History to 1959
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The ethnic minority Montagnard culture is comprised of many tribes each with its own language and customs.  Most authorities group them into 26 tribes whereas others recognize 40.  The word "Montagnard" is French and means mountain dweller or highlander.  The American military also used the term "Montagnard" as a formal reference but in casual conversation shortened it to "Yard".
They are the original inhabitants of today's southern Vietnam and are not oriental rather Mon Khmer and Malayo Polynesian language stocks.  Prior to 200 BC larger cultures invaded from the northwest and southern China, conquered them, and took over the coastal areas and lowlands.

The tribes people were banished to the southern portion of the Annamite Mountains hence the term "hill tribes" or "highlanders."   The Annamites are the backbone of Indochina and the southern portion of these mountains comprises the Central Highlands of Vietnam and the northeast Cambodia provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri.

For nearly 2,000 years kingdoms and dynasties flourished and fell in the lowlands while the hill tribes remained secluded in their mountain forests.  Through an agro ecosystem they lived in harmony with nature, always mindful of the resource needs of subsequent generations.

Lowland Vietnamese  however viewed them as backwards and took advantage of them in peripheral contacts.   Vietnamese also believed the mountains harbored evil spirits and the streams were poisoned which discouraged them from encroaching until later.  The first lasting and somewhat beneficial relations Montagnards had with the outside world were in the 1800's when French missionaries began converting them to Christianity.  Soon France established protectorates in Indochina and colonized the most economically advantageous areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.  In the Central Highlands of southern Vietnam they employed Montagnards as plantation workers, servants, and the like. In 1946 with the approaching French Indochina War, as inducement for Montagnard loyalty and military recruits, French colonial authorities granted them political control over their four Central Highland provinces.  However, as a very primitive people with no educated leaders, the highlanders were ill prepared to seize opportunity.  In 1952 Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai abolished the French decree but allowed Montagnards to retain land rights and cultural traditions.  It wasn't until the early 1950's that the most prominent Montagnard tribes in areas of French control acquired written languages.  French missionaries developed these Romanized orthographies or writing systems based on the phonetics of each tribe's language.   Yet today the bellicose tribes the French couldn't access and a few others  indigenous only to northeast Cambodia still don't have written languages.

The French Indochina War was settled by the 1954 Geneva Accords.  A demilitarized zone was created along the 17th parallel dividing Vietnam into two countries, a pro democratic South Vietnam (SVN) and communist North Vietnam (NVN) under Ho Chi Minh.   The French prevented Montagnard participation in the Geneva settlement therefore the 1946 decree for Montagnard self government wasn't considered.  They remained under SVN rule. In 1955 Ngo Dinh Diem was elected president of SVN and declared the Montagnard highlanders, Chams on the coast, Cambodians in the former Khmer territory of lower SVN, and the Chinese in the major cities as “ethnic minorities”.   As the largest minority and their Central Highlands of strategic and economic significance, Diem  instituted very harsh policies to assimilate the Montagnards into the Vietnamese cultural sphere.  He also imposed Vietnamese officials on them and resettled nearly a million poor Vietnamese from the lowlands into the Central Highlands.
These actions exacerbated Montagnard distrust of the Vietnamese.  With Y Bham Enuol as leader, in 1958 the four dominate Montagnard tribes (Bahnar, Jarai, Rhade, and Koho) united to form BAJARAKA to peacefully advocate for Montagnard self rule.  President Diem arrested and imprisoned Enuol, his executive committee, and numerous followers which spawned a Montagnard underground resistance movement.
continued  Vietnam War 1959-75 home    |    contact us