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Hmong elders and cultural advisers were on hand to witness, and even videotape, the ceremony. Xang Vang now runs the Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association in Minneapolis, but he's always had a fondness for Frogtown. It was where he bought his first home in America, and where many other Hmong refugees got a new start in life. "That's why we Hmong dominate Frogtown -- to be Hmongtown," he jokes. The Hmong Funeral HomeAnd the Hmong Funeral Home on Dale Street was the first of its kind for the entire Twin Cities. For a while, it was the only place where...

First speaker in series focuses on domestic violence among the Chinese Hmong Between 14,000 and 17,500 people are trafficked annually, and an estimated 200,000 American children are at high risk of being part of this modern-day form of slavery, Saejung Lee said while speaking in Eggers Hall Wednesday. Lee, an immigration attorney at the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WCADV), gave a presentation called the "Intersection of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence," subtitled, "Experiences of Hmong Victims in the Heartland." Approximately 15 graduate students and faculty gathered to hear Lee explain the intricacies and difficulties of dealing with human trafficking...

There are two faces of Laos. One is the eco-tourism guided tour for backpackers with cheap hostels and an abundance of ganja (marijuana), coupled with the more expensive, more modernized Vientiane intent on luring western investors. The second is the insular Laos, behind a bamboo curtain, where the xenophobic, Pathet Lao communists (Lao People's Revolutionary Party), with apparent aid from the Vietnamese communists, are intent on annihilating an ethnic group of people -- the Hmong. During the Vietnam War, the US conducted a “Secret War” in Laos arming the Hmong tribesmen and using them to interdict North Vietnamese soldiers and...

Major General Antonio M. Taguba Deputy Chief in this June 30, 2006 photo, as the Keynote Speaker at the Hmong American Veterans of Minnesota - Military Ball in Oakdale, Minn. Photo by Tom LaVenture. NEW YORK (February 25, 2008) – The nation’s second Filipino-American to reach the rank of flag officer, U.S. Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba, this week announced his Endorsement of U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for President. “Senator Clinton’s unequivocal opposition to the use of torture under any circumstances, and her willingness to take a stand for what she believes in is exactly the sort of...

When he was 11, True Thao was running with the chickens and pigs in his village in Laos. He had never seen a telephone or a flush toilet. He didn't speak English. He had never heard of Minnesota. He certainly didn't know that Cedarhurst Mansion, a 26-room jewel of history, was quietly rotting half a world away in a place called Cottage Grove. But in a bizarre only-in-America story, True Thao and his family became the refugees that rescued the mansion.

OGDENSBURG, Wis. (AP) -- Eric Humbert, a hunter for 20 years, sees new faces in the woods — more Hmong hunters, more Hispanics. He senses new tensions, too, as another deer hunt approaches and he wants to do his part to ease them. So the Waupaca County sportsman started a business — Ezotic Hunting Signs — making no hunting signs printed in English and Hmong. It's a little thing, Humbert insists, but maybe a step toward racial harmony among Hmong and white hunters after two confrontations that killed seven hunters and sent two more to prison. "I am not saying...

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has decided to grant a waiver for Hmong who provided "material support" to organizations deemed to be terrorist, easing the plight of some but not all Hmong who have been ensnared by federal immigration law. This week, the Departments of State and Homeland Security announced that the law's provisions will not apply to material support that was provided to certain Hmong and Hmong groups prior to Dec. 31, 2004. "This will allow Hmong refugees from Laos who are already resettled in the United States to adjust status and become legal permanent residents," the State Department...

The ex-general's arrest inspires hundreds to rally in St. Paul. For the old, the concern is for a revered leader. For the young, it's for a distant homeland, too. Tou Meng, 12, of St. Paul, joins a rally Tuesday at the Minnesota state Capitol in support of former Gen. Vang Pao, who is charged along with 10 others with plotting to overthrow the Lao government. Vang Pao, a war hero to many, is drawing support from different factions of the Hmong community. (RICHARD MARSHALL, Pioneer Press) View an audio slideshow from the rally Many young Hmong-Americans view Vang Pao as...

Revered Hmong leader charged in Laos plot Gen. Vang Pao, a legendary figure to many Hmong Minnesotans, and 8 others are accused of planning to overthrow the communist government of Laos. The general, who has strong Minnesota ties, battled for control of Laos for most of his life. BY TIM NELSON, LAURA YUEN, JOHN BREWER and TAD VEZNER Pioneer Press Article Last Updated: 06/05/2007 06:33:15 AM CDT Former military leader Gen. Vang Pao meets with the Twin Cities Hmong community in St. Paul in this May 21, 2004 photo. (AP file photo) Related content PDF: Read the complaint The patriarch of...

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Nine people were arrested in the United States and charged with plotting a coup in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a public prosecutor in California said Monday. The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement. They include the Hmong former general Vang Pao and Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army, it said. ~ snip ~

War hero or war criminal? Depending upon who's talking, Gen. Vang Pao is one or the other. As a Madison schoolteacher, I think the answer to that question is not as important as the debate the question has generated. Hmong residents here revere Gen. Vang. They insist that he is a great man who helped thousands of their people escape war-torn Laos to find safety and opportunity in the United States. For that reason, they believe he deserves to have a public school named in his honor. A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, on the other hand, claims that Gen. Vang...

(AP) MADISON -- A University of Wisconsin law professor is under fire for making what some students called offensive remarks about the Hmong people during a recent lecture, including: "Hmong men have no talent other than to kill." Professor Leonard Kaplan also told his legal process class that many Hmong become criminals and gang members and purchase their wives, according to an e-mail distributed by a Hmong student upset by the comments. The remarks outraged students who organized a Wednesday night meeting where the law school dean apologized and tried to calm tensions. Students have scheduled another forum for next...

A charter school and a bus company scrambled Wednesday night to determine how and why a 4-year-old boy was put off a school bus Monday morning, only to wander, crying and lost, for at least an hour on St. Paul's East Side. The boy boarded the bus about 8 a.m. near Earl and Wakefield streets to go to Achieve Language Academy on Stillwater Avenue in St. Paul.

Green Bay -- A Hmong hunter has been found dead in a wildlife area in a case that is stirring memories of a mass shooting that exposed racial tensions. Cha Vang, 30, of Green Bay, was found dead Saturday morning, a night after he was reported missing in the Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area in northeastern Wisconsin. Investigators have not said how they believe he died but said they are treating the case as a homicide. An autopsy is planned for Monday. Authorities detained a 28-year-old Peshtigo man, James Nichols, who showed up at a medical center Saturday with a gunshot...

BANGKOK, Thailand — A lingering legacy of the Vietnam War emerged from the jungles of Laos on Wednesday, as hundreds of members of the Hmong hill tribe minority surrendered to the communist government after decades on the run. The group is the latest of several ragtag bands of surrendering Hmong — remnants of a guerrilla army that served a pro-American government before it fell to the communists in 1975. The surrendering group's chieftain, Moua Tua Ter, accompanied the 405 people — mostly children — to Ban Ha village in Phoukout district before returning to the jungle with a few of...

[Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota] When 175 Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia, formerly Roman Catholic Christians, were officially received into the Episcopal Church November 3 at St. Mark's Cathedral in Minneapolis, their congregation became the first of its kind in the Anglican Communion.Holy Apostles is the only predominantly Hmong congregation in the Anglican Communion, according to the Rev. Dr. Winfred Vergara, missioner for Asian American Ministries of the Episcopal Church.Vergara, whose office has provided both financial and leadership resources to Holy Apostles in recent months, was the preacher at the historic confirmation and reception service. He told the congregation that if the...

HAYWARD, Wis. - A Hmong immigrant convicted of murdering six deer hunters and attempting to kill two others after a trespassing dispute was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday with no chance for parole. Judge Norman Yackel ordered Chai Soua Vang, 37, to serve six life prison terms, one after the other, guaranteeing he would never be freed from prison. Wisconsin does not have a death penalty. Yackel described Vang as a "time bomb ready to go off" at the slightest provocation. "These crimes are not isolated acts, but a pattern of anti-social conduct," the judge said. Vang, a truck...

When Tong Yang goes hunting, he's looking for fun - not for trouble. Yang has spent many an evening this fall perched in a tree stand, hoping a trophy buck would come within range of his crossbow. When does pass below, as a pair did during an outing in the woods here last week, he's not interested. "Just be patient for another time," he said. "The trophy (bucks) are very smart. ... That's how they get to be a trophy buck." As Minnesota's firearms deer season draws near, Yang and many other hunters who are Hmong say they have no...

The guilty verdict against a Hmong man who shot and killed six white deer hunters in northwestern Wisconsin has not eased racial tensions in the area, residents and church leaders said. At the St. Paul Hmong Alliance Church in Maplewood, Minn., church members told senior Pastor Nha Long Yang that they see it in glares from white neighbors or hear it from Hmong children who have been told by white classmates that they can no longer play together. The Hmong man, Chai Soua Vang, a 36-year-old truck driver from St. Paul, Minn., was convicted Friday by an all-white jury of...

When jury selection begins today in the murder trial of Chai Soua Vang in Wisconsin, more than just the St. Paul hunter will be facing judgment. "The entire Hmong community will be on trial, not just Chai Vang," said Vangyee Yang, the Hmong Outreach/Resettlement Coordinator at Neighborhood House in St. Paul. Vang, 36, is charged with six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in the shooting deaths of six white hunters last November while hunting in northwestern Wisconsin. A truck driver and National Guard veteran, Vang is claiming self-defense. He says in court documents that the hunters...