[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18242]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO SAI YANG

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. KEITH ELLISON

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 17, 2009

  Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life of 
Sai Yang, a passionate and determined woman, a wife, mother, 
grandmother and great grandmother. Sai was the matriarch of the Chang 
family and influential in the lives of not only her own children and 
grandchildren, but that of her entire community. Sai was also the 
mother-in-law of my good friend, Senator Mee Moua of St. Paul.
  Sai was born in 1934 to Cha Doua Yang and Ying Kue in the remote 
jungle village of Nhu Ka in Laos.
  After the United States left Laos in May of 1975, Sai and her family 
sought refuge in the jungles and remote villages of Laos for several 
years before finally arriving on freedom's shore in Thailand in 1979.
  After six months in a Thai refugee camp, Sai's family was granted 
political asylum to the United States and arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii 
on February 1, 1980. A year later, her family moved to Minnesota.
  In her new life in the U.S., Sai learned how to read and write in her 
native Hmong language and in conversational English. In 1997, she 
became a U.S. Citizen. She subsequently voted in five presidential 
elections and helped to elect her daughter-in-law Mee Moua to the 
Minnesota State Senate; the highest among elected officials in the 
United States.
  In 1995, Sai was chosen as part of the delegation of Hmong American 
women who attended the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women 
in Beijing, China.
  Sai Yang passed away on July 7, 2009 in St. Paul and is survived by 
five sons, three daughters, 39 grandchildren, 27 great grandchildren, a 
brother, a sister, and the extended Chang and Yang families in 
Minnesota, across the U.S. and other countries.
  Sai Yang enriched many lives and she will be missed dearly by all who 
knew her.

                          ____________________