Peggy Derrick
Catalog Number: 2012.012.01
In the 40 years since Hmong families first resettled in Wisconsin and Minnesota, this style of needlework has become synonymous with Hmong crafts.
Many, if not most, non-Hmong Midwesterners can now look at a textile like this one and think “Hmong story cloth.”
It is, however, far from an old tradition, created for the first time in the refugee camps of Thailand that existed from 1973 to 1992.
Hmong refugees, driven from Laos after the end of the Vietnam War, had little way to make a living in camps like Ban Vinai. The story is that a Thai man had the idea first, drawing out simple figures for women to embroider, and then selling their work for them in Bangkok, and later internationally.
Made of blue, gray and white pieced cotton, the story cloth has a large central field framed by gray and blue triangles. It tells its story in satin stitch embroidery in bright colors. The action that travels across the cloth clockwise from the upper left shows the story of the Hmong people’s journey to America.
In the upper left corner, they are fleeing China, represented by the Great Wall of China, chased by 18th century Chinese on horseback with swords as they migrate southward into Southeast Asia.
After that, we see the small figures of Hmong in traditional dress, living in their villages, tending gardens and caring for livestock, until they have to escape from retribution by communist Lao soldiers.
Soldiers in green uniforms with machine guns shoot at them as they escape across the Mekong River on rafts and in colorful inner tubes. Lastly, the little figures are guided into buses that take them to the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Thailand, and from there to an airport with jets that will take them to America.
Bin Vinai, at its peak, was a small city, with tens of thousands of residents. Creating “story cloths,” with their charming figures engaged in many different activities, became a cottage industry in which women would embroider these cloths and send them to relatives already in the U.S. to sell for them.
The experiences recounted here are not made-up, even though the word “story” might imply this is make-believe.
The Hmong are one of the Miao tribes in Southeast Asia that were driven out of China and migrated into southeast Asia in the 18th century. There, these hill tribes lived in the mountains, preserving their language and way of life until they were caught up in the 20th-century struggle between communism and Western forces.
Not wanting to lose their autonomy to a communist government, the Hmong became allies of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War and fought alongside American soldiers. For years they paid a heavy price in casualties, not just to fighting men but to their entire villages that were destroyed by the North Vietnamese.
After the conflict, things only got worse, as the new communist government in Laos saw the Hmong as enemies within their borders. Hmong lost their farms and lands and were subjected to forced labor and re-education programs. Many died of starvation and disease.
With no alternative, large numbers of Hmong ran, making a perilous journey to the border with Thailand, crossing the Mekong River, where they were placed in refugee camps.
The United States is not the only country that took in Hmong refugees, but because of their long relationship with the American military, many elected to try and come here.
And American veterans who had fought with and relied on Hmong allies were very vocal in their conviction that the U.S. needs to honor their obligation to a partner that risked, and lost, their homes while fighting with them. This relationship gives Hmong immigrants a special status in the eyes of those who understand their sacrifice.
The story of Hmong in America is just beginning where this story cloth ends, and like all human stories, it is ongoing.
Today, Hmong people are part of the fabric of life in the Coulee Region. Their culture and their immigrant story is unique but also shares qualities with the stories of other immigrants who came here before them.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on February 29, 2020.
This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.
