by Albin Wagner
Published in Capitol Times (Cheyenne), Vol. 1, #12, September 1983, pp. 17-20.
Editor’s Note, February 23, 2018
Wyoming has been a “state of immigrants” in the “nation of immigrants” that is the United States. In territorial times, nearly a third of the population of Wyoming was foreign-born.
In the early days of statehood, the state established a “bureau of immigration” to attract potential residents from around the United States and the world. Some promotion projects were done in conjunction with railroad advertising. Additional projects, initiated by sugar beet refiners and coal-mining companies, received state encouragement and assistance.
Many have been chronicled by business and Western historians. Numerous books and articles have been written about migration to Wyoming. Examples are Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming’s European Heritage, edited by Gordon O. Hendrickson, published in 1977, and dozens of articles published in such journals as Annals of Wyoming. These include histories on nearly every ethnic group who came to the state. (A brief bibliography is included on this page).
Particularly in the 20th century, Wyoming accepted refugees escaping from war and genocide in Europe and elsewhere. Albin Wagner wrote this brief overview of the short-lived refugee resettlement program operating in Wyoming in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This article, published in a Cheyenne city magazine in 1983, described the refugee resettlement program operating in Wyoming in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
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Unlike New York City and other eastern cities, Wyoming is not known for its ethnic neighborhoods and diverse immigrant groups. No steamship ever docked at a Wyoming port to discharge immigrant masses upon its shores.
The usual stereotype people have of Wyoming is a cowboy on a horse. Wyoming: The Cowboy State. TV and film glorify the Wyoming cowboy. License plates carry that image. The University football team is the “Cowboys.”….
In reality, Wyoming’s population is more diverse than most people realize–Finnish coal miners in Hanna, Russian-German farmers in Torrington, English ranchers in Chugwater, Basque sheep herders in Buffalo, Swedish wheat growers in Albin, Polish miners in Sheridan, Irish railroad workers in Evanston, Greek families in Cheyenne, Italian businessmen in Rock Springs, and Mexican beet laborers in Lovell.
Wyoming is now experiencing an influx of new immigrants that is increasing that diversity. The newest Wyomingites are Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, Korean, Polish, Cuban and Afghani. They come to Wyoming from all corners of the world, many of them refugees from war and political oppression.
Steven Vadja, the new head of the Wyoming Refugee Resettlement Program, said there are 400 to 500 refugees presently living in Wyoming. Eighty percent of them are Vietnamese. “Some are Cambodians and a few families now are from Afghanistan.” He estimates there are about 50 refugees who have made their homes in Cheyenne. “This does not include immigrants, resident aliens, or dependents and spouses on Warren Air Force Base,” Vadja said. “Refugees have been given special status by Congress.”
Vadja explained why it is so difficult to know exactly how many refugees or other immigrants are in Wyoming at any given time. “Refugees are usually sponsored by individuals or church groups,” he said, “but once they are in the country, they often resettle where there is work or where other members of their family may be living. If a family of 12 moved to Cheyenne from Texas, for example, there would be no tracking them unless they applied for public assistance.”
Vadja explained, “Congress passed the Refugee Cash Assistance Program in 1980 to aid refugee families. The program is like AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), except it is budgeted 100 percent to federal funding. If they lack resources, they are also eligible for assistance under the companion program–Title 19–Medicaid. Some may also use county public assistance,” he said.
Legal immigrants are not eligible for public assistance, Vadja said. “If my uncle in Israel were to move to the United States, he’d have to do it on his own. The assistance applies only to those granted refugee status.”
The Communist victory in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos by May 1975, brought about the evacuation of military dependents, government officials and those who had worked for the Americans. Attempts at radical social reorganization left one million dead in Cambodia from 1975 to 1978 and caused hundreds of ethnic Chinese and others to flee Vietnam as “boat people” in 1979. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia swelled the refugee population and contributed to widespread starvation in that devastated country. President Ford ordered U. S. naval ships to help evacuate refugees in 1975, and in 1978. President Carter approved an interim refugee policy permitting admission of Vietnamese “boat people” refused asylum elsewhere.
Under the Reagan administration, state and federal funding is being cut back for public assistance and other human services. Funding the Wyoming Refugee Resettlement Program is no exception. The position of Refugee Resettlement Coordinator was recently cut back by the federal government from a full-time position to a part-time job. James Baldwin, who had headed the program, was given a new position the Department of Health and Social Services, and Vajda was given responsibility for the refugee program along with his other assignments as Social Service Managing Program Consultant with the Division of Public Assistance and Social Services (DPAS) of the State Department of Health and Social Services.
“It was just a recognition of where we are,” Vadja said, speaking in his office in the Hathaway Building. “We have a relatively small number of refugees in Wyoming. Other states which have a much larger refugee population, only have a part-time person hearing their programs. Consequently, the federal government felt a full-time position was unnecessary.”
The job has definite advantages, Vadja said. “I manage the social services that the refugees would be using anyway. This way they have direct access,” the veteran of 15 years of Wyoming state government added.
Over all immigration, not counting refugees, is limited to 270,000 immigrants during any fiscal year. “That’s not many people for a country our size,” Vadja noted.
First preference is given to unmarried sons and daughters of U. S. citizens (20 percent of the total); second, to spouses and unmarried children of aliens already lawfully admitted for permanent residents (26 percent); members of the professions or persons of exceptional ability in the sciences and arts (10 percent); married sons and daughters of U. S. citizens, and so on. Potential immigrants are also ranked according to the country of origin. “If you are an unskilled worker (sixth preference) from Mexico, you may have to wait years to get into the United States,” Vadja said.
The former head of the refugee program in Wyoming, James Baldwin, estimated there are 175 refugee families in Wyoming. “The bulk of them are in Casper. The headquarters of Catholic Social Services of Wyoming, Inc., is there. They are the state affiliate of the U. S. Catholic Conference, one of the 13 leading resettlement programs in the country.” Baldwin said federal funds are channeled to the local refugee communities through three private organizations. “It is only natural that most would settle in Casper, near their main office.” He estimates that 85 percent of all refugees in the state are living in Casper.
Cheyenne is home for most of the rest. “Most are Vietnamese who left during the fall of Saigon, and are now U. S. citizens. There are also three or four families from Afghanistan–and a few in Rawlins,” he said. “Kabul University and the University of Wyoming were ‘sister’ universities, I believe,” Baldwin continued. “UW had nine to ten scholarships for Afghan students, but they are not able to get out of the country since the Russians invaded Afghanistan.”
He said the refugee population in Wyoming now is “fairly stable.” Most of the Vietnamese coming are “mainly due to a process of family reunification.” Baldwin said he though the number moving into the state approximates the number moving out.
“We even have one former Vietnamese Air Force pilot in Wyoming,” Baldwin noted. “He flew his plane to Thailand and said, ‘Hey, I give up.'” The man, Ty Trang, and some of the Vietnamese families in Casper now run the Mekong Restaurant there. Peter Holcomb, a high school teacher at Burns, is impressed with the food there. “It’s the best restaurant in Wyoming,” he claims.
A few Polish refugees came to the Rock Springs-Green River area after the U. S. admitted refugees following the declaration of martial law in Poland. Other Poles who have settled in that area have come under regular immigrant status, however.
“In addition, Wyoming has a large Korean population,” Baldwin pointed out. “Perhaps the most numerous immigrant group in Wyoming, they live mostly in Cheyenne and Sheridan.” He speculated a number chose Cheyenne because of the proximity to the base where family and friends are military dependants, in some cases. Churches sponsored the Sheridan group.
The Koreans, however, are not refugees. “They came as permanent resident immigrants–most immigrated for economic reasons,” Baldwin said.
Sherri McGuire is the Vietnamese wife of an Air Force man stationed at Warren AFB. She has been trying to bring her brother to the United States from a refugee camp in Thailand. She had the paperwork completed so he could leave Vietnam under the Orderly Departure Program agreed to by Vietnam and the United States, but before it could be processed, her brother escaped to Thailand.
“He had tried to escape many times before,” McGuire said. “He has been in the refugee camp for two years. Now he wished he hadn’t done this,” she says. “He left all of the family in Vietnam and doesn’t have anyone there.” She said she was very concerned about him as the camp is “like being in a prison. He is very hopeless and depressed,” she said.
After her brother escaped to Thailand, McGuire had to file new documents to baring him to the U. S., but the paperwork was delayed for lack of his Vietnamese birth certificate he left in Vietnam. Finally, she received a call in June that her application to sponsor her brother had been approved and forwarded to Bangkok, Thailand. But she has not heard anything since. Her husband wrote Sen. Simpson who requested speedy action on the application from the American Embassy in Thailand.
Sherri McGuire has lived in the U. S. about ten years. The McGuires were married in Chicago soon after she came to this country. They had met at an American base in Vietnam where she was an interpreter in a dining hall during the war. The mother of a three-year-old daughter, she is taking classes in English, mathematics and science.
Mrs. McGuire has another brother still in Vietnam. She is also attempting to bring him to this country. She has filed most of the needed documents. “Now my brother says he may not come, ” she said. Kim Nguyen (produced Win”), an employee of the Wyoming State Highway Dept in Cheyenne, has had more success getting her relatives out of refugee camps in Thailand. She sponsored two of her cousins, Thai and Nam Nguyen, who had “walked” to Thailand from Vietnam. Both brothers have been in Cheyenne about two years.
“Thai had two years of training toward being a lawyer,” Ms. Nguyen said. “Nam was in the army, so there was no work for them in Vietnam (after the Communist victory.)”
She secured a job for Thai at the Oriental House Chinese Restaurant as a cook. “He seems to be doing very well there,” she says. “He didn’t have any experiences as a cook, but they tried him out and he picked it up fast;” (The Oriental House is currently sharing quarters with the Peking Restaurant at 700 Carlson while their old location is being rebuilt). Her other brother, Nam, bought a lawnmower this summer and started his own yard care business. “In the beginning I helped them, but now I let handle it themselves,” Ms. Nguyen said. They are renting a house and taking English classes at the LCCC Adult Learning Center at Churchill School.
Most Vietnamese like Than and Nam are underemployed, according to social workers. Many were government workers or professionals who were all educated and respected in their communities. But because of difficulty with the English language and problems of verifying Vietnamese educations, many find themselves working in motels or other low paying jobs. Ms. Nguyen has been more successful. She has been her for nine years, coming with her family before the Communist take-over. Her uncle worked for an American company and, at first, she and her parents and 11 brothers and sisters were in an Arkansas refugee camp.
“We wrote a letter to St. Mary’s Catholic Church here and they sponsored us,” she said. All of her brothers and sisters graduated from school and have jobs elsewhere now. “Only my parents and I are let in Cheyenne,” she said.
For the past five years, she has been a draftsman with the Highway Department. A language beginning in sixth grade but I chose French, so I had to learn English here,” she said. “After I came to Cheyenne, I worked in a library for four years so I just spoke up for myself. The pronunciation was hard, but I knew French and English has a lot of French words. She attended LCCC and graduated in civil engineering. It was the LCCC training that enabled her to get the job at the Highway Department. Now she is helping to bring other relatives to the United States.
Sister Margo Lebart, head of the Catholic Social Services of Wyoming, agrees that language is the major problem for refugees. “Some are somewhat proficient in English, since many held government positions or worked for Americans, she said. She also agreed that most are “underemployed.” Nonetheless, she said, “They seem to be entering into the culture well.”
She has applications for “about 300 refugees” wanting to resettle in Wyoming. “Some are lost people, some are secondary immigrants who came first to California or another state, and some are other immigrants.” She said there are “no great numbers” agreeing that there are probably less than 500 refugees now in Wyoming.
The monthly newsletter published by Wyoming Catholic Social Services was being published in four languages–English, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian, according to Gina Graham, resettlement worker for the organization. “The last issue was not printed in Laotian because of the lack of a translator,” she said, noting that a number of the Laotian families had moved away.
Sister Lebert said Graham probably has the closest contact with the refugee families. She travels around the state, helping them keep legal documents up to date, finding local sponsors for refugees and serving as a channel for funding from the U. S. Catholic Conference and the federal government. “It is the responsibility of the local agency to aid with the initial adjustment of the refugees, meet them at the airport, help find them a place to live,” Sister Lebert said.
A member of the Order of St. Francis, she has held her present position since 1979. She applied for the position in Wyoming when she saw it advertised, came to the interview, thought the area was “gorgeous” and took the job. As head of the Wyoming Catholic Social Services, she supervises “five or six programs.”
Other private social service agencies in Cheyenne such as the Salvation Army and Needs, Inc., report little demand for assistance from the refugee and immigrant community.
Recently, up to 15 Cuban refugees have been eating at the Salvation Army on East 20th Street, Capt. Michael Shepard said. “They are trying to locate here in Cheyenne, he said. “A couple of years ago, St. Mary’s Catholic Church sponsored some Cubans and apparently, some have returned.” He said they speak very little English and are “having difficulty finding employment here.”
The Salvation Army has also helped two Afghan families in Cheyenne, the captain said. “Both have been to our office. Small cash grants were given for unique situations to help them take root and start in the community. They are now employed and in school and seem to be making a positive adjustment,” he said.
“We may have helped others that I am not aware of such as with emergency amounts of food. We have so many services available, I can’t be sure,” the captain said.
Catholic Social Services of Wyoming is also the major subcontractor for the English as a Second Language program run by the Wyoming State Department of Education, according to Lloyd Kjornes, Adult Education Coordinator for the department. “In fact, we are presently negotiating a contract with DPAS to fund the program. We use a grant process for funding,” he explained
Kjornes said there are about half a dozen language programs around the state with programs for refugees, including Roosevelt Center in Casper and programs in Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Cody and Kemmerer. “We also had language programs in Torrington and Albin at one time,” he said. “But the Laotian families in the area have now moved elsewhere. One of the churches in Torrington sponsored them and placed them at various farms.”
“The Department of Education also provides training in English for other ethnic groups whether they’re American Indians, Koreans, or whatever,” Kjornes said. He estimated that about 20 Poles in the Rock Springs area ware served by the program as are Korean immigrants in Sheridan and Cheyenne.
Kjornes rates the language program in Wyoming as highly successful and attributes the success to relatively small numbers in the classes. “As result, the students get a lot of attention,’ he said, “the people have received community acceptance, too. They have encountered resistance in California, Texas and even in Denver. We just haven’t had that here. As a rule, the refugees and other immigrants are industrious and serious. They have done well in Wyoming.”
The growing number of Japanese, Chinese and Oriental restaurants in Cheyenne is one indication of the increasing population of Wyomingites from Asia. One of these establishments is the Arirang Oriental Restaurant, 801 W. Pershing Blvd. The restaurant, formerly Mario’s, was purchased in June by Chon I Noh, soon after his arrival here from Korea.
Noh was a bank president in Seoul, Korea, and he moved his whole family here, including his wife, In Ja Noh, and his two children, Jung, now a sixth grade student at Henderson Elementary, and Sung, who is in the eighth grade. Noh said he moved to the United States in hope of “a better education and bright future for the kids.” The paperwork to get permission to come here took two years, he said.
The Noh family chose Cheyenne because of a friend here, Yen S. Chung, who owns the Firebird Motel and China Garden Restaurant at 1905 E. Lincolnway. Chung and his family of two sons and two daughters have been in the United States for 3 1/2 years. He owned an electrical business in Korea. He opened the China Garden about six months ago after living here for the past two years.
Noh purchased the Arirang Restaurant from Pu Yong Skare, a former employee of the State Highway Department. Mrs. Skare came to this country from Korea more than ten years ago with her family. After she worked for the state for 3 1/2 years, she said she “felt like owning her own business.” The restaurant has been open for 1 1/2 years. She said they give a group discount to state employees who, along with base personnel, are her main customers. She said Mr. Noh has already made improvement in the restaurant.” She cited the food and decorations of Noh’s “ideas on how to do things better.” She said she intends to continue work at the restaurant while the Noh’s learn English. Mrs. Noh can read and write English well, but cannot speak it. She is attending a class in English at Churchill School.
Approximately 70 Koreans live in Cheyenne, Mrs. Skare estimates, “maybe more.” She once owned an oriental grocery in downtown Cheyenne which closed soon after she sold it. Many Koreans shop at the China Grocery next to the Oriental House at 1604 E. Lincolnway, which carries oriental food. “We also go to Denver. There are many Korean groceries and restaurants there. There are over 100,000 Koreans in Denver, she said.
The Koreans in Cheyenne also have their own church, Mrs. Skare said. The church meets at Highland Presbyterian Church in Buffalo Ridge every Sunday. “We have picnics, camping and fishing trips, too,” she said.
The Rev. Richard Brown of Highlands Church, said there are 30 to 35 regular members of the Korean congregation. “About half of them are Presbyterians,” he estimates. The group is celebrating their second anniversary the first week of November. “Starting this Sunday (Sept. 11), the Korean congregation will meet at 11 a.m., in the Fellowship Room at the same time our regular worship service is held,” he said. He added, “We will be sharing Sunday School activities for the first time.”
Brown said the Koreans had begun to meet together because they wished to worship in the Korean language and the Korean Presbyterian tradition “introduced by Presbyterian missionaries 100 years ago” was very strong. He said, “The church has become a focal point for the Korean community in Cheyenne.”
This new group of Wyomingites from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Korea and other countries are making their contribution to the growth and development of the state, just as other Wyoming pioneers did before them. Certainly, they are making the state a richer place to live by their being here. Let ‘er Buck!
Albin Wagner
The author is a regular contributor to the pages of Capitol Times. He also teaches college courses in such diverse subjects as film criticism and comparative religions. He holds B.A. and M. A. degrees from the University of Colorado and studied in the divinity school at Harvard University. He was formerly publisher of a Colorado newspaper and Wyoming State Archivist.
(Editor’s Note: February 2018, add: Albin Wagner died in Brighton, Colo., in May 2015. He had worked as an archivist in New Jersey and Colorado, later returned to his hometown, Brighton, where he was the acknowledged expert on the town’s history, having written the centennial history of the town).