Creole-Navajo Texan forges cross-cultural bond with Hmong community in Wisconsin

WAUSAU, Wis. — Travoi Two Bears Tuttle knew little of central Wisconsin or Wausau when the vision came to him while he was in his mother's Houston, Texas, home.

Visions are a special phenomenon to Tuttle, a Navajo Indian with one black Creole parent and a rich spiritual history. And when he described his vision of a street he'd never seen to his Hmong friends in Wisconsin, they told him it sounded like Wausau, the Daily Herald Media (http://wdhne.ws/1xIO9GE ) reported.

Tuttle's vision was deeply personal and defies description, but it must have been compelling, because he pulled up stakes and moved to Wausau in the spring of 2012. He learned when he arrived that the street in his vision was indeed Wausau's First Street.

To Tuttle, the message from God was clear: The Creator wanted him to journey to Wausau to forge ties with the Hmong community, a clan-based group with some parallels to his Native American culture.

This fall, Tuttle took another step in that journey when he sang at the Hmong New Year celebration wearing traditional garb custom-made for him. He also helped organize a food drive at First Hmong Missionary Alliance Church on Stettin Drive, where Tuttle is the only non-Hmong member.

Both were steps in what has become a growing bond between central Wisconsin's Hmong population and the state's Native American tribes.

"The Creator often sends me places to help other people," said Tuttle, who at 6 feet, 4 inches tall, towers over his Hmong brothers and sisters. "That's not religious mumbo-jumbo."

"It's a sign of great honor to a native person to be named a member of another clan," Tuttle said. "They don't see me as a black Her; they see me as a Her."

Hmong and Native American cultures share some similarities, including a "shamanistic spiritual background," said the Rev. Jimmy Yang, interim pastor at First Hmong Missionary Alliance Church.

Yang said Tuttle points out more similarities as they arise.

"I want both of these people to know we're one and the same," Tuttle said. "I'm creating a dialogue; that's what the Creator wanted me to do."

Tuttle is not the only ambassador between Hmong and Native American communities in the area. Lac Courte Oreilles tribal members from Hayward also attended the Wausau Hmong New Year celebration earlier this month and performed there with song and drum.

Tuttle and Peter Yang met in 2012 at a cultural exchange event between the American Indian Resource Center and the Hmong American Center. After that meeting, Tuttle started a program on the local Hmong community radio station, 93.3 FM, where he plays a wide range of music, recorded and live.

Tuttle, an experienced musician, sings and plays the saxophone, keyboard and various flutes, among other instruments. He also is an animal trainer and, when he first came to Wausau, had a job working with horses that didn't pan out.

Considering his stature, skin color and diverse background, Tuttle acknowledges that he's an anomaly in Wausau and elsewhere, but he has embraced it as he has forged his journey.

"I've experienced a lot of prejudice," Tuttle said. "But I've had more people show me love."

Jimmy Yang said some traditionalists in the congregation may at first have felt uncomfortable with Tuttle's music, which he plays during worship, but they since have adjusted to it. The church music usually includes contemporary English praise songs, traditional Hmong songs and hymns, Jimmy Yang said.