he Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh is home to many Indigenous groups (collectively called the Jumma), speaking at least 12 languages and practicing a number of religions, including traditional animistic religion, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, as opposed to the Islam widespread in the rest of Bangladesh. While Bengali grows increasingly dominant as the national language, various factors have caused Indigenous people from the CHT to emigrate since the 1960s, including the construction of the Kaptai Dam, which destroyed the homes and farmland of tens of thousands, and an assimilationist political regime that favored Bengali culture and Islam. These refugees have consequently established communities in other areas of Bangladesh and overseas, and even as far as Jackson Heights, Queens, where the American Jumma Council unifies speakers of languages like Chak, Chakma, Marma, Tanchangya, and Tripuri. Fewer than 100 individuals may comprise the Jumma community in New York, most of whom arrived after 2010, practice Buddhism, and live in neighborhoods from Woodside to Jamaica. The council organizes frequent social and cultural events, with goals to solidify the community and ease transnational adapation for newcomers.