Why One Of The Oldest Pakistani American Communities Is In Wyoming

Summary

Wyoming, known for its bison, national parks, and cowboy culture, is also home to one of the oldest Pakistani American communities in the U.S., founded by Zarif Khan, aka Hot Tamale Louie. This community traces back over a century when Zarif, part of the early wave of South Asian immigrants, arrived in Sheridan in 1907. Despite facing discrimination, the Khan family flourished, building a lasting legacy in the hospitality industry. Zarif's entrepreneurship and philanthropy laid the foundation for future generations, who continue to thrive and maintain strong cultural ties, while establishing deep roots in Wyoming.

Highlights

• Discover the surprising yet rich history of the Pakistani American community in Wyoming, rooted in the early 1900s by Zarif Khan 🎉.
• Zarif Khan, popularly known as Hot Tamale Louie, was celebrated for his unique hamburgers and warm hospitality 🌟.
• Khan's journey symbolizes the broader narrative of South Asian immigration in the U.S., marred by discrimination yet marked by resilience 🌍.
• Despite losing U.S. citizenship due to racial laws, Zarif's philanthropy in both America and Pakistan was notable ❤️.
• The Khan family's legacy continues with a hospitality business empire stretching across Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, and South Dakota 🌎.

Key Takeaways

• Discover the historical roots of one of the oldest Pakistani American communities in Wyoming, started by Zarif Khan, also known as Hot Tamale Louie 🏔️.
• Zarif Khan arrived in the U.S. in 1907, becoming the first South Asian immigrant to settle in Wyoming, long before Pakistan was a country 🌏.
• Despite facing significant racial and religious discrimination, the Khan family built a thriving hospitality business empire across several states 🏨.
• Zarif Khan, known for his legendary hamburgers and hospitality, played a pivotal role in welcoming all communities, including Native Americans 🍔.
• The Khan family is a testament to resilience and success, maintaining cultural pride while being integral to the Wyoming community 💪.
• Even today, the Khans own numerous hotels, reflecting their entrepreneurial spirit and strong family bonds 🤝.

Overview

In the heart of Wyoming, among the scenic bison-filled landscapes and cowboy culture, unfolds an unexpected story of one of the oldest Pakistani American communities. This saga traces back to Zarif Khan, affectionately known as Hot Tamale Louie, who paved the way for future generations. Arriving in 1907, Khan was not only the first from his region to settle in Sheridan but also a harbinger of culinary delight with his famous hamburgers and tamales.

Zarif Khan’s tale intertwines with the broader South Asian immigrant experience in America—a journey through trials, discrimination, and triumphs. Despite losing his citizenship due to racist legal definitions, Khan's entrepreneurial spirit didn’t falter. His exceptional ability to connect with diverse communities through food and kindness made him a local legend and a philanthropic icon.

Today, the Khan family stands as a testament to perseverance. Their roots dug deep into Wyoming soil, generations have flourished, establishing a hotel empire that spans multiple states. While keenly preserving their cultural heritage, the Khans have seamlessly integrated into the fabric of Wyoming life, embodying the quintessential American spirit of resilience and unity.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Wyoming Wyoming is celebrated for its natural beauty, bison, national parks, and cowboy culture. Despite being the least populous state in the U.S., it hosts a surprisingly notable immigrant community. Sheridan, with a population of about 18,000, is home to one of the oldest Pakistani communities in America, highlighting the surprising diversity in a place not usually associated with immigrant populations. The community is so significant that the town has erected a statue in honor of a Pakistani individual.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Hot Tamale Louie and His Legacy The chapter titled 'Hot Tamale Louie and His Legacy' delves into the story of a figure known as 'Hot Tamale Louie,' whose descendants eventually established a business empire. The narrative highlights the philosophy imparted by Louie, emphasizing generosity with the belief that giving eventually returns in some form. The chapter also touches upon challenges faced by the Pakistani community in Wyoming, including facing discrimination and protesting cultural disrespect such as the burning of their holy texts. It raises questions about the presence of Pakistanis in Wyoming and what initially brought them to the American West.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Early Life of Zarif Khan The chapter explores the early life of Zarif Khan, also known as Hot Tamale Louie, highlighting the history of Pakistanis in America that dates back more than a century. The narrative reveals connections between the Pakistani community and Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains, with the statue of Zarif Khan symbolizing one of the oldest Pakistani communities in the U.S. Zarif Khan's journey to America began in 1907, predating the formation of Pakistan by 40 years.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Louie's Restaurant and Community Impact This chapter discusses the impact of Louie, an immigrant from South Asia, on the community in Wyoming. As one of the first immigrants from that region to settle in the area, he became known for his food, particularly hamburgers and tamales. He was affectionately nicknamed 'Hamburger Louie' by locals due to his popular cart and later restaurant, which also served chili. Louie's contributions highlight the cultural and culinary influence he had on the community.
• 02:00 - 03:30: The South Asian American Experience Zarif Jr. recalls Louie's restaurant, where you could order a hamburger with customary condiments except ketchup, which was frowned upon. The narrative transitions to the early 20th-century immigration of South Asian men to California and the Pacific Northwest, primarily involving the Sikh community. These immigrants found employment in industries such as farming, logging, and railroads, marking the beginning of the South Asian presence in these regions.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Financial Success and Citizenship Struggles In a chapter focusing on both Financial Success and Citizenship Struggles, the narrative highlights the discrimination faced by South Asian laborers in the early 1900s in America. Despite being largely Hindu and Muslim, these immigrants were often wrongly categorized as just Hindus. This misidentification fostered hate-filled rhetoric against them, culminating in events like the Bellingham Riots of 1907, where South Asians faced violent mob attacks. The chapter also introduces Zarif Khan, a 12-year-old, who arrived in Washington State alone amidst these tensions, seeking his path in a predominantly hostile environment.
• 04:30 - 06:30: Family Growth and Business Expansion The chapter 'Family Growth and Business Expansion' narrates the journey of Louie, who migrated to the West Coast and later traveled through several states, finally settling in Sheridan due to the new railway system. During this period, Native American communities faced displacement and discrimination. However, at Louie's place, Native Americans were always welcomed and served, marking him as one of the first people to serve American Natives. This chapter reflects both the expansion of infrastructure with the railway and a notable social inclusion initiative by Louie amidst prevalent discrimination.
• 06:30 - 09:00: Community Challenges and Resilience The chapter focuses on the challenges faced by the community and their resilience in dealing with them. It highlights the story of 'Hamburger Louie', a local legend known for serving hamburgers and tamales to everyone despite social norms. His burgers were so popular that people traveled long distances just to enjoy them, epitomizing both a challenge to societal barriers and a testament to community resilience and cohesion.
• 09:00 - 10:30: Life in Wyoming Today This chapter provides an insight into the racial dynamics and immigration policies in early 20th century America. It highlights the high anti-Asian sentiment prevailing during that period, exemplified by the 1917 immigration ban from South Asia through the creation of the 'Asiatic barred zone'. Additionally, it discusses the 1923 Supreme Court ruling allowing only whites and African Americans to become citizens. The narrative then turns personal, sharing how the author's father, living near the Afghanistan border and being light-complected, attempted to claim he was white to gain American citizenship. This personal story reflects the broader challenges faced by immigrants under the restrictive and racially biased immigration laws of the time.

Why One Of The Oldest Pakistani American Communities Is In Wyoming Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Wyoming. It's known for bison, its national parks and its cowboy culture. Wyoming is a beautiful state. I love the state. It's the least populous state in the U.S. It's probably not the place you think of having a thriving immigrant community. But in Sheridan, Wyoming – population some 18,000 – I discovered the beginnings of one of the oldest Pakistani communities in America. Obviously in Wyoming, there's not a lot of Pakistanis. If they're Pakistani, we're related to them. The town even has a statue dedicated to a Pakistani man,
• 00:30 - 01:00 known as "Hot Tamale Louie," whose descendants created a business empire. My dad always said, "If you give something, don't worry about it. You always get it back," you know. My dad always said, "if you give something, don't worry about it. You always get it back," you know. But the Pakistani community in Wyoming has faced discrimination too, especially when it comes to their faith. They burned Quran, couple of Qurans, you know, in protest. So why are there Pakistanis in Wyoming, and what brought them to the American West?
• 01:00 - 01:30 The story of Pakistanis in America is more than a century old. But as a Pakistani American myself, I was fascinated to learn that our history in this country had roots in the foothills of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains. And this statue is a symbol of that history and a testament to the longest standing Pakistani communities in the U.S. This statue is of my dad, Hot Tamale Louie, or his name was Zarif Khan. Zarif Khan came to the U.S. in 1907, 40 years before Pakistan became a country
• 01:30 - 02:00 as part of the first wave of South Asian immigration into the United States. And he's probably the first immigrant from that part of the world to settle in Wyoming. So he clearly has a spatula with a hamburger and the bun with some pickles. It says, "Hamburger Louie." Why did they call him Hamburger Louie? Well, because when he was pushing the cart at the time he was known for his hamburgers and tamales. And later, when he had the restaurant, he had chili also. It was called Louie's. And then people just gave him the name, Hot Tamale and Hamburger Louie, you know?
• 02:00 - 02:30 Unfortunately, the building that had Louie's restaurant was demolished, but Zarif Jr. still remembers it. You can order your hamburger with onion, pickles and mustard, but if you ask for ketchup, he'd get mad. You don't want to ruin a hamburger with ketchup. South Asian men started immigrating to California and the Pacific Northwest near the turn of the 20th century to work in the farming, logging and railroad industries. While about 85% of the immigrants from South Asia were Sikh,
• 02:30 - 03:00 and most of the remaining 10-15% were Muslim, they were all incorrectly considered Hindus by Americans. The new South Asian laborers soon became targets of hate-filled rhetoric. They were viewed as "the problem." And that rhetoric sometimes turned into actual violence. In 1907, South Asians were victims of mob violence and hundreds of them were detained in what's now known as the Bellingham Riots. That same year, a 12-year-old named Zarif Khan came to Washington state. [He] came alone, not with no relatives, nothing.
• 03:00 - 03:30 Worked on the ships and came to Seattle and then worked on the West Coast there. He traveled to Montana. He was in South Dakota – Deadwood – for a while. And then they said, somebody told him there was a railroad coming through Sheridan. So he decided to move over here. Around the time that Louie arrived to Wyoming, Native American communities in the West were being displaced by white settlers. They also faced routine discrimination. But at Louie's, Native Americans were always welcome. He was one of the first persons to serve American Natives.
• 03:30 - 04:00 Back then, they weren't allowed to be served. He didn't care who they were, you know? Everybody has to eat. And as Louie kept serving up his hamburgers and tamales, it became the stuff of legend. There was a rancher that told me that they lived in Kaycee – that's 70 miles away. They'd come to Sheridan every Saturday to have Hamburger Louie burgers and then take a bunch home with them. They said you never had a hamburger until you ate his hamburger.
• 04:00 - 04:30 But at this time in America, anti-Asian sentiment was high. In 1917, the U.S. completely banned immigration from South Asia by creating the "Asiatic barred zone." And in 1923, the Supreme Court ruled that only whites and African Americans could become citizens. My dad claimed that he was white because people in Afghanistan, and we lived close to the Afghanistan border, are more light-complected and stuff. So he thought himself white, I think just to become an American citizen.
• 04:30 - 05:00 The government said Asians weren't white and stripped Louie of his U.S. citizenship in 1926, just a year after he'd gotten it. Louie remained in Sheridan as an immigrant. Even though he didn't know how to read or write, he made good investments in the stock market. Louie gained enough wealth that he became known for his philanthropy, like when he helped out American soldiers in World War II. He'd send cigarettes, candy bars, other things that they needed. Louie's generosity was well known in Sheridan.
• 05:00 - 05:30 He would see people and if they didn't have money, my dad said, "Boy, what do you want?" He didn't ask 'em for money. He said, "Give me next time. Catch me next time." And in Pakistan, he sent money to build three mosques. He was really proud of being Pakistani. But everybody, if you asked in Sheridan, where was my dad from, they'd say, he's from Turkey. He's from Greek. He's from Afghanistan. But they never said Pakistan. Louie got American citizenship when he applied again in 1954,
• 05:30 - 06:00 and this time it wasn't taken away. He married later on in life and brought his wife, Fatima, to the States where they raised a family of six. Zarif continued to travel back and forth to Pakistan to see family. And it was during one of these trips that he was murdered by a jealous relative. His death made front-page news in Wyoming, Colorado and South Dakota. And his influence has reverberated to the 21st century. Louie's life story went into a detailed New Yorker profile in 2016 that led to the creation of this statue two years later.
• 06:00 - 06:30 And there's even a musical about his life. <i>He'd swing 'em down Main Street</i> I mean, everybody has history, everybody's got a past and everybody's family comes from somewhere. But, you know, not everybody gets a statue of somebody they're related to. Not everybody gets to hear or get their story out there from their family. When I asked around in Sheridan, people still remembered Louie and his hamburgers more than 50 years after his death. Best hamburger in the world. Most of it came down your arms. While Louie might have been the first Pakistani in the state,
• 06:30 - 07:00 it's because of his wife, Fatima, that the Khans of Wyoming have a thriving family business. After Louie's death, Fatima brought over her brother Farid, and they started working in the hotel business. She bought this hotel, a small hotel, and she wanted me to manage it. So I went over there, managed that for about three-and-a-half years. Farid and his wife, Bibi, have been living in the U.S. since the '70s, but they're still very Pakistani. It's a yogurt drink. – Yeah.
• 07:00 - 07:30 It's good. You take the butter out of whatever's left over. Then I'm going to be a probably going to make a ghee out of it, you know? As more relatives came in the '80s and had children, the Khan family and the business empire grew. Some of the Khan family moved from Sheridan to Gillette about 100 miles away. And then they started buying and building hotels throughout Wyoming. – So how many Khans live in the Rockies now? Easily, you can say a couple of hundred or more.
• 07:30 - 08:00 Farid and Bibi currently own 11 hotels. And the extended Khan family owns a few dozen more. I made money in every one of 'em. In fact, we found out that the hotel we were staying at in Sheridan was owned by the Khan family too. Now, the Khans own hotels not just in Wyoming, but in Colorado, Montana and South Dakota. We all manage hotels. We're all in the hotel industry. My brother, my dad, all of our relatives. My uncles, my cousins, my dad's cousins. Most of our family has something to do with hotels or hospitality.
• 08:00 - 08:30 While the Khan family has a proud history in Wyoming, things haven't always been easy. For some of the children, there was bullying at a young age. They would call them ragheads or something like that. Or go ride a camel or something like that. And there was also some trouble when the Khan family was trying to build this mosque named after Farid and Fatima's sister. It's just the third mosque in the state of Wyoming and the only one for hundreds of miles in any direction. They burned Quran, couple of Qurans in protest, about five or six people.
• 08:30 - 09:00 But there were bunch of townspeople [who] came against it and protested against those people. The Khans say that most of the people in town backed their efforts to build the mosque and that not all Wyomingites held anti-Muslim views. We had support from the mayor and local people. They said they know the Khans. They've been living here for a long time and doing business here with everyone. I attended a Friday prayer at the mosque where all the worshipers turned out to be members of the Khan family.
• 09:00 - 09:30 It's just kind of harsh to see like most people thinking that every single Muslim has to be some type of threat to the community. We're just normal, peaceful people. After traveling to this part of the country for the first time, I was taken aback by the beauty of the landscape. And I could see why Zarif Khan all those years ago would have chosen to settle down in Wyoming. Wyoming is a beautiful state, you can come any time. You can see beautiful places, open - clean air, fresh air.
• 09:30 - 10:00 And after speaking to so many members of the Khan family, I learned that they're fiercely proud to be from Wyoming and were Wyomingites in every way. There's not a place I can go that people don't talk to you. Like if you go to some of the bigger cities, people are scared and they don't talk to you. They go, "I wonder what they want from us," you know? It's no gimmick. People are down-to-earth. And it's peaceful. You can leave your keys in your car. People don't even lock their houses here. In Sheridan, it's very Western. And that's what they're known for is like their Western hospitality.
• 10:00 - 10:30 Everybody is just very friendly. And they want you to be here. They want you to stay. Like they encourage people to come out here. But people don't realize. They just think, "Oh, Wyoming, there's nothing there." There's people here, you know? There's activities here. I mean, it's a nice place. And as the third and fourth generation of Khans grow up in Wyoming, it seems that this will always be home. And to think it all started with one man selling hamburgers in a small town in the American West.