. Resources pertaining to Hmong religion also remain largely inexistent. Accounts of early Hmong religious traditions are unfortunately regarded as legitimately unhelpful due to the widespread persecution practiced by the Chinese and Laotian communities who are ironically the only authors of these accounts.

The area of Hmong studies in America has, however, found a comfortable home on the internet. University organizations, family services, and Hmong Christian organizations are all presently utilizing online media as a means to provide accessible information for Hmong individuals, families, and their community members.

What follows is a documentation of the prominent web resources currently available to Hmong Americans. I have provided a brief history of each organization, along with its mission statement and purpose.

Hmong Nationality Archives

The Hmong Nationality Archives (HNA), located in St. Paul, Minnesota, is the world’s largest Hmong repository for Hmong cultural materials. Officially established in 1999, its mission is “to research, collect, preserve, interpret, and disseminate materials in all formats about or by Hmong.” The HNA not only serves the Minneapolis/St. Paul Hmong community, but also the larger community of those interested in Hmong history, culture, and society.

Over 40,000 items have been donated to the HNA on behalf of Hmong individuals and their families. Since May of 2000, the HNA has acquired sixty-three books, three cassette tapes, four periodicals, one video, three maps, twelve photocopied articles, one photography, three posters, two calendars, two textiles, two business cards, and twenty-two miscellaneous items, all pertaining to Hmong culture. While many of these items remain in the repository, several duplicates are priced for sale on the HNA’s website.

Yuepheng Xiong, the HNA’s executive director, is supported by nine board of directors and seven advisory board members. Visitors to the website may obtain the HNA’s Annual Report on the status of Hmongs in America as well as weekly minutes from their committee meetings. Their website, www.hmongarchives.org, has received around 20,000 visits since its inception.

The HNA is supported by volunteers who conduct interviews throughout the Hmong community. Volunteers also assist the executive director in any projects and help to collect materials and cultural artifacts from donors.

Hmong American Partnership

Located in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Hmong American Partnership specializes in educational and awareness programs throughout the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Founded in 1990, HAP’s mission is “to foster trust; to assist Hmong in achieving their full potential and participating actively in the community; and to promote mutual respect, cultural awareness, and the exchange of knowledge and values.” In addition to the St. Paul headquarters, HAP also maintains two regional offices: one in Minneapolis, and another in St. Paul. Their website is located at www.hmong.org.

Founded as a basic refugee resettlement organization, HAP now caters to both the refugee population as well as Hmong U.S. citizens. HAP specializes in mental health awareness education, parental support, drug and crime prevention, English language instruction, and job skills training. In addition to these services, the St. Paul regional office also provides computer training courses twice a week for three hours.

HAP is currently involved in a building campaign designed to provide community space for public use as well as venues for Hmong programs, gatherings and celebrations. The estimated cost of the building project is 4.8 million dollars, with only $150,000 more needed before reaching their goal.

Executive director William Yang is supported at the HAP by volunteers that help with administrative work, technology, and communications. HAP volunteers teach the “English for new Americans” language course as well as the “Hmong Youth Pride” weekly drug and crime prevention program. Immigrants from Laos, Somalia, Sudan, Iraq, Thailand, Ethiopia, and Mexico are also students in HAP’s English programs.

New paragraph

Family and Youth Advancement Services

Founded in 1995, the Family and Youth Advancement Services is located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Launched from the generous donation of $10,000 from a local businessperson, the FYAS opened its doors two years later to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Defining itself as a charitable, Christian-based, non-profit, the FYAS strives “to serve Hmong youth and their families by offering practical help for their social, emotional, educational, and spiritual needs, in ways that foster life transformation.”

The FYAS is supported by private donations, which can be made from its website at www.hmongfamily.org. Along with donations, forty-two businesses donate up to ten percent of their sales to the FYAS, including businesses such as Dell, Barnes and Noble, and Wal-Mart.

Supported by a small staff of five, the FYAS offers both a junior high and elementary education program twice weekly designed to boost skills in mathematics, English, the sciences, and other areas. The FYAS also funds and manages a local radio station which airs on AM twice weekly.

Since 1999, the FYAS has published annual reports on its website detailing its community service and involvement with volunteer projects throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The site also includes group forums where members can post comments, conduct online discussions or conversations, or post articles pertaining to Hmong issues. These forums have provided much needed feedback to questions regarding citizenship, American culture, and current or political events. The FYAS website has received approximately 15,000 visits since its inception in 1997.

Hmong Student Inter-Collegiate Coalition

Located in California, the Hmong Student Inter-Collegiate Coalition consists of a network of Hmong-student college organizations throughout the state. Founded in the spring of 2001, the HSIC is managed entirely by college students attending one of the member universities.

The main focus of the HSIC is to provide online services that promote higher education in California among the Hmong population. The organization posts guidelines for college admission policies, parental planning lists for Hmong parents of middle and high school students, and links to online applications to colleges and universities throughout California. The HSIC website, www.hsiconline.org, also specializes in online counseling for financial aid and offers links to the FAFSA and other financial planning websites.

The HSIC also provides a substantial news section, pooling articles covering Hmong issues throughout the United States. Along with news sources, they also publish a quarterly journal called Hmong Movement, that offers fiction and non-fiction literature written by students from HSIC universities. Topics range from socio-political issues to educational and cultural matters.

The HSIC’s location in California, which contains the highest population of Hmong in America, does not prevent it from embracing networks with other out-of-state Hmong student organizations. The HSIC takes an active role in national conventions, educational seminars, and student leadership conferences all across America.

Hmong Minnesota Student Association

Located in the heart of Minneapolis, Minnesota on the University of Minnesota campus, the Hmong Minnesota Student Association that has grown from a six-member organization to a seventy-member organization since its founding ten years ago. As one of the sub-categories under the Asian-American Student Union, the HMSA “strives to support the Hmong people and culture, reaching out to the University of Minnesota community and to the community at large.

The HMSA, through its programs and outreach programs, exists to provide academic assistance to the Hmong community, promote awareness of higher education, and cultivate cultural, leadership, and communication skills for its members.

Located on the HMSA website, www.tc.umn/-hmsa, are forums to ask confidential questions to group leaders as well as links to other Hmong websites of interest and links to the various other Asian-American Student Union websites of the University of Minnesota.

Weekly and monthly events are also posted here, and university students can subscribe to the HMSA monthly newsletter, The HMSA Digest. The HMSA has a history of being regarded as one of the strongest and more involved subgroups of the Asian-American Student Union. This is evidenced by its continued involvement both throughout the academic calendar year, as well as throughout the summer session.

Future Hmong Magazine

Future Hmong Magazine is a monthly Hmong periodical owned by Y Enterprises in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The magazine dedicates itself to the advancement of Hmong Americans by “providing information and education to Hmong people in hopes of helping them to adjust to American society faster and more efficiently. It focuses on the issues within the Hmong community that are in some way, shape or form regarded as obstacles preventing Hmong people from becoming Americans and fully enjoying the fruits of this great country.”

The magazine, while offering a select amount of its publications online, is subscribed to by approximately 8,000 people. As a for-profit organization, Y Enterprises charges $3.95 per issue, with each issue containing approximately thirty-five pages. Along with donations from the Hmong community and beyond, the magazine is supported by local businesses that are offered advertising space in the magazine. Businesses such Goodwill and Northshore Bank of Wisconsin purchase advertising space on a regular basis.

The Future Hmong Magazine website also provides readers with the opportunity to make suggestions for future editions. Subscribers can choose from a vast list that includes headings such as "childcare," "employment," and "success stories," or they may make their own recommendations of topics to cover in the next issue. Visitors to the website may also make project suggestions. At this venue, the public can alert the magazine to local community projects, spreading the world about volunteering, donating materials, or pooling resources to aid in the project.

Hmong Online

Launched on the web in 1997, Hmong Online is growing to become one of the most widely used Hmong websites. It features chat rooms, classified ads, message boards, and a variety of other services. At www.hmongonline.com, members can gain access to almost anywhere on the web, with a specific eye toward anything Hmong. Similar to Google or Yahoo!, Hmong Online serves as an all-purpose web browser as well.

Hmong Online’s mission is “to be a common ground for every Hmong person on the internet, to not only entertain, but to help educate the Hmong people about their culture.” Along with chat rooms and personal ads, Hmong Online offers an entire page dedicated to the education and historical retelling of the Hmong heritage. This page specifically outlines the Hmong past in China, Vietnam, and Laos, and gives up-to-date information about the population of Hmong in the United States. In the near future, Hmong Online also plans to “Hmong Source,” an off-shoot of Hmong Online dedicated solely to the cultural education of Hmong Americans. This project plans to feature a comprehensive account of the Hmong history before U.S. immigration, along with featured articles and postings from Hmong community organizations throughout America.

Supported by only six staff personnel, Hmong Online receives over 2 million page viewings per day. Hmong Online chat rooms also allow Hmong Americans to communicate with Hmong people from all over the world, connecting anyone who has access to the internet.

The Hmong Cultural Center

Serving as the primary Hmong and Asian-American organization in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, the Hmong Cultural Center "promotes the personal development of children, youth and adults through Hmong cultural education while providing resources that enhance cross-cultural understanding between Hmong and Non-Hmong people."

As a cultural resource center, the organization provides numerous educational and outreach programs throughout the Minneapolis metro area. Candidates for U.S. citizenship can enroll in the ESL and Citizenship Program that specializes in American history, legal, and government education, preparing Hmong immigrants for their citizenship exam and interview.

The Hmong Resource Center is a media library that contains 300 Hmong books and magazines, over 400 academic journals, and around 2,000 news articles all related to Hmong issues. The Resource Center also occasionally displays valuable Hmong artifacts and crafts.

With a staff of seven, the Hmong Cultural Center relies on volunteers from throughout the community. Located at www.hmongcenter.org, the center invites Hmong youth and adults to participate in its cultural and artistic programs, which include “Qeej” classes (a traditional Hmong string instrument), and “Niam Nkauj” classes (traditional Hmong dance).

Endnotes

[1 ]Robert Cooper, Nicholas Tapp, Gary Yia Lee, and Gretel Schwoer-Kohl, The Hmong (Bangkok, Thailand: Artasia Press, 1991), p.5.

[2] Ibid., p.6.

[3] Timothy Dunningan, “Antecedents of Hmong Resettlement in the United States.” Hmong Art, Tradition and Change (Sheboygan, Wisconsin: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1986), p.5.

[4] Ibid., p.6.

[5] Dunningan, “Antecedents of Hmong Resettlement in the United States,” p.7.

[6] Ibid.

[7] All population figures and data taken from the U.S. 2000 Census.

[8] Timothy Dunnigan, “Processes of Identity Maintenance in Hmong Society.” The Hmong in Transition (New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986), p.48.

[9] Gary Yia Lee, “The Religious Presentation of Social Relationships.” Lao Studies Review (1994-1995), p.2.

[10] Gary Yia Lee, “Cultural Identity In Post-Modern Society.” Hmong Studies Journal (Fall 1996), p.25.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Dunnigan, “Processes of Identity Maintenance in Hmong Society,” p.48.

[13] Vang Pobzeb, The Politics of Hmong Organizations in America (Denver, Colorado: Hmong Council Education Committee, 1990), p.6.

[14] Mary Cohn, “Hmong Youth and the Hmong Future in America.” The Hmong in Transition (New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986), p.197.

[15] Beth L. Goldstein, “Resolving Sexual Assault: Hmong and the American Legal System.” The Hmong in Transition (New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986), p.135.

[16] Ibid., 136.

Bibliography

Cohn, Mary. “Hmong Youth and the Hmong Future in America.” The Hmong in Transition, eds. Glen L. Hendricks, Bruce Downing, and Amos Deinard. New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986.

Cooper, Robert, Nicholas Tapp, Gary Yia Lee, and Gretel Schwoer-Kohl. The Hmong. Bangkok, Thailand: Artasia Press, 1991.

Dunningan, Timothy. “Antecedents of Hmong Resettlement in the United States.” Hmong Art, Tradition and Change, ed. Ruth DeYoung Kohler. Sheboygan, Wisconsin: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1986. 5-9.

Dunnigan, Timothy. “Processes of Identity Maintenance in Hmong Society.” The Hmong in Transition, eds. Glen L. Hendricks, Bruce Downing, and Amos Deinard. New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986. 41-53.

Fadiman, Anne. “The Melting Pot.” The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. 181-209.

Goldstein, Beth L. “Resolving Sexual Assault: Hmong and the American Legal System.” The Hmong in Transition, eds. Glen L. Hendricks, Bruce Downing, and Amos Deinard. New York: Center for Migration Studies of New York, 1986. 135-143.

Lee, Gary Yia. “The Religious Presentation of Social Relationships: Hmong World View and Social Structure.” Lao Studies Review. 2 (1994-1995). 44-60.

Lee, Gary Yia. “Cultural Identity In Post-Modern Society: Reflections on What is a Hmong?” Hmong Studies Journal. 1 (Fall 1996).

Pobzeb, Vang. The Politics of Hmong Organizations in America. Denver, Colorado: Hmong Council Education Committee, 1990.