A Million Shades of Gray (18 page)

When he caught his breath, he headed to camp. The jungle was so thick, he couldn't see more than a few meters in front of himself. He smiled suddenly, as if he had been touched by Lady's trunk. He would never see her again. He suddenly just knew it, the way the shaman knew things. But Lady and Mtu would live. He knew that, too. That was the truth.

It's always a revelation to write a new book and learn about lives so different from my own. My research began with reading about hunting, tracking, elephants, Dega, and the Vietnam War. But I wanted a different kind of information than those books could offer. So I traveled to the San Diego Zoo to spend time with Asian elephants and their keeper (the elephants were intelligent, emotional, and capable of profound bonds with humans). I also traveled to North Carolina three times to interview Montagnard refugees living there, including a former elephant handler. I sought help from a retired Special Forces soldier and even scrubbed an elephant's hide at a place called Have Trunk Will Follow.

Still, novels by definition are fiction, and subject to the demands of storytelling. There were many facts that could not fit and I want to share some with you here. In Vietnam, the indigenous people of the Central Highlands call themselves “Dega” (or “Degar”). This is the term I use in the book, although in the United States, most Dega immigrants call themselves “Montagnard,” which is French for “mountain people.”

The Montagnard tribe I write about is the Rhade (Rah-day). To my knowledge there is no Rhade-to-English dictionary. As a result, different sources contradict one another about spelling and meaning and even about certain aspects of Rhade culture. For example, two sources said the Rhade houses were built facing north to south, but another source said the houses were built facing east to west. It's possible that different Rhade villages have different customs.

In the novel, the characters often comment on the promise the Americans made with the Dega: to return and help with the war if the North Vietnamese violated the Paris Peace Accords. Sadly, the promise was never fulfilled. Many Montagnards risked their lives by helping the American Special Forces, and in doing so made their villages more vulnerable to enemy attack once the Americans pulled out. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but half of all adult male Montagnards are thought to have lost their lives fighting with the Special Forces during the Vietnam War. Many more died when they were left to fight on their own.

The US Special Forces did honor their relationship with the Dega in another way. More than 9,000 Montagnards have immigrated to the United States, mostly settling in North Carolina, the state where the Special Forces have their headquarters. Retired Special Forces soldiers purchased 110 acres of land in the area for the Montagnard Americans to turn into a cultural center and raise crops.

Different sources contradict one another, but there seems to be general agreement that since 1975, the overall population in Vietnam is burgeoning, while the Montagnard population is stagnant or decreasing. The Vietnam government claims that its policies toward the Montagnards are humane, but there have been reports of forced sterilizations and assimilation, religious persecution, torture, and even killings.

Meanwhile 9,000 men, women, and children are building their futures in the United States, like so many dispossessed people before them.

Deepest thanks to Caitlyn Dlouhy, George Miyamoto,
Gail Hochman, and Jeannie Ng. Thanks as well to
retired Special Forces soldiers Eulis Presley,
George Clark, and Hugh Hubbard; tracker Rob Speiden,
author of
Foundations for Awareness, Signcutting and
Tracking
; Vietnam vet Rick Claggett; and Geneva Lizarraga
of the San Diego Zoo and Kari Johnson of Have Trunk
Will Travel. Most especially, I'd like to thank
(alphabetically by last name) Y'Dak Bya, Felix Chien,
Thomas Eban, Y'Juen Eban, Y'Siu Hlong, Y'Tin Hlong,
Y'Tin Hwing, Y'Bier Knul, Y'Bret Nie, and Y'Buom Nie.