There are over a dozen indigenous ethnic groups living in the highlands of Cambodia. Because of where they live, these groups are often referred to as highlanders or hill-tribes. They have been living on the upland forested regions and this is also where they cultivate hill rice too.
The Cambodian hill tribes mainly inhabit the isolated North-East mountainous regions of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, and the mountainous areas of Koh Kong Province in the South-West. Many of the tribes practice a slash-and-burn subsistence farming where they cut and burn the forest to make way for agriculture.
I have selected the indigenous tribe - Khmer Leou.
They are considered indigenous as they are part of the migration of groups of people throughout the region thousands of years ago. The Mon-Khmer-speaking groups, including the Khmer, came from the North-West.
During the French colonial period, the authorities did not interfere in the affairs of the Khmer Leou. But this changed with independence as the Cambodian authorities in the 1960s embarked on efforts to assimilate the Khmer Leou. Schools were built and the Khmer Leou children were educated only in Khmer and there was resettlement, which involves bringing the ethnic Khmers into Khmer Leou regions and vice versa. They were also forced to learn to adopt the way of life of the lowland Khmers and abandon their own traditional customs. These led to rebellions in the 1960s by some Khmer Leou.
Communists in the 1970s recruited some Khmer Leou and they used them against the government of Cambodia back then. This led to the final victory of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. It also led to the establishment of the People's Republic of Kampuchea. Because the Khmer Leou people helped, policies towards the Khmer Leou were fairly generous. And this included commitments to eliminate illiteracy and calls for each minority language to be respected, as well as for Khmer Leou to be allowed to write, speak and teach in their own language. They are also recognized as Cambodian citizens.
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