Population
Only 5% of the Hmong population lives in the United States. Of this 5% many live in California, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin. There is a small population of Hmongs in the piedmonts of western North Carolina. Many Hmong people migrated to the US after the Vietnam War to escape annihilation.
Language
The Hmong language is very detailed and still spoken today. There is one main dialect called Chuangiandian, which is broken down into sub-dialects called Hmong Njua and Hmong Daw. The dialects were very different but have been standardized to where almost any Hmong speaker can understand any dialect. The Hmong Daw dialect is the most commonly spoken around the world. American Hmong is referred to as Green or White Hmong. It was not a written language until the mid-nineteen hundreds.
Family
Hmong families are referred to as clans and tend to be very large. In the family the elders are given the most respect because they are looked upon as wise. The father of the family has the most power and makes most of the decisions pertaining to the family. The mother of the family must care for and nurture for the children as well as take care of the household. Marriage in the Hmong culture must occur outside of a person’s clan. In the traditional Hmong culture a bride price was decided on and given to the bride's family. This price gave the husband a right to the bride's labor, sexuality, and reproduction. Upon marriage the bride becomes part of the husband's lineage. Divorce is rare within the traditional Hmong culture. If divorce occurs, the father is the one who gains custody of the children.
Women
Women participate in the backbreaking work within harvesting. They harvest the rice, do the weeding, grow many vegetables, and harvest poppy. They also make the clothing, feed the animals, and prepare the food. At a young age, young Hmong females are taught needlework skills that help them create there flower cloth. Women work in the fields up until the day she is ready to give birth. The birth of a new child is a spiritual ceremony where the placenta is collected and buried next the main house post. To prevent sickness women are treated very well after birth. The newborn baby has three souls. The first one occurred when the bones were growing inside the womb. The second soul is obtained from the wind of the child’s first breath. The third soul is the one that inhibits its body from the land of darkness.
Death
Hmong funerals are very large and usually very loud. If a person does not cry at a family members funeral, then they are viewed as not caring. The shaman performs a ritual that helps lead the soul to find their "black jacket" on their way to the spiritual world. This "back jacket" is the placenta. In the Hmong culture there is a never-ending cycle of the rebirth of souls.
Beliefs/Medicine
The shaman is described as the spiritual leader within a Hmong community. They help people with illnesses related to their spiritual wellbeing such as, depression, lethargy, and mental illness. But because they are not a doctor they are not paid for their profession. A shaman is usually a highly respected male elder. When a person looses a soul the shaman preforms a special ceremony to find the soul and lead it back to the body. Souls can be frightened out of a person by loud noises or a fall. There are two spiritual worlds, the land of light and the land of darkness. In the land of light everything is connected such as trees, water, humans, and spirits. The land of darkness is where the souls go until they are called back to enter a new body.
The New Year
The New Year celebration occurs in November and December and marks the end of the harvest season. Everyone dresses in there finest clothing and many special foods are prepared. The New Year is a time of community celebration to honor ancestors and spirits. To the young generation, the New Year is seen as a courting experience with the possibility of meeting their future spouse.