Lao Oral History Archive (LOHA)

This project, the first of its kind, documents the untold stories of Lao refugees in the US through audio and video media and create an on-line archive of interviews, videos, and historical documents. Currently, there are almost no existing oral history projects and little academic research that focus on the ethnic Lao refugees in the US. By creating a Lao Oral History archive, CLS aims to raise awareness within the Lao-American community and the greater population of the history, culture, and contemporary realities of Lao refugees in the US as well as the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Secret War in Laos in the 1960s and 70s. This project disseminates the voices of underrepresented population, whose stories of immigration reflect unique moments in both Lao and American history, thereby building bridges between the past and present and between disparate cultures.

CLS began to collect stories from the Minnesota and the San Francisco Bay Area Lao communities in the Fall of 2009. An official website where videos and photos will be made available soon. For more information, please contact the Center for Lao Studies.