One thing most of us either know nothing about or very little are certain minorities around the world. There is so little known that many of us probably have never even heard about them. I was very surprised to learn about some of these people and I think you might also be.

The first group I would like to talk about is a group known as the Irish Travelers. They travel around the country using motor caravans and even horses, much as the Gypsies of old did. When they stop they form camps. The Travelers are very close knit and do not readily accept strangers. They have been around for centuries, but their nomadic ways have kept them on the fringe of society in Ireland. A reporter and photographer from Germany managed to get into the community and was able to tell the world about them. Women can only marry with the blessing of their parents and men usually never speak to women in public. Their basic language is Gammon. Gammon is known as a secret language used by the travelers to keep others in the dark about what they are saying. It has been estimated that about 30,000 travelers in Ireland speak Gammon. Irish Travelers are usually Catholic but over the years have incorporated certain practices.

The Samis are a culture comprising about 100,000 people. They live in what is known as Lapland which stretches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. They are an ancient race and it is estimated they may extend back as far as 11,000 years. You may have heard of them, because they are also called Lapps or Laplanders. The Samis are the northernmost indigenous people in Europe. They speak the Sami language which is said to be a branch of the Uralic language. Their traditional livelihoods are fishing, fur trapping, sheep herding and reindeer herding. Ten percent of all Samis are in the business of reindeer herding. They are responsible for some of the names in their area. The Samis are considered Arctic people.

The Livs have suffered for hundreds of years. Today they live in Latvia and suffered terribly when their culture was wiped out in the 19th century and then were repressed by the Soviet Union in the 20th century. Their main livelihood was fishing, but under the Soviet rule they were forbidden from being able to sail out far enough to reach the rich fishing areas. The Livs are the only indigenous people in Latvia. If we trace their lineage back far enough we find they are related to the Estonians and Finns. When the first people traveled to Latvia by sea, the first people they met were the Livs and Latvia was known as Livonia in the Middle Ages. There are less than 200 people identifying themselves as Livs and even less who speak the language. Liv is now the rarest language in the European Union.

There is a race of people who live in northern Italy known as the Ladini. Their basic language was taken from Latin and became fuller over the years. The language called Ladin is a minority language and is used in 54 Italian municipalities in South Tyrol, Trentino and Belluno. The area the Ladini occupied in the past was much larger than it is today. There seems to be about 35,000 Ladini people today.

One minority which we hardly ever hear about are the Manx. Considering where they come from it is amazing they still have a population of over 40,000. They are found on the Isle of Man which is an island located off the coast of Great Britain in the Irish Sea. The Isle of Man has seen a large amount of English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish people settle there. They are said to be descendants of Celts who came to the island around 400 B.C. The Manx have the oldest continuous parliament in the world. It is more than 1,000 years old. Their language is known as Manx or Manx Gaelic.

The Sorbs are a people who live in eastern Germany and western Poland. They are Slavic and it is estimated there are about 50,000 of them. The race is divided into Upper and Lower Sorbs. Sorbs are not to be confused with Serbs. The Sorbs are famous in Germany for they artistically decorated Easter eggs. This tradition dates back to a pagan tradition of fertility. To the Sorbs eggs not only represent fertility, but the decorations of circles represent the sun and triangles ward off evil. The region they live in is sometimes known as Lusatia. While some Sorbs live in Germany they are ethnically closer to Czechs, Serbs and Poles. The two major religions of the Sorbs are Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism.

The Hmong are a group of Asians who live in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. We recruited these people to fight for us during the Vietnam War. Thousands of Hmong are now in western countries including the United States. The group living in Laos are known as the Black Hmong. Some of the Hmong left Laos and settled in Thailand. They are called the Miao people in China and numbered almost 10,000,000 in 2000. While it is believed by many the Miao are Hmong, others are not sure. They frown on women receiving higher education.

There are many more ethic groups we have never heard of, the earth is full of them. It makes one wonder how we could have gotten so diversified. You have to wonder how many more ethic groups there were which died out without a trace and what happened to them.