This article delineates a study which examines both the historical basis of Hmong literacy development (in the years before they left Laos) as well as the more recent history (since 1975) of a Hmong group that settled in northern Wisconsin. The article discusses the development and functions of literacy in the United States, particularly as experienced by an ethnic minority. The article focuses on the different uses of writing among the Hmong in Wisconsin, how literacy practices are shaped by the majority discourse, and the ways in which writers appropriate the majority discourse and use it for their own purposes. (NKA)