This scholarly, well reasoned, and carefully documented
overview does much to help readers understand factors in Lumbee history
that have led to current perceptions (and misperceptions) of Lumbee identity.
What follows is a brief list of topics covered, with quotations regarding
some particularly important issues.
The authors begin by discussing the political history
of Southeastern Indians, noting that Indian removal and the Trail of
Tears did not affect the Lumbee since, at that time, their swampy lands
were not seen as valuable. The concept of the frontier in relation to
Southeastern Indians is discussed. The authors explain, “Southeastern
Indians still exist because of their genius for negotiating this ever-changing
frontier. Change was not perceived as a threat to these peoples, although
it was oftentimes unwanted and violent; it was seen as perhaps the only
true constant in their day-to-day lives” (p. 83). The authors also
discuss Lumbee identity in terms of Fredrik Barth’s boundary maintenance
model.
Then, a detailed discussion of the various tribes from
which the Lumbee originate is provided, along with evidence of the tribe’s
migration and movements. The Lumbee adoption of English surnames in
the 1700s is discussed. Then, the Lumbee were designated “free
persons not white” in the 1790 Census, deprived of political and
civil rights by the North Carolina Constitution of 1835, and conscripted
into labor camps by the Confederacy during the Civil War.
The Henry Berry Lowry era is discussed, and the provision
of public school education by the 1868 constitution of North Carolina.
Robeson County did not build schools until 1875, and then only “white”
and “colored.” Not allowed to attend White schools and not
willing to attend Colored schools, Robeson Indians worked to establish
the Croatan Normal School, which provided elementary through secondary
schooling. It evolved into UNC-Pembroke.
Next the authors discuss Lumbee efforts to obtain federal
recognition. Nearly a decade after its submission, the Lumbee petition
for federal recognition finally received a response from the BIA, who
maintained that the Lumbee have insufficient geographical and political
cohesion to be recognized. The article’s authors make several points
in disagreement with this conclusion.
The article concludes with discussions of the Lumbee routing
of the Ku Klux Klan in 1958, and the establishment of the Lumbee Bank in
1971.
