The Mohamed Children

The 1940's brought children to the Mohameds — five of them. The eldest was Niaz Jr.

NIAZ MOHAMED JR: "My dad came to the Valley and worked his way to where he had a modest farm and people respected him for that. Not only the people in the Valley, but also his own people, whether they were Hindu, whether they were Sikh, whether they were Moslem. One year we had a real tough year. My father had had a disastrous crop season... So, in order to get by they decided to hire out, in other words, do work for other people. And my dad would drive one of the combines... and my mother drove the trucks. My dad was a very proud man and would never have... asked for help from anybody else, but together they were a pretty formidable couple. My father from the very beginning understood that there was no place to worship in his religion. There was no mosque, so he never really put pressure on my mother to teach us to follow the Moslem faith. The most convenient was naturally my mother's faith, which was Catholic... so we have the Mohameds who are very good Catholics."

Niaz Jr. and wife, Sally