HISTORY OF THE TAI DAM PEOPLE

The Tai Dam people originated from what is now modern day Northern Vietnam. While living in their ancestral homeland, the Tai Dam people developed a culture unique from surrounding empires such as India and China [1]. Following the second World War, the Tai Dam found themselves stuck in the middle of a conflict between the French–who were attempting to reclaim the colony–and Vietnamese communists–who desired independence [2]. A large section of the Tai Dam people sided with the French in the conflict and had to flee their homeland in 1952 when the French could no longer hold their position in the area. Following their removal from their homeland, the Tai Dam were uprooted multiple times over the next twenty years [3]. Eventually it became clear to the elders of the community that in order to ensure the safety of their people, they would have to leave the country of Vietnam all together.

Map of Vietnam

The flag of the Tai Dam people.

LETTERS FOR HELP

Former USAID employee and friend of the Tai Dam people, Arthur Crisfield heard of their struggles  in Thailand and rushed to the area to help. He contacted several newspapers across the globe to inform the world of the harsh conditions that the Tai Dam were living in. He also sent letters to thirty United States governors asking them to open their states to Tai Dam refugees [4]. In the end only one of the governors responded to Crisfield’s pleas, Governor Robert Ray of Iowa. Governor Ray recognized the difficult situation that the Tai Dam people were in and the potential for Iowans to assist them [5]. Ray committed to opening Iowa up to the Tai Dam refugees and created the Governor’s Task Force which was later rebranded the Iowa Refugee Service Center (IRSC). The task force signed an agreement with the US State Department that stated that Iowa would be allowed to accept 1,200 refugees over the course of two years. In 1975, 633 Tai Dam refugees became the first to resettle in the state of Iowa.

 

THE FIRST OF THE TAI DAM ARRIVE IN IOWA

Governor Ray knew that the refugees needed more than a place to live once they arrived in Iowa, they would also need jobs that could support their families. Finding jobs became the prime focus of the Task Force. Soon after the Tai Dam were relocated to Iowa, they began to work full-time jobs that had been lined up for them. Ray also realized that the Tai Dam people would need guidance on a personal level. They paired each Tai Dam family with a ‘welcome’ or ‘host’ family that would assist them while they were settling into their new surroundings. These hosts helped find jobs and housing for the Tai Dam, register children in school and learn how to handle the brutal Iowa winters. Within a year many of the Tai Dam families that had immigrated to the country reported that they possessed steady employment and were adjusting  well to their new home of Iowa. The resettlement plan had worked so well that only a handful of the families that immigrated to Iowa needed any sort of government aid after their first two years in the country. 

 

THE TAI DAM POPULATION IN IOWA TODAY

Today Iowa is home to more Tai Dam people than anywhere else outside of Southeast Asia. Around half of the Tai Dam in the state of Iowa live in the Tai Dam Village located in the capital city of Des Moines. Here they continue to honor their cultural heritage through holiday celebrations and the preservation of their native language. Though the transition to Iowa was in few ways easy, the Tai Dam people have found a new land and home in the state. Many consider Iowa to be full of conservative narrow minded white people, however the successes of the IRSC show how Iowans are capable of accepting diversity into the heart of the Midwest.

Pagoda in Des Moines, Iowa at the Robert Ray Asian Gardens.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TAI DAM IMMIGRATION PROJECTS

The Tai Dam resettlement process illustrates that with the support of the government, the welcoming arms of the current population and the resilience of those in search of a better life, immigration is possible. Not only is it possible, but it can occur without the annihilation of the immigrant culture. The Tai Dam population in Iowa is thriving to this very day.

Sadly despite the success of Governor Robert Ray’s task force, few people remember the story of the Tai Dam people here in Iowa or the country. In the wake of the United States current immigration crises, both the country’s government and the general population should look to Iowa to see how successful immigration can occur.

 

 

Citations:

[1] Bell, Sue E., and Whiteford, Michael B. “Tai Dam Health Care Practices: Asian Refugee Women in Iowa.” Social Science & Medicine 24, no. 4 (1987): 317–325.

[2]Walsh, Matthew R. The Good Governor : Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017.

[3]Walsh, Matthew R. The Good Governor : Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017.

[4]Walsh, Matthew R. The Good Governor : Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017.

[5]“Matsalyn Brown Keeps Her Tai Dam Culture Alive in Iowa.” Targeted News Service. Washington, D.C.: Targeted News Service, June 13, 2018. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2054889326/.

[6]Walsh, Matthew R. The Good Governor : Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017.

[7]Walsh, Matthew R. The Good Governor : Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2017.

[8]Bell, Sue E., and Whiteford, Michael B. “Tai Dam Health Care Practices: Asian Refugee Women in Iowa.” Social Science & Medicine 24, no. 4 (1987): 317–325.

[9]“Matsalyn Brown Keeps Her Tai Dam Culture Alive in Iowa.” Targeted News Service. Washington, D.C.: Targeted News Service, June 13, 2018. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2054889326/.