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NEWS DEC 6 2016, 8:55 AM ET

Zomi USA: How a City in Oklahoma Became Home for an Ethnic Group from
Southeast Asia
by KRISTI EATON

Cin Sianmang Hatlang moved to Oklahoma without knowing English. 10 years later, he owns his own store.
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TULSA, Oklahoma When Cin Sianmang Hatlang arrived in Oklahoma more

than a decade ago, he knew no English and nearly nothing about running a
business.
Before he left his native Myanmar, Hatlang who is Zomi, an ethnic minority in
the Southeast Asian country as well as Bangladesh and India picked up an
English dictionary. Once in the U.S., he started listening to news radio, picking
up on words and learning the English language. He later enrolled in a free class
about running a small business in Oklahoma.
Today, the 35-year-old father of ve children runs an Asian grocery store with
his wife in Tulsa, just down the street from where a few of his kids attend
school.
"This is from scratch. Everything came from scratch," he told NBC News, looking
around his store, which he is planning to expand.

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Zomi products in Hatlang's grocery store. Photo by Kristi Eaton / NBC News

Hatlang and his family are among the nearly 5,000 Zomis who have resettled in
Tulsa, Oklahoma's second largest city, and now known as "Zomi Town" or "Zomi
USA" because it is the largest concentration of Zomi people in the U.S.
Many Zomis in Tulsa and its surrounding suburbs have arrived and resettled
because of their Christian faith. Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country,
was under military dictatorship until a nominally civilian government came into
power starting in 2011.

"THIS IS FROM SCRATCH. EVERYTHING CAME FROM

SCRATCH."
But human rights violations are still present in the Southeast Asian country. The
United Nations, Amnesty International, and other humanitarian organizations
have condemned leaders for various abuses, including a continuing conict with
Muslim Rohingya, another ethnic minority group currently facing attacks and
lack access to basic necessities including food, water, and medical care.
"All the Zomi are Christian and also they want the freedom to worship," Hatlang
said, noting that a large cross in Tedim, Myanmar, was torn down. "People are
afraid of that and struggling."

The Myanmar ag ies on the right next to a statue at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Kristi Eaton / NBC News

The Zomis arrival to Tulsa dates back to the 1970s, and many in the Tulsa Zomi
community point to Chin Do Kham as the catalyst. Kham, who died in 2013 from
a heart attack, was Hatlang's uncle and mentor. Kham came to Tulsa to study
and graduated from Oral Roberts University, a Christian university in south
Tulsa. Over the years, more and more Zomi arrived at Kham's behest and with
his help.

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The Zomi population numbered about 50 in the late 1990s in Tulsa, with most
studying in the city, according to TaangGo Khup, general secretary for Zomi
Innkuan USA, a Tulsa-based organization founded to foster community
development and support families and family members still in Myanmar, also
known as Burma.
The population in Tulsa started growing rapidly in 2007 when the United
Nation's Refugee Agency and the U.S. State Department started resettling
Zomis from Myanmar through Malaysia to the United States, Knup told NBC
News.
RELATED: First Days: Fleeing Myanmar, Ta Kwe Say Lands in Los Angeles
"Most of them are secondary resettlers from other states," said Knup, who was a
university student in Yangon during an uprising in 1988 and led the Zomi
Student Union to ght for their rights. "The Zomi population was estimated to be
more than 500 in 2007 during a traditional festival of Khuado held in Tulsa."
The population has continued to grow exponentially every year, he said, noting
that most Zomi in Tulsa are from the Chin State and surroundings states in
Myanmar.
Kham, who was a minister and taught Christian leadership at schools around the
world, helped other Zomi people get settled and acquainted in the area,
Hatlang said. That included taking people to the bank to open up accounts, to
the health department for medical checkups, to schools to enroll their children,
and help nding jobs and learning the local customs.

Not only is Tulsa the home for many Zomis living in the U.S., but the Zomi population has increased
exponentially with each year. Getty Images/Panoramic Images

Now, various agencies help newcomers to arrive and settle in to their new
home, offering interpreters, help nding a place to live, a place to work and
teaching about American customs.
At Jenks Public Schools, where a large number of Zomi children are enrolled,
the focus is on trying to integrate the students and parents into the American
education system as best as possible, said Jennifer Daves, coordinator for the
district's English language development program. The district started seeing a
surge in Zomi and Burmese students around 2009, Daves said.
The population of Zomi and Burmese students continues to increase each year
at Jenks, doubling from 413 in 2013 to 984 currently.
At the district level, Jenks offers liaisons to Zomi parents to help with
communication needs. For example, if a child is sick and the parent needs to let
the school know but doesn't speak English, the parent contacts the liaison who
then contacts the school.
Jenks Public Schools also contracts with a local behavioral health services
group to offer parenting meetings several times per year to help newcomers
acclimate to the American education system and culture. Parents learn about
the differences between the education systems in the U.S. and Myanmar. Daves
noted that in Myanmar, some of the parents may have been forced to pay for
their schooling and experienced corporal punishment.

"THE UNITED STATES IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE

WORLD FROM THE HOMELAND OF THE ZOMI
PEOPLE. IT IS TOTALLY A DIFFERENT WORLD IN THE
CULTURAL, TRADITIONAL LIFESTYLE AND IN

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CULTURAL, TRADITIONAL LIFESTYLE AND IN

LANGUAGE."
The district also contracts with interpreters for parent-teacher conferences and
has a counselor on staff who focuses on the Zomi and Burmese student
population and their families, particularly those who have experienced trauma,
Daves said.
"Even though it's a positive many look at it as a positive leaving the refugee
camps and coming to the United States that is a huge transition in
somebody's life to transition cultures, so he's there to help families work
through that and for the children who need that type of support," she added.
At the various school sites, different levels of language and learning are offered
for the students, depending on their abilities and when they arrived to the
United States, Daves said. Teachers, as well, are trained to learn how to best
interact with newcomers.
Knup, for one, believes that supporting community development and educating
about cultural differences helps newcomers handle the diculties they may
encounter in their new home while also maintaining their cultural ties to their
native homeland.
"The United States is on the other side of the world from the homeland of the
Zomi people," he said. "It is totally a different world in the cultural, traditional
lifestyle and in language."
Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.

KRISTI EATON

TOPICS ASIAN AMERICA

FIRST PUBLISHED DEC 6 2016, 8:55 AM ET
NEXT STORY Brooklyn DA Will Not Appeal Reduced Peter Liang Conviction

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NEWS DEC 7 2016, 1:18 PM ET

Brooklyn DA Will Not Appeal Reduced

Peter Liang Conviction
by CHRIS FUCHS
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The Brooklyn district attorney will not appeal Peter Liang's reduced conviction
in the November 2014 fatal shooting of an unarmed man a decision that
comes a little more than a month after NBC News rst learned that the former
rookie cop would also not appeal.

Former police ocer Peter Liang sits in court for sentencing in New York, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Liang,
convicted in the accidental shooting death of an unarmed man, Akai Gurley, in a darkened stairwell was
spared prison time Tuesday, and a judge reduced his manslaughter conviction to a lesser charge.
Jesse Ward / AP

The DA's oce notied the New York State Supreme Court appellate division in
a letter dated Dec. 6. Enclosed were documents, dated four days earlier, that
agreed to the terms.
They were signed by Liang, his appeals attorney, and a representative for
Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, court records show.
RELATED: As Civil Suit Dismissed, Peter Liang Expected to Not Appeal
Conviction
"The decision by both sides to withdraw their appeals means that Mr. Liang has
waived any and all rights to challenge his conviction in state or federal court," a
spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA's oce told NBC News in an email. "Given
the unlikelihood that we would prevail on our appeal, this agreement is the best
way to protect the integrity of the conviction and marks the end of a successful
prosecution."

"GIVEN THE UNLIKELIHOOD THAT WE WOULD

PREVAIL ON OUR APPEAL, THIS AGREEMENT IS THE
BEST WAY TO PROTECT THE INTEGRITY OF THE
CONVICTION AND MARKS THE END OF A
SUCCESSFUL PROSECUTION."
Liang and his partner Shaun Landau were patrolling a darkened stairwell at the
Louis H. Pink Houses in Brooklyn when Liang, who had his gun drawn, was
startled and accidentally red a shot. The bullet bounced off a wall and struck
28-year-old Akai Gurley, who had entered with friend Melissa Butler from a oor
below.
Following a 911 operator's instructions, Butler performed CPR on Gurley, who
had collapsed in the stairwell and later died. At his trial, Liang testied that he
didn't administer the life-saving procedure because he felt he wasn't adequately
trained in it.
Liang was convicted in February of second-degree manslaughter and faced up
to 15 years in prison. Following the verdict, the New York Police Department
(NYPD) red both ocers.
At Liang's sentencing, Justice Danny Chun reduced the charge to criminally
negligent homicide and spared him jail time. Liang was instead given ve years
probation and required to complete 800 hours of community service, which he

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nished a week before Thanksgiving, according to Karlin Chan, a close

supporter who told NBC News last month about Liang's decision not to appeal.

Akai Gurley's daughter Akaila reacts on her mother Kimberly Ballinger's lap as reverend Al Sharpton
speaks at the National Action Network in the Harlem borough of New York November 22, 2014.
CARLO ALLEGRI / Reuters

This past summer, the city settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Kimberly
Ballinger, Gurley's domestic partner and mother of his daughter. She'll receive
more than $4 million, with Liang paying $25,000.
RELATED: Former NYPD Cop Peter Liang's Guilty Verdict Leaves a
Community Divided
Last month, a judge dismissed a separate lawsuit led by Butler, Gurley's friend
who performed CPR on him the night he was killed. Butler sought money and
damages for the emotional distress she said she suffered stemming from the
night of the shooting.
New York State law, however, allows only direct family members to recover
damages for emotional injuries, her attorney had told the New York Daily News.

Melissa Butler, Akai Gurley's girlfriend, reads a statement in court during the sentencing of former police
ocer Peter Liang in New York, Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Liang, convicted in the accidental shooting
death of an unarmed man, Akai Gurley, in a darkened stairwell was spared prison time Tuesday, and a
judge reduced his manslaughter conviction to a lesser charge. Jesse Ward / AP

That was the last suit led against Liang, who is now looking for a job,
according to Chan.
"He will not be appealing the conviction and hopes to put this behind him and
spare Mr. Gurley's family any further stress," Chan told NBC News. "This in effect
closes this case, and hopefully we can all begin to heal and unite as
communities of color."
Follow NBC Asian America on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr.
CHRIS FUCHS
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CHRIS FUCHS
TOPICS ASIAN AMERICA, NBCBLK
FIRST PUBLISHED DEC 7 2016, 1:18 PM ET
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