The Hmong Minnesota Veterans of the Secret War Preservation Project

In this Interim Report, The Hmong Minnesota Veterans of the Secret War Preservation Project is still an ongoing project. In March 2022, our SGU veteran's organization received notification from the MN Humanities Center (MHC) for being a recipient of the $75,000. In our application, we had identified our start date for the Project as early as April/May 2022.

Although we completed the necessary paperwork, the MHC funding did not come to the SGU veteran's organization until August 2022. A second payment was delayed until Jan. 2023. These delays have significantly affected the desired goals (and outcomes) as outlined in SGU's proposed timeline. In June 2022, we had scheduled several Hmong SGU veterans to be participants in the Project. Our organization did not receive the funding from the MHC for SGU to contract with the 3HmongTV studio to conduct the interviews (as outlined in the application). As a result, their scheduled interviews were canceled. We did not schedule any interviews or attempt to schedule any interviews for fear of more cancellations without financially securing the studio. These cancellations were already detrimental; further cancellations would affect the overall trust of the community and the integrity of the Project.

Since receiving the grant from the MHC in August 2022 until now, SGU has completed the following:

We have conducted more than 17 interviews and intend to wrap up the remaining 8 (total 25) interviews by the end of April 2023. The contracts for transcribing of the interviews and for curating the exhibit developed as a result of the Project are in progress. We contracted a local musician to compose music and soundtrack for the Project exhibit.; The Hmong Minnesota Veterans of the Secret War Preservation Project was the first work of its kind for the SGU organization to collect and preserve the stories of at least 30 Hmong veterans and their widows. In this respect the Project has preserved and honored the cultural heritage of Minnesota and simultaneously empowered the Hmong community in strengthening its identity and culture. Plus, this growing archive will provide educational resources on cultural heritage and support future development of culturally diverse humanities programming here in the state and abroad.

Originally, this Project was to document and archive 70 participants with the specific funding SGU requested from the MHC in its application. This number was reduced to 30 due to the changes in the funding amount and a shortened grant period that were established through this grant. Also, this Project encountered difficulties in completing the original goal of videotaping 30 stories. The challenges involved the unpredictable health issues and aging of these veterans, extensive time required to arrange, organize, and complete filming of each of the Project's interviews, including and associated tasks of rescheduling.

Despite these challenges, SGU was able to create a substantial body of work of 21 stories that inspired the initial audience and raised expectations for further sharing and additional documentation and production. These collected oral stories provided tangible and inspiring evidence of the contributions, courage, and sacrifice of generations of Hmong fighters during the Secret War. In so doing, through the initiation of this archive, SGU was able to increase the morale and pride of the Hmong veterans, their families, and members of the organization. For example, at the final program, there were more students than veterans and elders in attendance. Two new generations of Hmong Minnesotans have been born since 1975. They and many members of the general public still know very little about the Hmong and Hmong history, including the contributions that Hmong veterans made to the U.S. prior to their arrival in this country and following their resettlement. The reasons are obvious. The Secret Warwas not well known in the U.S. when the Hmong first arrived. Survival and the task of raising families in the new society consumed the first generation of Hmong. Traumatic memories are overwhelming and personal. They are painful to relive in their retelling. Thus, these stories from the Secret War'' have remained largely untold for over 45 years. As a result, the younger generations of Hmong often are unaware of their cultural history and the ramifications of war and resettlement that affect the community even today. At the conclusion of the program, two middle school-aged Hmong students described their take awayas being proud to learn the sacrifices their grandfather had made that brought them to Minnesota. Another veteran brought his two adult children to the program. They expressed admiration and appreciation for their father's service during the war. Acknowledging the great sacrifices and trauma experienced in the Secret War is a critical step in helping the Hmong community heal from the intergenerational trauma that continues to this day.

SGU saw the human value of this work. The SGU Board and Advisors that were present at the final program were inspired by the attendees' aspiration to learn more about their history and stories. An attendee, who lost his father in the war, conveyed to the organization his willingness to help. He stated that these stories are important to educate future Hmong students about their past . Although smaller similar archives of recorded SGU veterans' stories exist, this work has contributed significantly to this larger humanitarian cause. Additionally, the oral stories that were able to be preserved through this Project represented a fraction of the stories of veterans and widows that still exist in the community. SGU board members expressed their desire that the organization must do more to collect, preserve, and record these stories. MN State Representative Leon Lillie, chair of the House Legacy Committee who attended the program, shared that he and his colleague at the MN Legislature are open to supporting such projects.

Furthermore, at the final program, there were small conversations among the participants and attendees. Several of the Hmong, who were born and grew up in MN, at the program learned that some participants in this Project are life-long public servants and community, clan, and church or spiritual leaders. These Hmong attendees learned that not only did these participants serve in the war, they were pioneers in assisting the Hmong rebuild their new lives when they began arriving in the state in the late 1970s. The attendees thanked them for their selfless efforts in this resettlement process.