With a population of 190,000 people, for countless centuries the Koho have inhabited villages nestled in the beautiful mountains of south-central Vietnam, with the majority in Lam Dong Province. More than 3,000 Koho people also live in the United States, where they were granted access as refugees after the Vietnam War, as many Koho had fought alongside the US military. Because they fought against the Communists, at times the Koho and other tribes have been despised as traitors and persecuted by the Vietnamese government since the end of the war in 1975. The main livelihood for rural Koho families is hunting and fishing, while many families cultivate rice and coffee and grow a wide variety of fruit, including banana, watermelon, pineapple, and mulberry. Koho society is matrilineal. This means that after marriage the groom moves in with his wife's family, and children take the name of their mother. Extended Koho families often live in large houses on stilts. For countless generations the Koho people have been animists, worshipping numerous deities. including the sun, moon, prominent mountains, rivers, and large trees.