From the Colts' stadium to the Statehouse, Indianapolis has a rich Arab American history

There’s history at Lucas Oil Stadium that has nothing to do with Jim Irsay, Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck.

More than a century ago, the first Arab American immigrants in Indianapolis settled on land currently covered by the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium, according to new research spearheaded by IUPUI professor Edward Curtis.

The area was known as “Willard Street,” filled with “narrow, wood-framed houses." There were families of African American, Italian, Polish, Greek, Hungarian heritage, yet Willard Street was described as a “Syrian Colony” since Syrian Americans began settling there in the 1890s. A majority of those residents, men, worked as peddlers, Curtis learned. And you could often find women “rising early and working late,” the Indianapolis Journal reported.

This exciting finding from the past — hidden beneath today’s Colts’ stadium — was just the tip of the iceberg for Curtis, who himself is a descendant of Arab immigrants.

“That was one of the things that confirmed to me just how important a story this is,” Curtis said. “It makes you think, ‘Hey, wait a minute, where else has our history been buried and forgotten?’”

He zoomed out from Lucas Oil Stadium and traversed other parts of Indianapolis, from the Statehouse to Indiana University. From food, medicine, politics, religion and sports, he found traces of Arab American contributions everywhere.

But that history has been largely unknown, Curtis said. Until now.

“People like me have been part of this place for so long,” Curtis said. “By imagining us, by writing us into the history of this place, it certainly makes me feel more at home here.”

Arab American history in Indianapolis

In 1900, there were at least 208 Arabic-speaking immigrants in Indiana, Curtis’ project “Arab Indianapolis” found. By 1910, the population grew to about 1,000 people. They worked at factories and as peddlers. They owned grocery stores and retail shops. By 1935, there were at least 43 Syrian and Lebanese grocers in Indianapolis, according to Curtis.

His own ancestors, from Syria and Lebanon, settled in Illinois, but he’s called Indianapolis home for more than 15 years. The parallels in both states are similar, Curtis said, as people assume that Midwest history is largely homogeneous and white.

“Arab Indianapolis” makes the case otherwise, through a website, book and documentary.

St. George Orthodox Church, in Fishers today, was originally founded in 1925 as the “first and only” Syrian church in Indianapolis. About 15,000 Arab Americans from Indianapolis served in WWII, according to Curtis’ research.

In 1964, Helen Corey became Indiana’s first Arab American to hold elected office, as a reporter of the Indiana Supreme and Appellate Courts. Around the same time, she also published “The Art of Syrian Cookery,” “one of the most influential cookbooks on Syrian food ever written in English,” Curtis wrote in his own book.

Decades later, Jeff George, the great-grandson of Syrian immigrants, cemented his legacy as a quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. Mitch Daniels, the grandson of Syrian immigrants, took office as governor of Indiana.

In his documentary, when Curtis asks, "Why is it important that people know that Arab Americans have contributed to building this town?"

Dr. Shadia Jalal, a Jordanian American doctor in Indianapolis, sums it all up: "I guess it means we're Hoosiers."

This history is important not just on an academic level, but on a personal level for Arab American Hoosiers, too.

Growing up, when the other kids asked, “What are you?” Curtis’ grandmother always had an answer ready, telling him: You’re Arab. You’re Syrian. You’re Lebanese.

In that assurance, he found a sense of belonging.

“She was the one who gave me my Arab American identity as a way of belonging not just to historic pasts in a land far away, but also belonging to America,” Curtis said. “It was really important to assure a little brown-skinned boy in rural Southern Illinois of his value, of his worth.”

Uncovering family history, through "Arab Indianapolis" and Ancestry.com

That’s a feeling not too different from what Sierra Martin, 25, is seeking today.

The IUPUI student assisted with sharing Curtis' project, in his "Intro to Arab American Studies" class, where she learned about her own family’s history in Indianapolis. Martin always knew about her heritage, that her great-grandfather immigrated from Syria. She ate falafel and grape leaves growing up, but she didn’t know much more than that. She asked questions but didn’t get many answers.

Her grandmother, who was the subject of racist taunts growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, pushed a lot of her heritage away, Martin explained, so it never passed down to the younger generations.

But with this uncovering of history, the family found a new sense of belonging.

“It kind of felt therapeutic," Martin said, "to learn about a culture that I come from that wasn't shared with me."

She learned, for instance, that her great-grandfather owned two bars in the city, Mousetrap on Keystone Avenue and Pink Elephant on Virginia Avenue, which today is a parking garage.

As part of a class assignment, Martin took her family on a “heritage tour” around Indianapolis, including major spots like the Syrian-owned Freije's Market. They enjoyed lunch afterward at the Canal Bistro in Broad Ripple, eating kibby, falafel, tabbouleh, and discussing their roots.

“I was asking (my grandmother) some questions and for the first time ever,” Martin said, “she wasn't ashamed of speaking openly being Arab… she just was talking about it openly at lunch and smiling, and I don't know, something… just changed. And it was just a good feeling.”

Her IUPUI class is complete, but Martin still has more to uncover in her personal journey.

With the help of her grandmother and Ancestry.com, she’s started mapping out their family history, adding new names to a growing family tree. She’s learning Arabic, though it’s a difficult second language to learn.

“Sometimes I question myself,” Martin said, “‘Are you really that Syrian? Do I have a right to look into this? Do I have a right to try to pick back up some of the culture that was dropped?’”

Those questions also arise as she tries to pass on her family heritage to her 4-year-old son.

“Sometimes when I'm trying to teach him, while I'm teaching myself about our culture, it seems like it's not my place,” Martin said. “I feel like I'm always on the outside of my own culture.”

But she’s not alone in her journey.

One day, she randomly received a message from a stranger in Michigan. They both had family ties to someone named Jerome Shamy, Martin’s great-grandfather “Jim.”

“Oh, we’re related,” she recalled they soon realized.

Most of her distant relatives live in Dearborn, Michigan, Martin learned, which is where her great-great-grandparents originally settled in the U.S.

“We're actually Facebook friends now and trying to get together,” Martin said. “I'd like to be able to go to Dearborn and meet the rest of them because apparently, they have more stories and recipes and things of (my great-great grandparents)... And I've never seen a picture of (them)…

"I feel like I'm just trying to learn so much about their lives. I just want to see pictures of them.”

Though there are a lot of uncertainties and a lot of questions still to be answered, Martin knows a few things for sure. Her great-grandfather’s business ventures. Her great-great grandmother’s recipes, passed down by her grandmother.

Some of her family history got lost between generations, but she’s learning to embrace the fact-finding journey and her family’s unique backstory.

The kitchen is where she feels most confident with her heritage, especially with the unique family recipe for dolmas, or stuffed grape leaves, Martin said. (They make it without mint).

“When other people eat my version of grape leaves, they're like, ‘This is very strange,’” Martin said. “I'm like, ‘Yes, I know. Probably.’”

To buy the "Arab Indianapolis" book, visit Belt Publishing.

To view the "Arab Indianapolis" documentary, visit the website.

Contact Rashika Jaipuriar at rjaipuriar@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @rashikajpr.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indianapolis' 'forgotten' Arab American history is coming back to life