Many historians have found what they consider roots of the Hmong people as far back in history as 2500 B.C. Over the centuries they are believed to have migrated from a northern area, Mongolia, Tibet or even Lapland, eastward into northeast Tibet and southern China. Of the estimated 7 million Hmong living in the world today, the vast majority remains in China.

Sometime in the mid 19^th Century, though, thousands of Hmong families, relying on kinship bonds and a passion for independence, fled the oppression of China and trekked south across rugged mountains to make new homes in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. The forebearers of the Hmong who have immigrated to the United States settled in the northern Laotian Mountains, around a broad plateau known as the Plain of Jars. Here, interspersed with struggles both political and military to sustain their freedom and independence, their numbers grew to what most experts estimate as 300,000 by 1960.

The word they use to describe themselves, "Hmong," originally meant "people," but is now translated as "free people," largely due to the pride they take with their success in fleeing Chinese rule and thereafter avoiding association or even contact with any particular government or external authority. Instead, they bound themselves to one another through an intense devotion to family, and made the household - which usually included 3 generations - the most important social element of their lives. Usually about 20 such households comprised the average, self-sufficient Hmong village. They became and stayed self-sufficient because families shared in each other's work and fortunes; those with special talents - blacksmithing, for example - used their skills on behalf of everyone in the village; if a crop failed, everyone pooled their resources so that no family would starve.

They worked from sunup to sundown, seven days a week (except during the 3-week New Year Festival) raising highland rice as their staple food source and corn to feed their pigs, cattle and chickens. Everyone, including the children, usually numbering at least 9 or 10, helped with the work in the homes and in the fields. In addition to the cooking and rice pounding, women had gardens where they grew melons, eggplant, onions, and other vegetables along with various herbs and spices. The men hunted and trapped wild roosters, squirrels, grouse and deer, often with primitive weapons like crossbows and muskets. Papayas, bananas, pineapples and other fruits grew abundantly in the warm, moist countryside. So did poppy seeds, and because the Hmong became experienced in growing and cultivating opium in China, it soon became their only "cash crop" in the mountains of northern Laos.

There was no village chief and there were no "laws" for village members to follow. The Hmong people were guided by two ancient customs: respect for elders and their opinions and authority and unwavering faith in animism or the "spirit world." The Hmong believe all things in nature have spirits, both living and non-living: humans, animals, plants, trees, mountains, rivers, houses, doors. Furthermore, humans have many spirits, and there are times when a spirit or "soul" is not with the person's body. Only a shaman, a person chosen by the spirits to be their messenger, can contact and deal with the spirits in the "otherworld." Shamans, both male and female, receive "signs" from the spirits, sometimes as early as infancy, that they are chosen for this responsibility. Their primary mission is to contact the spirits in order to heal the sick, locate souls for newborn children ("soul calling") and bring about good fortune for the village households.

In Laos, families were organized in clans, with 5 to 10 households from one clan within a village's 20 - 30 households and usually from 2 to 4 clans in each village. The names of the clans also served, and still do, as the last names of the clan members. The most capable man from the largest clan usually was considered the village leader, or naiban. The naiban was in charge of trail maintenance, greeting outside visitors and organizing defenses against aggression - military or political. He also served as arbiter in settling disputes. His authority was limited, though, because all final decisions had to be arrived at through a consensus of the village members' opinions.

That's what life was like for the Hmong in the Laotian Mountains until, in the early 1960s, war once again erupted in Vietnam, their neighbor to the east. For perhaps 150,000 Hmong men, women and children, life and the world would never again be the same.

New homes
Of the estimated 120,000 Hmong exiles, most live here. California has largest population with about 50,000, followed by Minnesota (20,000) and Wisconsin (15,000).

Clans
In the U. S. today there are 19 clans and 19 Hmong last names: Chang, Cheng, Chu, Fang, Hang, Her, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lo or Lor, Lee or Ly, Moua, Pha, Thang, Thao, Vue, Xiong, Vang and Yang.

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