Folk Arts - Hmong Community: From Laos to the Puget Sound

By Nancy Donnelly, Ph.D.

 

The First Hmong People arrived in Washington state in September 1976, and continue to live and contribute in their communities. According to Seattle resident Blia Xiong, who came to the United Stated in 1976, “Our sponsor dropped us in an old house, showed us the supermarket, laundry, Goodwill, English classes. That was it. We had to learn everything all over, from our toes up. We missed Hmong people so much. We said if any other family moved here, we would help them and help them!”

 

The Hmong in the United States come from Laos. They were part of a minority group living in the highland areas close to China, where they farmed the mountain tops to grow corn, dry-land rice, and poppy; while also raising chickens and pigs. Their lives were filled with hard work and family ties. To Hmong, the center of the social and political life was the family, from the eldest grandparent to the newest baby, and included all the cousins and collateral relatives. Descent and inheritance were figured only through the male line, and the men were responsible for the success of the whole family enterprise.

 

Families were very self-sufficient, even making their own cloth, their own knives, jewelry, and house-hold tools, and handling all the education of their children by themselves. A few Hmong had been converted to Christianity, but most believed in a Hmong-created religion that proposed a spirit world affecting human lives (mainly for ill). Shamans and herbal healers provided the only medical care.

 

They had no written form of Hmong language (although in the 1930’s a Hmong had invented a script, it was not generally used). They believed that they had had writing once, but lost all their books in their earlier migration from China. Missionaries invented a typed version of Hmong, but only a few knew about it.

 

As the 2nd Indochina War (Vietnam War) heated up and spread into Laos in the 1960’s, new trade goods, like flashlights and flip-flop sandals, started to appear in the mountains. A few Hmong moved into the city of Vientiane, where the men joined the military hierarchy. Some children started going to Laotian schools, and some families engaged in trade.

 

The war and the sudden connections with the larger political world began to create a more sophisticated Hmong middle class. These leaders encouraged rural Hmong to join the army and fight on the side of the American-supported Royal Lao government. Eventually most of the men became soldiers, and most of the women and children could not farm any more. They became refugees within Laos, concentrated together for safety in temporary towns. When the Pathet Lao Communists defeated the Royal Lao government (ending a coalition government in 1975), the Hmong on the Royal Lao side felt forced to flee.

 

The American Hmong have survived many hardships to get here. The war cost them their farms and livestock. Many of their relatives died, both soldiers and civilians. Those who fled suffered from hunger and sickness, often walking for weeks through forests and across mountains to reach the Mekong River. Crossing the river usually meant paying smugglers to provide boats, rafts, even inner tubes, and then paying bribes so Thai soldiers would not return them to Laos. Refugee camps were extremely crowded and full of uncertainty. Families could stay in camps and hope someday to go home, or they could choose France, Australia, or the US. What to do? Many families found it hard to decided. They knew that if they left Southeast Asia they might never see their homeland or their relatives again.

 

The first Hmong who arrived in the US in 1976 settled in Montana and Minnesota. One family came to Seattle that year. The big rush of Hmong resettlement began in 1978 and ended in 1981; about 65,000 were placed with sponsors around the country. Once they got here, the process of finding their families, moving together with relatives, figuring out what states and localities offered the best chance of education and future prosperity, then created a large secondary migration. Since 1981 a trickle of resettlement has continued, and Hmong have focused on establishing large families like they had in Laos. Today probably about 120,000 Hmong live around the United States. About half live in the Central Valley of California, and most of the rest live in Minnesota and Wisconsin. There are also Hmong communities in North Carolina, Michigan, Texas, and a few other states. Washington and Oregon have about 3,500 Hmong, principally in Seattle, Spokane and Portland.

 

In 1978 other Hmong began to arrive. A year later, Hang Sao, the leader of the Blue Hmong in Laos, came to live in Seattle. All of a sudden, lots of families followed hoping he would have good connections with Americans and could help them get housing, jobs, and an education. By 1981, about 2,000 Hmong lived in Seattle and Carnation. But when federal resettlement grants were cut during the Recession of 1982, many families could not find work. By 1985, only 300 to 500 Hmong remained in this area.

 

In Laos, all Hmong families were self-supporting. Most worked their own farms. According to Mr. And Mrs. Bia Tu Soung, “Back home we had everything enough, but we had to work very, very hard. We had our farm, chicken, pigs, buffalo, ducks, everything. Everyday we worked on the farm, picked vegetables on the way home to feed the pigs, worked at home, too. Strong or not strong, it didn't matter, you had to do it. If Americans had to work that hard, we think they couldn't!”

 

A few, also, were traders, teachers and nurses. During the war, men became soldiers, pilots, or army clerks. Hmong are used to hard work, but they had to start over practically from scratch in this new country. At first, they did anything they could: farm labor, maid work, dish washing. The Indochinese Farm Project, funded by a Seattle city block grant and by the King County Park Commission from 1983 through 1990, helped some Hmong and other former farmers from Laos learn about Seattle soil, weather, marketing, and business practices.

 

Several Hmong families have established truck farms near Woodinville, selling vegetables and flowers in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Church sponsors often proved themselves to be strong advocates for the families they sponsored. Mr. Joua Pao Yang says, “If it had not been for the church sticking with us all these years, my daughters never could have gone to college.”

 

In Washington state, less than 12 percent of Hmong receive public assistance. Many Hmong work two jobs, often in factories, landscaping, housekeeping, or mechanics. Some are professional teachers, social workers or interpreters. Many women continue making tradition-derived needlework that finds its way to market, usually through fairs or the Pike Place Market. The beautiful embroidery and appliqué work from the mountains of Laos is now, with different colors and mingling of styles, applied to pillow covers, bedspreads, jackets, aprons, and other useful items. For some, this had developed into other kinds of sewing, such as piecework, stuffed animals or hair bows, and factory sewing.

 

The families who stayed in Washington formed a hard-working, permanent nucleus. They became citizens, bought homes, worked hard, and invited other Hmong to join them. Today about 1,000 Hmong live in Seattle, Burien, Renton, Bellevue, Mount Lake Terrace, and Carnation. There are also vigorous Hmong communities in Spokane and Portland.

 

^ - next article: The Hmong New Year: The Family and the Festival by Blia Xiong