Mai Vang, Special Assistant to the Chancellor

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• Mai Vang, Special Assistant to the Chancellor
• for Equity and Affirmative Action
• www.uwsp.edu/equity/EAAoffice.htm
• BS and MSE, Elementary ED, UW-SP
• PhD, Educational Leadership, UW-Madison (in
  progress)

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Ntaub Ntuag
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Ntaub Ntuag
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Ntaub Ntuag

• Cov pob niam yog cov ua ntaub. Lawv ua ntaub
  ntuag. Cov ntaub ntuag ua tau tiab hnav.
• Summary? Strategies used?

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The Hmong
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The Hmong

• 2000 US census states, 33,791 Hmongs reportedly
  living in WI
• Hmong community counts about 50,000 Hmongs living
  in WI
• Population increased since 2004
• United Refugee Services expected about 2,500 to
  3,700 new refugees

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Topics

• History
• Language
• Religion
• Hmong Americans
• New Refugees, Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand

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History

• 2500 B.C.
• Four theories of origin
• Mesopotamian Tab xuabzeb hav suabpuam
• 1776 Hmong entered Indochina

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Central Asia Caspian Sea
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Southeast Asia
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Ancient China

• Loose federation with republican features
• Left due to ethnic persecution

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Language

• Sino-Tibetan language, 1300 B.C.
• Monosyllabic and tonal
• Example, txivlaum huabxeeb (peanuts)
• Eight tone marks (v, j, s, m, b, j, g, --)

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Written Language

• Developed in 1950, F. M. Savina (Quincy)
• Original written language was lost
• Paj Ntaub (flower cloths)
• Story cloths

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Religion

• Animism all life is produced by a spiritual
  force or all things in nature have souls
• Ancestor worship
• Shamanism
• Other religions practiced Christianity, Buddhism
  or Islam

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Family

• Delineated roles
• Patrilineality

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Clanship

• Basic social and political organization
• 12 original clans
• Branched out to 20 clans worldwide, 18 in the US

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Hmong Americans

• Refugees of war in the early 70s
• Cultural Brokers

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Why are the Hmong here?

• The Secret War
• The Promise

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Deliverance of a Promise

• Refugees of War
• Estimated Hmong refugees to settle in Wisconsin
  is 3,459
• 2004-05 Hmong refugees comprised 71 of
  resettled refugees from SE Asia (US Committee for
  Refugees and Immigrants, Feb. 2006)

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Celebrate Diversity!
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Resources

• Lee, Stacey J. (2005). Up Against Whiteness
  Race, School, and Immigrant Youth. New York
  Teachers College Press.
• Lee, Stacy J. (2001). More than Model
  Minorities or Delinquents A Look at Hmong
  American High School Students. Harvard
  Educational Review, 71(3), 505-527.
• McClain, Leslie Xiong, Kao. (2005). Continuing
  the Promise Recruiting and Preparing Hmong
  American Educators for North Central Wisconsin.
  Hmong Studies Journal, 61-16.
• Pang, Valerie Ooka. (2001) Multicultural
  Education A Caring-centered Reflective Approach.
  New York McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
• Thao, Paoze. (1999). Mong Education at the
  Crossroads. Lanham University Press of America.
• Hmong Net http//www.hmongnet.org/hmong-au/ozintro
  .htm
• Hmong National Development http//www.hndlink.org/
  
• www.refugeesusa.org/uploadedFiles/Investigate/Publ
  ications_and_Archives/Refugee_Reports/St...