Maintaining one's native culture and rituals while becoming assimilated into the American culture can be a real challenge. The New Year, marriage, and funeral rituals of the Hmong may be lost before too many years, especially if the generations born here in the United States do not carry out these rituals as did their ancestors. [This book] needed to be published so that future generations would not lose these important parts of their heritage. -Mary Jane Cavanaugh, freelance editor Despite the enormous challenges with the American culture, the Mong leaders and elders have continued to maintain and preserve their oral traditional practices through cultural traditions, which are the Mong New Year celebration, the marriage customs, and the traditional funeral ritual services. As a Mong American educator, Dr. Moua has added his emic perspectives and insights from his personal experience as community leader and as an adjunct professor of mathematics... -Paoze Thao, PhD, professor of linguistics and education, CSU Monterey Bay

The aim of this book is to sustain the Mong cultural practices. It is based on the roaring views of fifteen Mong traditional leaders about the oral and cultural practices of the Mong people in the U.S. Maintaining the cultural legacies of a group of indigenous people such as the Mong Americans is imperative since they have more than 5,000 years of cultural traditions. The cultural and oral practices of the Mong New Year celebration, marriage custom, and traditional funeral rituals have been challenged as a result of the Mong migration from China, often through other host countries, to the United States. The Mong traditional leaders have been the vocal voices that are influential in regard to maintaining the Mong traditional culture. Roars of Traditional Leaders discusses this leadership role, a key component of organization development and transformation, played by contemporary leaders in the challenge of sustaining the Mong’s rich cultural traditions in America. Leaders will have to come together in the discussion of cultural practices and traditions in the century to come.