Becoming Minnesotan: Hmong Feed

The Hmong are an ethnic group that have lived in different countries throughout Southeast Asia for thousands of years. Although they have not had a country of their own, they have developed their own independent culture within their small mountainous farming communities. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s & 70s the Hmong people partnered with the Americans to fight against the Vietnamese communists, and became refugees when Laos fell to the Communists in 1975. Although there are Hmong who are from many different parts of Southeast Asia, all of the Hmong who settled in the U.S. are from Laos. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, have become a primary resettlement center for these Hmong refugees, and currently Minnesota boasts the second highest Hmong population in the U.S.