Montagnard (Vietnam)
Montagnard (/ˌmɒn.tənˈjɑːrd/) is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The French term Montagnard ([mɔ̃.ta.ɲaʁ] ⓘ) signifies a mountain dweller, and is a carryover from the French colonial period in Vietnam. In Vietnamese, they are known by the term người Thượng (lit. 'highlanders'), although this term can also be applied to other minority ethnic groups in Vietnam. In modern Vietnam, both terms are archaic, and indigenous ethnic groups are referred to as đồng bào (lit. 'compatriots') or người dân tộc thiểu số (lit. 'minority people'). Earlier they were referred to pejoratively as the mọi.[1] Sometimes the term Degar is used for the group as well. Most of those living in the United States refer to themselves as Montagnards,[2] while those living in Vietnam refer to themselves by their individual ethnic group.[citation needed]
The Montagnards are most covered in English-language scholarship for their participation in the Vietnam War, where they were heavily recruited by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and its American and Australian allies. The Montagnards tended to be Christian at a higher proportion than that of the Viets, and the North Vietnamese were seen by some Montagnards as propounding a heavily centralized state that would not value Montagnard Degar local priorities or religious practices.
Ethnic groups
Below is a list of officially recognized ethnic groups in Vietnam that are indigenous to the Central Highlands and nearby areas, with a total population of approximately 2.25 million. They speak Austroasiatic languages of the Katuic and Bahnaric branches, as well as Chamic languages (which belong to the Austronesian language family). Population statistics are from the 2009 Vietnam Population Census.[citation needed]
- Katuic speakers:
- Bru (2019 population: 94,598): Quảng Trị province
- Katu (2019 population: 74,173): Quảng Nam province
- Thừa Thiên-Huế province and Quảng Trị province
- Bahnaric speakers:
- West Bahnaric
- Brau (2019 population: 525): Kon Tum province
- East Bahnaric
- Cor (2019 population: 40,442): Quảng Ngãi province
- North Bahnaric
- Xo Dang (2019 population: 212,277): Kon Tum province and Quảng Nam province
- H're (2019 population: 149,460): Quảng Ngãi province
- Rơ Măm (2019 population: 639): Kon Tum province
- Central Bahnaric
- Bahnar (2019 population: 286,910): Gia Lai province and Kon Tum province
- Jeh-Tariang (2019 population: 63,322): Kon Tum province and Quảng Nam province
- South Bahnaric
- Cho Ro (2019 population: 29,520): Đồng Nai province
- Koho (2019 population: 203,800): Lâm Đồng province
- Mạ (2019 population: 50,322): Lâm Đồng province
- Stieng (2019 population: 85,436): Bình Phước province
- Đắk Nông province
- West Bahnaric
- Chamic speakers:
- Chams (2019 population: 178,948): Ninh Thuận province and Bình Thuận province
- Churu (2019 population: 23,242): Lâm Đồng province
- Rade (2019 population: 398,671): Đắk Lắk province
- Jarai (2019 population: 513,930): Gia Lai province
- Raglai (2019 population: 146,613): Ninh Thuận province and Khánh Hòa province
Listed by province, from north to south as well as west to east:
- Quảng Trị province: Bru (Katuic), Ta Oi (Katuic)
- )
- Quảng Nam province: Katu (Katuic), Xo Dang (North Bahnaric), Jeh-Tariang (Central Bahnaric)
- Quảng Ngãi province: H're (North Bahnaric), Cor (East Bahnaric)
- )
- Gia Lai province: Jarai (Chamic), Bahnar (Central Bahnaric)
- Đắk Lắk province: Rade (Chamic), Mnong (South Bahnaric)
- Khánh Hòa province: Raglai (Chamic)
- )
- Lâm Đồng province: Churu (Chamic), Mạ (South Bahnaric), Ko Ho (South Bahnaric)
- Ninh Thuận province: Raglai (Chamic), Chams (Chamic)
- Bình Phước province: Stieng (South Bahnaric)
- Đồng Nai province: Cho Ro (South Bahnaric)
- Bình Thuận province: Chams (Chamic)
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2020) |
Pre-colonial history
In 1962, the population of the Montagnard people in the Central Highlands was estimated to number as many as one million.[3] Today, the population is approximately four million, of whom about one million are Montagnards. The 30 or so Montagnard tribes in the Central Highlands comprise more than six different ethnic groups who speak languages drawn primarily from the Malayo-Polynesian, Tai, and Austroasiatic language families. The main tribes, in order of population, are the Jarai, Rade, Bahnar, Koho, Mnong, and Stieng.
Ancient Chinese chronicles like the
The Old Book of Tang notes that the people of Champa have "black skin, eyes deep in the orbit, short stature, broad nose, and frizzy hair."[5]
Surrounded by Indianized and Sinicized states from all sides, the Montagnard tribes however have preserved their distinct cultures dating back to the
The Montagnards have a history of tensions with the Vietnamese majority since the 19th century. While the Vietnamese or
The Vietnamese defeated the Chams in 1471 and occupied former
Contacts between the Montagnards with Westerners started in the sixteenth century by Portuguese missionaries, followed by Dutch traders and French missionaries. European Jesuits such as
Colonial period
France conquered Vietnam in 1862 and conquered Tonkin and Annam in 1884. At that time, the Montagnard lands remained largely unexplored. The French government began to search for backup evidence for their claim over the Montagnard lands by looking into Vietnamese annals and asserted historic Vietnamese suzerainty over the Jarai chiefdoms of p’tau apui and p’tau ia in 1889.[9] The Jarai resisted and defeated the French in 1894, but later were subdued when the French came back in 1897 with more soldiers.[10] In the next two decades, the French government made heavy efforts to secure the highlands and trust from the indigenous peoples. Despite that, the Montagnard tribes fiercely fought back. From 1901 to 1914, four high-ranking French military officers were killed by the Montagnard warriors armed with bows and sticks.[9]
L. Nouet, a French civil official, observed the Montagnard's swidden slash-and-burn style of agriculture and considered it a source of poverty, writing that "the Moi are always hungry." He wrote that he wondered if a French decree of 1875 that prohibited agricultural practices of the rây (shifting cultivation) on the Montagnards was strictly enforced, that the Montagnard might starve and go extinct. Nouet believed that a Vietnamese migration into the Central Highlands would set up a social Darwinist "survival of the fittest" scenario that would be good for both groups.[17]
French missionaries converted some Montagnard to the Catholic Church in the nineteenth century, but American missionaries converted more to Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. Of the approximately one million Montagnard, close to half are Protestant, and around 200,000 are Roman Catholic. This made Vietnam's Communist Party suspicious of the Montagnard, particularly during the Vietnam War, since it was thought that they would be more inclined to help the heavily Christian American forces.
The colonization of the Central Highlands became stalled in the 1930s due to combination of many factors, including prolonged indigenous resistances of the Mnong led by N'Trang Lung and rubber uprisings; the Great Depression of 1929; decreasing global demand of rubber and coffee; and the mitigative policies applied by
Unrest of 1929
In 1929, the price of rubber fell, and tensions rose. There were some attacks by Montagnard tribesmen against
Montagnard revolt of 1937
In June 1937, Montagnard villages from many different tribes led by Sam Bram, a prominent
At the end of the revolt in 1938, Sam Bram was sentenced ten years in prison for "sorcery with the aim of fraud by abuse of influence". Other 14 people who got involved in the movement were convicted 8 to 20 years in jail for "sorcery, secret meetings and conspiracy against the state security."[21]
The Dieu Python movement's appeal across several distinct tribes convinced the French colonial officials, among others, of an incipient pan-highland nationalism. The French began treating the people of the Pays Moïs as one ethnicity and worthy of separate status, and attempted to suppress ethnic rivalries within the Montagnard. The French position of power also allowed them to decide which aspects of Montagnard culture should be preserved, and which ones changed; they were happy to celebrate harmless traditions such as ritual buffalo sacrifice, but continued discouraging of shifting cultivation or the remnants of the Dieu Python movement. Leopold Sabatier, who had been driven out by rivals in the 1920s, was rehabilitated in French eyes as a visionary who had understood the locals. The result was the French administration presenting itself to the Montagnards as a friendly if stern father figure that protected them from the Kinh people, justifying the French administration as preserving Montagnard autonomy. The French military also sought to be ready to use the Highlands should a war with Japan come and they need to retreat inland.[22][23]
French Indochina War
In April 1946, a Congress of the Southern National Minorities was held in Pleiku under the auspices of the Viet Minh. Ho Chi Minh, in his letter addressing the Congress, recognized the multinational nature of his proposed Vietnamese state which would be a country of the Kinh majority and 'national' minorities alike. As the struggle broke out between the French and the Viet Minh, the Montagnards were split. Later communist Vietnamese historiography would glorify resistance from Montagnard populations including the Katu, H're, Bahnar, Cor tribes that aided the Viet Minh. Still, Kontum was a French stronghold, and the French rapidly reconquered the Central Highlands from 1945 to 1946.[24] While the French had control of the Central Highlands and established the Montagnard autonomous region, their control was limited outside the major cities as time went on. Montagnard recruits to the French forces sometimes deserted in disgust at poor treatment from French officers, who would use their services for hard labor.[25]
In 1950 the French government established the Central Highlands as the
Vietnam War
The new President of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem opposed Montagnard autonomy. After introducing the 21st Act (Dụ số 21, enacted March 11, 1955), Diem abolished the Montagnard Autonomous Region. The Montagnards, Chinese, Khmer, and Cham were declared ethnic minorities. Implementing the Act disguised as Development and Land Reform Program, Diem confiscated all traditional indigenous Montagnard lands and distributed them to Kinh settlers from North Vietnam. More than one million Kinh migrants, mostly Catholic, were welcomed to settle in the Central Highlands. The Montagnards were expelled from their ancestral homelands or forced-relocated into confined strategic hamlets.[26]
Diem continued this Development Act by forcing the Montagnards to learn Vietnamese, banning Montagnard languages in public schools, compelling the Montagnards to dress like Vietnamese, and forcing them to abandon their culture. He believed that these policies would overcoming the 'superstition', 'ignorance and backwardness' of the indigenous villagers.[27] Chief American advisor Wolf Ladejinsky who was the architect of Diem's policies applauded the South Vietnamese development program as having progressively transformed the wilderness.[28]
Meanwhile, in North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh established Ethnic Autonomous Region in 1956 in accordance to the Bill no. 268/SL January 7, 1956, hinting that the North Vietnamese government recognized indigenous rights and land acknowledgements, though this did not last long. About 6,000 Rhade communists went north and trained by the North Vietnamese. US advisors, such as Price Gittinger of the US Operation Mission (USOM) Agricultural Division, and Gerald Hickey, alarmed Diem that his Development Act would drive the Montagnard tribes to look for communists support, further hurting efforts to contain communism in South Vietnam.
Wesley R. Fishel, chief executive advisor of the Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group (MSUG), in a letter to Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington DC in 1956, expressed that: "This request may seem surprising, but the fact is that Viet-Nam has an Indian problem of its own, resembling in certain respects that of our own."[29]
In 1958, the Montagnard launched a movement known as BAJARAKA (the name is made up of the first letters of prominent tribes; similar to the later Nicaraguan Misurasata) to unite the tribes against the Vietnamese. There was a related, well-organized political and (occasionally) military force within the Montagnard communities known by the French acronym, FULRO, or United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races. FULRO's objectives were autonomy and civil right for the Montagnard tribes. The BAJARAKA staged a mass protest in August 1958, but was put down by South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem's law enforcement forces, who implicitly perpetuated the oppressive assimilation policies on the disadvantaged indigenous communities in South Vietnam like the Chams, the Montagnards, and the Khmer Krom. Diem labeled the protest as 'pro-communist sympathizers.'
On July 31, 1958, the BAJARAKA sent two representatives Y-Ju and Y Nam to the US Embassy in Saigon, where they attempted to reach and inform to the United Nations Secretary-General and other world leaders about the unequal Development Act of the Diem regime, which they described as racist and neocolonial.[30]
An declaration regarding the Montagnards was released in the first meeting of the NLF (Viet Cong) in 1960. It calls for the establishment of autonomous regions in minority areas and for the abolition of the "US-Diêm clique's present policy of ill-treatment and forced assimilation of the minority nationalities." Both the NLF and Hanoi actively recruited the Montagnards into their forces from 1960, with radio broadcasting propaganda in indigenous languages began as early as 1955. Some Montagnards leaders were invited to visit North Vietnam's non-Kinh autonomous regions, alongside with promises of autonomy that would be granted for the Montagnards when the south is liberated. In 1961, Montagnard members of the Vietcong, led by Y Bih Aleo, a former BAJARAKA leader, formed the NLF's Montagnard Autonomy Movement.[31]
As the
The central highlands were greatly affected by American aerial bombing and herbicides during targeting of North Vietnamese materiel transportation on the Ho Chi Minh trail.[35]
The Montagnards also cooperated with the Australians in addition to the Americans; the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) gained the support of many Montagnards by spending prolonged periods in different villages in the region, embracing their culture and gaining over a thousand recruits for the ARVN by 1964.[36]
In 1967, the Viet Cong killed 252 Montagnard in the village of Đắk Sơn, home to 2,000 Highlanders, known as the Đắk Sơn massacre, in revenge for the Montagnard's support and allegiance with South Vietnam.[37]
A The New York Times account in 1973 reported that land disputes between the Montagnards and the Vietnamese were deadly and reminiscent "of the American Indian situation."[38] In October 1974, with guides from FULRO, the Montagnards staged an armed rebellion following cases of murders and mass arrests made by the South Vietnamese government.[39]
In 1975, thousands of Montagnard fled to Cambodia after the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese Army, fearing that the new government would launch reprisals against them because they had aided the U.S. Army. The U.S. military resettled some Montagnard in the United States, primarily in North Carolina, but these evacuees numbered less than 2,000. In addition, the Vietnamese government has steadily displaced thousands of villagers from Vietnam's central highlands, to use the fertile land for coffee plantations.
Oscar Salemink outlines the conclusion on the dragging of indigenous peoples into the Vietnam War by the United States:
The assumption that Montagnards were primitive underscored their inherent vulnerability and innocence with respect to modernity, implying that they were victimized by the context of modern warfare. This discursive victimization of the Montagnards (by the Vietnamese, not by the French or Americans – despite the indiscriminate bombing, defoliation and resettlement!) moved the Americans to protect the underdog in this centuries-old antagonism, and hence provided an extra argument for American intervention, similar to the way the French before them had posed as nation protectrice des minorités in the Indochinese context. This denial of coevalness construed Montagnards as in need of US protection, despite the American reputation of racism and discrimination against Native Americans and Afro-Americans (who in the US context only found 'refuge' in ‘Indian reservations’ and ‘Negro ghettos’, respectively). Simultaneously, this discourse denied agency to the Montagnards: they were the victims of history, they could only react to outside developments without being capable of change themselves. The plain fact was conveniently overlooked, that many Montagnards had decided to follow the Viêt Minh in the past, and the Viêt Công in the 1960s – with Montagnard revolts being the ultimate stimulus to establish the NLF; or that many simply did not follow the Americans, and thus made a clear choice. In this narrative, Americans could not only act and think of themselves as protective heroes – good guys in an essentially corrupt cultural environment – but they could stress their essential benevolence, too, in a context which constantly seemed to question the legitimacy of their actions.[40]
Post Vietnam War
Despite previous promises, the Vietnamese Communist leaders did not care about the Montagnards after the war. Vietnamese colonization of the Highlands resumed. Montanard lands were seized and given to coffee and aluminum companies. The anticommunist wing of FULRO decided to continue their insurgency against now-unified Vietnam.[41] Purges from the People's Army of Vietnam in 1976 and 1979 revealed that there were some Montagnards in its senior positions.[42] FULRO continued the fight against the united Vietnamese government; the insurgency lasted into the mid-1980s.
Due to antireligious campaign of the Vietnamese communist government in 1970s, many Montagnard traditional animist religions were condemned as superstitious and excluded, as the Vietnamese government officially recognized six religions. Because of this, evangelical conversion among the Montagnard tribes during this period happened en masse. However, most of their churches are local non-denominational and non-registered from the state-recognized
The final end of FULRO insurgency against Vietnam came in 1992, with the surrender of 407 FULRO fighters to
It is estimated that over 200,000 Montagnards died and 85% of their villages were destroyed or abandoned during the Indochina Wars.[35]
Most Montagnards lost their lands due to the legacy of former South Vietnam's president
After Vietnam's Đổi Mới in 1986, due to ever-greater global capitalist demands of coffee and valuable metals,[47] larger waves of Vietnamese migration arrived in the Central Highlands and overwhelmed indigenous highlanders. The Vietnamese population of the region went from 500,000 to 1975, to 4 million today, outnumbering native ethnic groups three-to-one. They were called di dân tự do (spontaneous migration) and were tentatively given tolerance from Vietnamese authorities.[43] The original peoples of the Central Highlands experienced ruin during and after the Vietnam War; in the worst cases, they were driven from their land and became refugees.[48]
The government policy of
In February 2001, thousands of Montagnards participated in mass protests demanding returns of ancestral lands and religious freedom. Other such protests took place in 2002, 2004, and 2008. The protests involved marches and sit ins. The nearby government officials reacted with military involvement and police arrests. Many Montagnards such as the Jarai were put on trial and imprisoned for years for their involvement in the protests. Some Montagnards residing in the United States also traveled to Washington, D.C. to protest and bring awareness to the Montagnards back in Vietnam.[49] Pressured by indigenous demonstrations, in July 2004 Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Văn Khải passed Bill 134, pledged to allocate every low-income indigenous household a plot of 0.37 acre of farm land or at least 2,150 sqft (200 square meters) of housing land, also limited or suspended the uncontrolled migration of Vietnamese onto the Central Highlands.[50]
More than 1,000 Montagnard refugees have entered
In 2003, the group gained admittance to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization as the "Degar-Montagnards", but this membership was discontinued in 2016.[57]
Diaspora
Outside of southeast Asia, the largest community of Montagnards in the world is located in Greensboro, North Carolina, US.[2] Greensboro is also the home of several community and lobbying organizations, such as the Montagnard Foundation, Inc.
See also
- Dieu Python movement
- Khmer Loeu
- Lao Theung
- List of ethnic groups in Vietnam
- Montagnais, a similar French term used in North America
- Rhade people(Anak Dagar)
- Social issues in Vietnam
- Thủy Xá and Hỏa Xá
References
Citations
- ^ Although the term moi was derogatory in Vietnamese, meaning "savages", it was not so used in European sources. H. Maître (1909) Les Régions Moi du Sud-lndochinois: Le plateau de Darlac
- ^ a b "MONTAGNARDS" (PDF). August 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 June 2023.
- ^ Jackson, Larry R. (1969), "The Vietnamese Revolution and the Montagnards", Asian Survey, Vol 9, No. 5, pp. 315-315
- ^ Coedès 1966, p. 45
- ^ Coedès 1966, pp. 49–50
- ^ a b Salemink 2003, pp. 67–68
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 77
- ^ a b Salemink 2003, pp. 82–83
- ^ a b c Salemink 2003, pp. 110–111
- ^ Harold E. Meinheit. "Captain Cupet and the King of Fire: Mapping and Minorities in Vietnam's Central Highlands".
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 130
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 104
- ^ Harris 2016, p. 8
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 55
- ^ a b Salemink 2003, p. 108
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 122
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 60
- ^ Salemink 2003, pp. 72–73
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 156
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 109
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 112
- ^ Salemink 2003, pp. 113–128
- ISBN 9781136781896.
- ^ Salemink 2003, pp. 146–147
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 150
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 187
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 188
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 197
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 189
- ^ Harris 2016, p. 44
- ^ "Repression of Montagnards". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 4 April 2023.
- ^ Onion, Rebecca (27 November 2013). "The Snake-Eaters and the Yards". Slate Magazine.
- ^ Kelly, Francis John (1989) [1973]. History of Special Forces in Vietnam, 1961-1971. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. pp. 6–7. CMH Pub 90-23.
- ^ Big Picture: Operation Montagnard. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. 1966.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4262-0522-4.
- ^ Delaney, Anne (2013). All the Way (Television production). Written by Toby Creswell, Paul Ham, and Anne Delaney. Presented by Paul Ham. Australia: November Films. Originally filmed in 1998, but recreated and extended in 2013.
- ^ "The Massacre of Dak Son - TIME". 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 15 December 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- ^ James M. Markham (13 October 1973). "Hill People in Vietnam Battle to Keep Land". The New York Times.
- ^ James M. Markham (2 November 1974). "Montagnard Rebellion Spreads in Vietnam". The New York Times.
- ^ Salemink 2003, p. 210
- ISBN 978-0-19516-0-765.
- ISBN 0-8014-3210-3.
- ^ a b c Enclosing the Highlands - socialist, capitalist and protestant conversions of Vietnam's Central Highlanders, Oscar Salemink, 2003
- ISBN 978-0-29934-230-2.
- S2CID 249163525.
- ^ 'Highland' Epics of 'Lowland' Ancestry? A State Project of Ethnic Solidarity as Window to Regional Consciousness – Jason A. Turner, Major, US Army. University of Michigan, 2015.
- ^ Vietnam's Central Highlands envision becoming a global coffee capital
- ISBN 978-0-295-80077-6.
- ^ Persecuting "evil Way" Religion: Abuses against Montagnards in Vietnam. , 2015. Internet resource.
- ^ No Sanctuary: Ongoing Threats to Indigenous Montagnards in Vietnam's Central Highlands. June 14, 2006.
- ^ a b c d e "Cambodia: Protect Montagnard Refugees Fleeing Vietnam". Human Rights Watch (September 25, 2002). Accessed 2008-05-04.
- ^ ISBN 1-58322-774-1.
- ISBN 1-56432-272-6.
- ^ a b "New Refugee Flow". Human Rights Watch (January 2005). Accessed 2008-05-04.
- ^ Lach Chantha. "Vietnam Montagnard refugees say fleeing death". Reuters (July 21, 2004).
- Agence France Presse(September 13, 2007).
- ^ "UNPO: Degar-Montagnards".
General and cited references
- ISBN 0-520-05061-4.
- Sidney Jones, Malcolm Smart, Joe Saunders, HRW (2002). Repression of Montagnards: Conflicts Over Land and Religion in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Human Rights Watch. ISBN 1-56432-272-6.
- Harris, J. P. (2016). Vietnam's High Ground Armed Struggle for the Central Highlands, 1954-1965. University Press of Kansas. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-70062-283-2.
- Salemink, Oscar (2003). The Ethnography of Vietnam's Central Highlanders: A Historical Contextualization, 1850–1990. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2579-9.
- United States Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations (1998). The Plight of the Montagnards: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Relations, original from the Library of Congress.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-8090-9672-2.
- Montagnard Foundation. Human Rights Violations: Montagnard Foundation Report, 2001: Report on the Situation of Human Rights Concerning the Montagnards or Degar Peoples of Vietnam's Central Highlands. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Foundation, 2001.
- Montagnard Foundation. History of the Montagnard/Degar People: Their Struggle for Survival and Rights Before International Law. Spartanburg, South Carolina: The Foundation, 2001.