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They are an ethnic groupp largely in South China but also present in Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The Meo-hmong-Miao (Meo and Miao are originally deprecatatory names bestowed by the dominant groups in the areas of Hmong residence- means cat people) in Viet Nam and in Laos as a people allied with the Americans in the war and have paid the price for that since 75. We ultimately brought many out. Most wound up in Minnesota.

The Laotian Communists made a bid to exterminate the Hmong then settled into harassment and persecution which continues. The Vietnamese Coommunists have treated them and the other mountain people as we treated the Indians in the 1890s. The problem is further complicated by the rapidly ongoing conversion of the Minorities in Viet Nam to Christianity. The Communists are quite nonplused and go through cycles of persecution and trying to confine them to fixed locations. There is always "unrest" in the minority areas.