Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change. Ethnic minorities in the northern mountainous regions are among the most vulnerable groups in Vietnam. This paper reports field research from July 2009 to February 2010 which examines vulnerability and coping capacities to climate change among Indigenous people in the northern mountainous regions of Vietnam where more than 12 million people of more than 30 ethnic groups live. Examples from three ethnic minority groups (Tay, Dao, and H'Mong) are used to show how inequalities influence coping and adaptive capacity at local level. Although they are all classified as ethnic minority groups and are living in the same administration unit, they are vulnerable in different ways to different stresses. The implication is that adaptation policy needs to capture this specificity. The study provides key insights into the link between ethnicity and vulnerability and adaptation in the northern mountainous regions.