….The Madison Hmong community today is dividing along clan lines over control of United Asian Services, the local nonprofit organization that for 26 years has been the first stopping place for refugees seeking a foothold in a new world. A bitter dispute with allegations of misconduct, incompetence and unbridled ambition is pitting the Vang and Thao clans against each other in a clash one close observer likened to â??the Hatfields and McCoys,â? the bloody feud of American folklore.
….Marlys Macken is a UW-Madison professor of linguistics whose interest in the Hmong community led her to join a Dane County task force preparing for the new arrivals from Thailand in 2004. Macken, brainstorming with others, came up with the idea to use university language teaching capacity and a store of cast-off university furniture to develop a program to teach the refugees English while employing them in a furniture-refinishing enterprise. She secured $100,000 in private funding for the Hmong Literacy, Language and Jobs Program, which would be funneled through United Asian Services, where she served on the board of directors.