Hmong - Specal Guerilla Unit Memorial in St. Paul, MN

I was on my way to the St. Pul Cathedral when this memorial caught my eye. In front of the Minnesota Capital building has a memorial mall with many interested memorials that I am sure I will eventually go through....

If you didn't know, the twin cities is the largest population of Hmong people in the United States. Many descendants of the current population in MN are refugees from the Laotian Civil War that started in the late 1950s/early 1960s during the increasing scope of the Vietnam War. The United States did not have millions upon millions of troops in Vietnam yet, and President Kennedy still had his head.

Side note for those who do not know, the French colonized all of 'Indochina,' (modern day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) ruling with an iron fist, exploiting the people and the resources of the entire region. This area was occupied by the Japanese during WWII, which many believed they were being saved from the colonizers until the Japanese started their occupation and the people of the area were treated just as bad if not worse than before. The U.S. and British secret services began working with many local nationalist guerilla groups (Namely Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese) to fight the Japanese with the promise of independence after the war. However after the war, the French came back in and continued to dominate many of the people and societies, starting wars with multiple nationalist groups who were now armed and trained with the tactics and guns the Allied powers had given them to defeat the Japanese.

In Laos, the French eventually relinquished control with the Franco-Lao Treaty of Amity and Association (a little too wordy, wouldn't trust it) in 1953 which handed the reigns over to a Royal Lao Government. The French Government left Laos alone as it was more inland, but they ramped up operations in Vietnam which led to multiple Allied countries to send troops to help the French fight against the Vietnamese communists, which led to a treaty creating North and South Vietnam. A similar treaty to what happened in Korea, separating the country in two.

You may be confused between Laotian and Hmong. The Hmong people are a more tribal group that comes from the interior in Asia in Thailand, China, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. There are 18 Hmong clan names. In Laos there was a large population of Hmong people who were loyal of the Lao Royal Government who helped provide independence from the French.

As the Vietnam conflict continued to ramp up and United States was sending more troops, guns, and planes, the Vietnamese needed a more reliable way of transporting guns and people to the south to support the guerilla fighters sympathetic to the north (often called the Viet Cong). The best way for the material to move south past the demilitarized zone and the military checkpoints set up by the South Vietnamese and the Americans was a set of trails through Laos and Cambodia just outside of Vietnam known as the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail'. In order to gain control of these trails, in 1959 the North Vietnamese communist forces began to slowly invade Laos with the help of the Lao Liberation Army. In the countryside, there were large groups of Lao people who believed in the communist dream that Ho Chi Minh was also fighting for.

The United States sent guns and advisers to Laos where the Hmong forces began fighting against the North Vietnamese forces in thick jungle, amid mountain drop-offs, and small footpaths. The Vietnamese and Lao communist forces slowly gained a larger presence on the border and the fights got deadlier and deadlier.

Just as the North Vietnamese Army eventually won the Vietnam War against the South Vietnamese, U.S. and other allied nations, the Lao Liberation Army was victorious over the Lao Royal Government. This spelled the end to fighting, but because the majority of fighting was done by Hmong men, the leader of the Communist Laos Forces called for extermination of the Hmong people. Many Hmong did stay in Laos, but they were repressed and treated differently being seen as U.S. sympathizers. 1975 on, many Hmong people made their way to Thailand, and many eventually moving to the United States as refugees, leaving the poor way they were being treated. The larges populations of Hmong people in the United states are in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

I was at my church for veterans day two years ago and started talking with a man who casually said he was there with an Army Intelligence Corps that helped take refugees out of Laos starting in 1972, and it was something that I never knew about. We often discuss for long periods of time about the Vietnam war, but gloss over the entire conflict in Laos. Then of course as I do, stumbled upon this monument outside of the Minnesota Capital and couldn't stop reading about it.

About 300 yards away from the capital building, close to highway and the historical center, is a monument of a traditional Hmong ceremonial head dress. The metal sculpture is on top of stone that contains traditional Hmong patterns. The pictures on the monument tell the story of the struggle of the people in Laos, leading up to working with the U.S. government, the guerilla struggles against the communist forces there and the eventual move from southeast asia (Indochina) to the United States.

At the time, the United States Government did not know where they should relocate many of these people. Many moved to different parts of the country, but one of the places that many hmong people were relocated was to Minnesota for farmland and the tolerant atmosphere of the people of the Twin Cities to refugees. The war in Laos was still secret at the time so many people who were sponsoring refugees to the area believed they were helping vietnamese and had never heard of the hmong people (Link).

For 3 years I helped sell baked good at the St. Paul farmers market and I have gotten to meet many hmong farmers who I will say have some of the best produce in the area. At my manufacturing plant, we have some individuals who are hmong and laotian and I can honestly say that they are some of the hardest working individuals. It is sad the circumstances that led to their moving here to the United States, but I can honestly say that the Twin Cities is a better place thanks to these peole living here.

-PW