Tai Dam and Laotian

Escaping from violence and persecution in their war filled homelands, Tai Dam and
Laotian refugees found solace in Iowa and continue to thrive and add a unique cultural
element to Iowa communities. Tai Dam and Laotian people are from the same
geographical area and have many similar cultural elements; however they are two distinct
ethnic groups.
Arthur Crisfield, a United States government official, wrote a letter to 30 United States
governors pleading for a safe home for Tai Dam families. Iowa Governor Robert Ray
responded offering a safe place for twelve hundred Tai Dam refugees . Tai Dam began
arriving in November 1975, along with other refugee groups from the region. The ethnic
groups that came to Iowa from the Indochina region were Vietnamese, Cambodian,
Laotian, and Hmong people. In all, over 2600 Tai Dam refugees settled in Iowa.
Governor Robert Ray was integral in bringing Southeast Asian refugees to Iowa. Governor
Ray, who served five terms as Iowas governor used his connections to his church and the
community to help refugees learn English, establish homes and jobs, and get children into
schools. Governor Ray established the Governors Task Force for Indochinese
Resettlement. He also raised money to help in Indochina, building an orphanage and
providing food for refugees still living there.
Iowa is now known as the free capital of the Tai Dam in the world, with over 95% of the
Tai Dam population in the United States living in Iowa.

African American
African Americans have been living in Iowa since the 19th century. In Iowas first
decennial census conducted in 1850, the African American residents of Iowa were
described as totaling 333 free colored and home to African American slaves, mostly
along the Mississippi coastline. Iowa also housed many safe points along the
Underground Railroad. Strict laws against the aiding of runaway slaves held harsh
punishments that took the lives of Iowans who helped slaves to freedom in Canada or the
Northern United States.
After the Civil War, oppression, danger, and Jim Crow laws in the South sent African
Americans on a search for new opportunities and a better, safer life. The population of
African Americans increased significantly post Civil War and urban areas where there
were jobs and opportunities for growth became the new home of migrant African
Americans in Iowa. Some of the earliest African Americans to move to Iowa came to
work as steamboat laborers, coal miners, packinghouse workers, and railroad workers.
Steam boats located on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, provided jobs as wait staff,
loaders, and deck hands. In other cities The Illinois Central Railroad and other Iowa
railway companies brought positions working on the railroad. African Americans also
settled in areas where Iowas largest industry, coal mining, provided stability and income
for their families. Buxton, a city in Southern Iowa, was the base for operations of the
Consolidation Coal Company. The population of African Americans in Buxton
outnumbered that of Caucasians.

Norwegian
Many Norwegians felt encumbered by a rigid class system and, seeing few
opportunities to succeed, left for the United States or Canada. Between 1825 and 1980,
nearly one million Norwegians left for America. The peak years of Norwegian
immigration were between 1866-1929. By the turn of the twentieth century, 80 percent
of Norwegian Americans lived in the Midwestern states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota,
North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Immigrants were enticed to the Midwest
by good farmland, established settlements of Norwegians, and persuasive America
letters, which were letters written by recent immigrants to friends and relatives in
Norway. The three main settlement areas in Iowa were in the northeast, northcentral,
and central, parts of the state.

Sudanese
This region of Africa has a tumultuous past, beginning with British colonialism that
lasted until 1956, the effects of which are still present. Sudan is the short form of
Bilad es-Sudan, meaning land of the blacks in Arabic. In its broadest sense, the
name has been applied by both Arabs and Europeans to the whole sub-Saharan fringe
extending across Africa from the Niger basin to the Red Sea coast. Civil unrest
continued from the late 1900s, fueled by the conflicting beliefs of Sudanese Muslims
and Christians. Even after the North/South Comprehensive Peace Agreement was
signed in January 2005, regional warfare, such as the genocide in Darfur, pushes on.
The war between the Islamic north and Christian south in Sudan has old roots,
stemming back to the 1950s when the country, separated at the time as South Sudan
and North Sudan, was made one by Great Britain after World War II, with the
administration centered in Khartoum, the northern capital. Today thousands of
citizens are displaced, not only within the country but also around the world. With
this transnational movement comes the proliferation of cultural practices, specifically
of dress; diverse styles and processes of textile production are woven into the
cultural fabric of new cultures through colorful motifs and patterns.

I have had a refugee life

Why did you choose to come to America instead of other countries?
Oh, we did not know which country we were going at first. Everybody was very
confused about where to go at the time, because during the Fall of Laos, no one
accepted us as refugees from Laos at that time. So we stayed together. Tai Dam
people had leaders who had asked permission to go to many countries, every
country. But I heard that the governor of Iowa, Governor Robert Ray was interested
in our people. So with this quota, we were allowed to come to Iowa. I was one of the
refugees who was in this quota to come to Iowa.
- Baccam Khao
June 1, 1987
Des Moines, IA

Refugee Oral History, Project of the Tai Studies Center, Iowa DHS Bureau of Refugee Programs, Ed. J. Lufkin.