An estimated 7 million Hmong people live in the world today, the vast majority in China's southern provinces. Hmong Americans trace their Chinese ancestry back thousands of years, yet their recent history is rooted in Laos. In the mid-1800s, kinship bonds enabled Hmong families to endure a perilous escape from China. They trekked across rugged mountains to Laos, where they settled around a vast plateau called the Plain of Jars. There, the newcomers grew crops, raised livestock, and bartered for the few goods they could not obtain from the land. Their isolated villages, dif~lcult to reach, offered Hmong limited autonomy, and insulated them from foreign technologies and ideologies.

Approximately 60 ethnic groups inhabited the lands of Laos. The Hmong population grew quickly, yet increased numbers yielded them little leverage with other Laotian peoples. The largest ethnic group, the lowland Lao or Lao Lum, held a disproportionate amount of power. Racial animosity characterized relations between the two. Hmong animism ran at odds with Lao Buddhism. Hmong slash-and-burn agriculture ran counter to Lao paddy cultivation.

When the French invaded Southeast Asia at the end of the 19th century, Hmong leaders sought their patronage. By cultivating relationships with French colonial officials, Hmong leaders climbed the political hierarchy and gained influence. The marriage was an uneasy one, however, causing a rift within Hmong society. World War II radically altered the landscape, widening that rift. Nationalist forces in French Indochina rose up and defeated their colonial rulers in 1954. The governance of Laos remained unsettled as various factions competed for control. Hmong loyalties split apart. Those who had sided with the defeated French found themselves in need of a new foreign patron.