What’s more, most of America’s Hmong communities are concentrated in three states: California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. In 1985—ten years after the end of the Vietnam War—the first Hmong families arrived in Butte County, California. This also happens to be where Josh and I are now staying with our friend Brooke!
The families that first arrived here in 1985 were refugees from the war. Farming had been an integral part of their culture for centuries, and so naturally, these families found work in local agriculture and began sponsoring other refugees to join them in America. Today, more than 4,000 Hmong people are living in this part of California.
During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, mental health care was virtually nonexistent for Hmong refugee populations in America. The lack of and access to these services for Hmong refugees, who suffered from years of violence and trauma during and after the war, has led to a serious problem of undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the local Hmong community. According to an article that was recently published by the local newspaper, undiagnosed and untreated cases of PTSD have put the “elder [Hmong] community at a heightened risk for depression, isolation, paranoia, gambling addiction, domestic strife, and suicide.” Today, there is a pressing need to get the Hmong elders the mental health care they haven't received.
During the Vietnam War, 30,000 Hmong people were recruited by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to form the "Secret Army”—a battalion that would serve to fight off North Vietnamese soldiers and Communist insurgents from Laos.
