The legislation comes just a month after a Hmong hunter was killed in Marinette County north of Green Bay.,”

State lawmakers have introduced legislation that would mandate local schools to teach about the role of the Hmong people, from Laos, as U.S. allies during the Vietnam War.

The legislation comes just a month after a Hmong hunter was killed in Marinette County north of Green Bay. In 2005, a Hmong man killed six white hunters in Sawyer County, located in northwestern Wisconsin.

An identical bill was introduced in 2005, but didn't receive much movement in the legislature, according to state Rep. Donna Seidel (D-Wausau), who is sponsoring the new legislation. As a result of the recent murder in Green Bay, there was more urgency to reintroduce the bill, she said.

Supporters of the Hmong Migration Education Act hope passing the bill will help students understand the contribution of the Hmong people to the United States. And with a significant Hmong population in Wisconsin, it's even more reason to talk about their history in the classroom, supporters say.

"I think it'd be a very good idea," said Maiyee Xiong, a Hmong sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. She said it is important for Wisconsin students to get to know the Hmong people and know where they're from.

University Wisconsin-La Crosse Ethnic and Racial Studies assistant professor Vincent Her said about 40,000 Hmong live in Wisconsin today.

A student who attended a predominantly black Milwaukee public high school said there was little talk of the Hmong people there.

"I've never even heard the word 'Hmong' spoken," said Dou Moua, a sophomore in the College of Engineering.

Among Asian students, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese were the predominate languages spoken at school, he said.

Both Xiong and Moua are members of the Coalition of Hmong American Students, a small group that is in the process of being approved by the university, they said.

While Seidel said the bill has received a positive reception, she is also trying to ease concerns that it would upset local control of schools.

The bill would "direct school districts to incorporate discretion and let districts make their own decisions," she said. Individual districts would decide "the what, how, and when" to apply the law, she said.

State statutes currently require that school districts instruct their schools to teach "knowledge of state, national, and world history." If the bill is passed, students would be taught "the role of the Hmong in fighting for the United States in the Vietnam War, the persecution of the Hmong by the Laotian government after the Vietnam War, and the reasons for the emigration of many Hmong to the United States," according to the bill.

Her, who teaches a Hmong Americans course at UW-La Crosse said the Hmong were instrumental in helping fight the "Secret War" in Laos during the 1960s and 1970s.

He said the Hmong helped to block the movement of Northern Vietnamese equipment into Vietnam on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which runs through Laos.

When the American CIA pulled out of Laos in 1975, the Communist government there persecuted the Hmong, he said. As a result, many fled to Thailand. But their welcome was short, and the U.S. began taking in many Hmong refugees by 1976.

Today, most Hmong live in Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Michigan and North Carolina, he said.

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