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Hmong-Americans feel fallout from hunters' deaths

By Esther Wu | The Dallas Morning News
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Two years ago Mee Moua became the first American of Hmong descent to be elected to public office. As a Minnesota state senator, Ms. Moua has become a voice for the Hmong-American community. It was a role she relished. She is very proud of her heritage.

And after Cy Thao was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives last month, Ms. Moua, who won her bid for re-election, said she thought things were finally changing and "Hmongs are becoming fully integrated as Americans."

But now it seems as though the world has turned upside down for Ms. Moua – as well as many other Americans of Hmong descent.

On Nov. 21, Chai Soua Vang opened fire on a group of hunters near Rice Lake, Wis., after they confronted him about trespassing. Mr. Vang, a Hmong-American from St. Paul, Minn., who served in the California National Guard, has been charged in the deaths of six hunters. Mr. Vang told officials he fired in self-defense and that the hunters shouted racial epithets at him.

It is a tense time for many Hmong-Americans in the Midwest.

Last week, the word "killer" was painted on the homes of three Hmong-American families in Minnesota. And the National Socialist Movement has been distributing recruitment fliers using the shooting as an example of why immigrants should not be allowed in the United States.

"Quite frankly, I'm upset and very frustrated," Ms. Moua said. "After 30 years in this country, people still don't know who we are. There is so much misinformation being published. I keep reading about the 'Hmong hunting culture' or that Hmongs don't understand public and private land use.

"This is all wrong. There is no Hmong hunting culture. Of course the terrain is different so hunters may hunt differently in Laos than they do in America. But hunting is hunting. And within that culture, all hunters are deeply territorial about where they hunt. And by the way, we are Hmong-Americans. We are law-abiding citizens who respect the rights of others."

Ms. Moua also objected to the media's use of the term "Hmong hunter" to describe Mr. Vang, saying it suggests that this incident was racially motivated, when that has not been established.

Ms. Moua was one of several community leaders who met informally Sunday with members of the Asian American Journalists Association, an organization that I serve as president.

Minneapolis and its twin city, St. Paul, have an estimated 35,000 Hmong residents, the highest urban population of Hmongs in the United States.

During the Vietnam War, the Hmongs were our allies, fighting alongside the U.S. armed forces to slow down the advancing communist forces from North Vietnam into South Vietnam.

The Laotian and Vietnamese governments' campaign to extinguish these people after the war prompted U.S. officials to allow the Hmongs to relocate here. Although Hmongs have lived in this country for 30 years, Ms. Moua voiced her concern that misunderstanding the Hmongs has resulted in perpetuating a "foreigner" attitude toward them.

After the shooting, Ms. Moua said, she was asked what the Hmong community is going to do about the incident.

"When similar crimes have occurred, race has not played such a role," Ms. Moua said. "No one ever asks, 'What is the black, Hispanic or white community going to do when a member of their group is accused of a crime?' "

Ilean Her, who works for the counsil on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans, reiterated the need to separate the community from the crimes of one man.

"What happened was a criminal act. We are not here to justify what happened. But we are concerned with what seems to be a rush to judge and condemn this person. We live in a country where there is something called rule of law and we have to let the system judge him."