This is kinda hard to figure. A couple of years ago there were American and French tourists ranging all over these areas, as the SRV government was touting its "Hill Tribes" as obviously lucrative to that industry.I have an acquaintance involved with tourism to the "hill tribes" in Thailand, Hmong I think, though they import them from other areas, Cambodia I think. Not all that lucrative, not nearly enough to bid on a Senator.
Hmong are from Laos--a number of them are and have been my neighbors. They were slaughtered wholesale because they fought on the side of the US.