Family Biography:

Chertoua Yang is a Hmong community leader in Minneapolis, MN, former President of Hmong American Leadership Council of MN, Vice-President of SGU Veterans and Families of USA, Inc., former President of Lao Veterans of Minnesota and also served on board of directors to various non-profit and community organizations. He was a Political Refugee and an Anti-Communist Resistance Fighter, a former Military Police, and a former Special Guerrilla Units soldier.

Chertoua was born on August 4, 1954 in Sam Neua, Houaphanh, a northeastern region of the Kingdom of Laos, to Nhiakoua Yang and Kaying Xiong as the oldest of their seven children. His father was a  soldier of the French Army and his mother was a housewife. Both his parents were farmers before the Vietnam war. 

During the Vietnam war, Nhiakoua was enlisted and joined the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s Secret Army as a soldier of the Special Guerrilla Unit. Chertoua was raised in the Sam Neua region of Laos and attended various schools from 1962 to 1970, as his family moved from place to place as the war progressed. He moved from Sam Neua region (the Northeastern Region) to Xieng Khouang (the Central Region) where he completed his education, equal to a 5th-grade education.

In 1970, when he was 15 years old, Chertoua enlisted and joined the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s Secret Army as a soldier of the Special Guerrilla Unit to replace his father. He went through a 10-week Basic Military Training in Long Tieng and was assigned to GM 26, 211st Battalion, 5th Company under the leadership of Colonel Lee Lor, Major Chong Neng Xiong and Captain Chong Seng Vang.

In 1972, he was sent back to Long Tieng for more Advanced Military Training and was assigned to GM 21, 201st Battalion, 3rd Company for six months, under the leadership of Colonel Xai Dang Xiong, Major Bee Cheng, and Captain Chong Shoua Vang. He was then sent to an additional 10 weeks of Advanced Military Training in Phitsanulok, Thailand. After the training in Thailand, Chertoua returned to Long Tieng for a 10-day rest and prepared for the frontline to be amongst the tens of thousands of Special Guerrilla Units soldiers to defend the war against the advanced military aggression of the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao soldiers. This was what’s often called a “Secret War” as the American soldiers were battling the North Vietnamese troops in what’s known as the Vietnam War, until 1973, when he eventually left the Secret Army to join the Military Police in Long Tieng.

After the fall of Saigon on April 30th, and Long Tieng on May 14th, the Americans left the Southeast Asia region in 1975. The Political Revolution in Laos began and former soldiers like Chertoua were detained and sent to re-education camps by the new communist regime. Chertoua had no choice but to become a refugee in his own country and to protect his life he made his way through dangerous deep jungles and high mountain ranges to escape from the new communist regime.

On May 13, 1979, Chertoua and his family fled to Thailand as political refugees to escape from the new communist regime. Chertoua and his family would stay in various refugee camps in Thailand under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Program (UNHCR). For the next 15 years they clung to the hope of returning to a peaceful Laos. However, as the UNHCR Program came to an end and various refugee camps began to close he finally lost all hope of going back to his home country. 

On September 20, 1994, Chertoua decided to seek a better life and resettled in the US as a political refugee with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). He and his family resettled in Fresno, California.  

On July 26, 1996, Chertoua moved his family to be closer to his extended family in Minnesota and to seek a better opportunity for his children. Today, Chertoua is a proud American and lives in Minneapolis with his wife Kazoua Xiong and their ten children: Nuyeng & his family, Kou & his family, Nhia & her family, Pa & her family, Sue, Tong & his wife, Chong, Hue & his family, Chue & his wife and Lisa, and the many grandchildren.

Source: Hmong and Lao Commemorative Statue Book, 2023