Who are the Hmong?
The Hmong are an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to China's southern provinces and live in the mountain regions in Laos, Thailand, and other neighboring countries. It is often said that the Hmong do not have a country of their own because of their long history of migration since the 1800's.
Hmong culture relies on a strong clan and kinship system. There are 18 clans in the Hmong culture: Chang/Cha, Cheng, Chue, Fang, Her, Hang, Khang, Kong, Kue, Lee/Ly, Lor, Moua, Pha, Thao, Vang, Vue, Xiong, and Yang.
Untold History
"One day, I was reading on the Vietnam War and noticed that the Hmong weren’t anywhere. Just like the American history books I read all through college and all through high school – “Hmong” wasn’t mentioned anywhere. And yet, I knew that war was responsible for us being here, and that it killed two-thirds of the people I belong to. People are still dying in the jungles of Laos, remnants of this fight. In the process of writing this book, I learned that that wars don’t end." - Kao Kalia Yang author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (2008)
The Secret War
During the Cold War, the United States, promoting itself as a democratic country, fought to prevent the global spread of communism. U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower sent military advisors to South Vietnam following the nation's split into a Communist North Vietnam and pro-West South Vietnam. The United States held the Domino Theory belief that if one country fell to communist rule, other Asian countries would follow.
United States military involvement in the Vietnam War (1955-1975) led to a multi-front battle field where the U.S. aimed to stop the spread of communism in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized the recruitment of Hmong and other minority groups such as Mien, Khmu, and Kha by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to participate in covert military operations known as the Secret War in Laos. The war had to be secret because it violated the Geneva Accords agreement that Laos would be a neutral nation free from foreign troops.
From 1961 to 1975, the CIA recruited over 30,000 Hmong young men and boys as soldiers. Some soldiers were as young as 10 years old. They received military training from Thai military officers under the direction of American advisors. Under General Vang Pao, a major general of the Royal Lao Army, Hmong guerilla fighters blocked supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ambushed the communist Viet Cong, and rescued American pilots who had been shot down in Laos.
In 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed to end the Vietnam War. When American forces withdrew from Southeast Asia following the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the Pathet Lao communist party gained power in Laos and began to kill Hmong people for having assisted America. Many Hmong fled Laos due to their fear of being executed for having helped America.
Hmong Refugees and Resettlement
The deaths of many men and young boys, destruction of villages, and immense fear of persecution led many Hmong to flee Laos as refugees. The United Nations defines refugees as people who are forced to flee their home countries due to a fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
In May 1975, American officials planned to airlift military personnel and family out of Long Cheng. Military personnel and hundreds of civilians fought for a place on the aircrafts. People threw their children inside the plane before struggling to get onboard themselves. In total, 2,500 Hmong from Long Cheng were airlifts, compared to the nearly 130,000 Vietnamese who left by helicopter after the Fall of Saigon.
While some military personnel were evacuated by air, the majority of refugees escaped by foot. Their perilous journeys toward Thailand involved escaping through the jungle and crossing the Mekong River. If leaving by small boat, families took few belongings and tried to hide signs of escape. In Hmong: A Graphic History, Vicky Lyfoung explains that her mother and grandmother made it appear as if they were going on a grocery shopping trip in Thailand when they took the small boat that helped them escape across the Mekong river.
Figure 3.1: Hmong traditional attire. Photo from the Hmong Cultural Center Museum in Minnesota.
In Thailand, Hmong stayed in refugee camps such as Ban Vinai camp before they could find passage abroad. Hmong story cloths were invented in the 1970's in refugee camps and became a way of making money by selling these textiles abroad as well as sharing history. Story cloths often depict journeys of migration and resettlement that refugees experienced.
From 1975 to 1992, more than 100,000 Hmong crossed to Thailand. Many Hmong resettled in European and Western countries including Australia, France, Canada, and the United States.
Hmong in Sacramento
United States was a popular destination for Hmong refugees who were able to migrate through the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act beginning in 1975 and later the expanded Refugee Act of 1980. The State Department gave resettlement contracts to volunteer agencies such as churches who were willing to sponsor a family and where jobs were available. Once Hmong communities were established in cities such as St. Paul, Minnesota, secondary migrations took place where initially dispersed Hmong refugees settled together and rebuilt communities in America. California was a popular secondary migration site due to its job opportunities, welfare benefits, comfortable climate, and growing Hmong communities. Today, the majority of Hmong live in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
Sacramento County has the third largest Hmong population in the United States, numbering approximately 32,000. The first Hmong person to come to Sacramento, was Robert By Khang, who arrived in 1976 and became Sacramento's first Hmong resettlement specialist.
Hmong people faced several hardships upon arrival to America. Many Hmong did not know English and largely came from agrarian backgrounds, making it difficult to transition to English-speaking and urban environments. Hmong refugees also experienced undiagnosed PTSD, depression, and other mental health conditions due to the violence of war. In addition, Hmong often moved into affordable neighborhoods such as Meadowview in south Sacramento, which experienced high gang activity and heavy policing in the 1980's. Hmong youth were often profiled as gangsters and incarcerated, whether or not they had actually committed a crime; this phenomenon of policing was seen among Southeast Asian youth in low-income neighborhoods across the United States.
Despite these obstacles, the Hmong community made strides in Sacramento. Hmong people have established small businesses largely in areas such as Florin-Mack Road in south Sacramento and across the county. Numerous community organizations support the Hmong community and uplift Hmong culture. At Sacramento City College, a Hmong American student founded the Hope Opportunity Program for Education (H.O.P.E.) which fosters a culture of higher education with in the Hmong community.
Notable Hmong people in Sacramento County include Mai Vang, a Councilmember representing District 8 and the and the first Asian American woman and first person of Hmong descent elected to the body. She co-founded Hmong Innovating Politics (HIP) which strengthens the power of disenfranchised communities. Steven Ly was the mayor of Elk Grove (2016-2020) and the first Hmong American mayor in the United States. Macy Yang is the publisher and founder of The Hmong Daily News, which she started in 2020 in order to shed light on important news issues pertinent to Sacramento's Hmong community.
References
- deGuzman, Jean-Paul R. Contreras. “Module 5: Vietnam War.” Foundations and Futures. https://www.foundationsandfutures.org/chapter/conquest-and-division-war-and-empire-in-asia-and-the-pacific/module-5-vietnam-war/.
- Gibney, Shannon. “MNArtists.org: A Hmong Memoir.” MinnPost, May 28, 2008. https://www.minnpost.com/perspectives/2008/05/mnartistsorg-hmong-memoir/. Accessed July 24, 2026.
- Maganini, Steve. “How a Hmong Family Came to Celebrate Its Rise in Meadowview.” The Sacramento Bee, April 15, 2018. https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article208630529.html.
- Minnesota Historical Society. “Hmong Timeline.” https://www.mnhs.org/hmong/hmong-timeline. Accessed July 24, 2026.
- Sacramento News & Review. “After the War: Trauma Still Haunts California’s Hmong Community.” October 4, 2018. https://sacramento.newsreview.com/news/after-the-war-trauma-still-haunts-californias-hmong-community-69f95193.
- Vang, Chia Youyee. Hmong in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008.
- Vang, Ma. “Module 2: Hmong American Experiences with War and State Violence.” Foundations and Futures. https://www.foundationsandfutures.org/chapter/hmong-americans/module-2-hmong-american-experiences-with-war-and-state-violence/.
- Vang, Noah. “Brief History of the Secret War in Laos, 1960–1975.” Hmong Story Legacy. https://www.hmongstorylegacy.com/secret-war-timeline.
- Vang, Payne. Sacramento Hmong-American Oral History Project. Master’s thesis in History (Public History), California State University, Sacramento, 2011.
- Yang, Nancy. “10 Things About Hmong Culture, Food and Language You Probably Didn’t Know.” MPR News, March 1, 2015. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/03/01/10-things-hmong. Accessed July 27, 2026.
- Pew Research Center. “Top 10 U.S. Metropolitan Areas by Hmong Population, 2019.” https://www.pewresearch.org/chart/top-10-u-s-metropolitan-areas-by-hmong-population-2019/.
