I received this interesting e-mail from Kansas City, Kansas. The
author agreed to let me post it to let people know that despite what
the U.S. Census Bureau says there is a significant Hmong community in
Kansas.

- Mark Pfeifer

Hello Hmong Studies Editor.

I am Joshua Xiong, a Hmong from Kansas City, Kansas. I was wondering
what was the cause of the lack of information of the Hmong in Kansas.
Even in 2000 census, their only calm to be 1,009 Hmong in Kansas
which is false. The Christian Hmong in membership was bigger than
that number. In 2000, the C&MA Church had 1,039 members and the Hmong
Baptist Church had roughly over 200 members. In 2007 the Their are
two Hmong Alliance churches with membership still well over 1,000
members, and the Baptist Church in Kansas with about 300 members, and
a new Hmong Christian church with almost 200 members. There is also a
Hmong Lurthren church with a family or two. (Not that the first CMA
church split up on three separate occasions). These in total over
1,500 not including the Non-Christians which are an number I cannot
get, but it is assumed to be a pretty large amount of Hmong that came
back to Kansas since 2000. How do I know these information? For many
years the Hmong community was strongly a Christian based city, with
events and concerts hosted by the two churches (CMA and Baptist, with
CMA being the biggest), I am apart of the CMA Church and have records
and data of memberships coming in and out of our church, and it is
not too hard to find memberships of the other churches as well.
Community estimates the Hmong Population in Kansas is anywhere from
1700-2500 Hmong in the Kansas City Area (Including Overland Park and
Lawrence).

Sorry if I carried on, but I just want to know these questions on
what may of been the cause of the Census to loose track of the Hmong
Population in Kansas where there is a decent amount of Hmong?

Thank You.

Joshua Xiong