KNIC030. Knick, Stanley, ed. River spirits: a collection of Lumbee writings. Pembroke, NC: Native American Resource Center Publications, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 2003. 174 pages.   Key source

Publication type: Book

Purchase information: This book can be purchased for $24.35 ($19.95 plus 7% North Carolina sales tax plus $3.00 shipping) from:

Native American Resource Center
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
PO Box 1510
Pembroke, NC 28372-1510

Make check payable to Native American Resource Center.

This diverse, inclusive collection of poems, plays, essays, and short stories represents the thoughts and feelings of 49 individuals on various aspects of Lumbee identity, history, and life. Stanley Knick’s insightful introduction explains that by including the works of a variety of individuals—most still living and many not previously published—the collection can “open a window into Lumbee culture.” The works were not the result of a literary competition. They were submitted by the authors or for them by a child or parent. Some of the previously published writers include Lew Barton, Connee Brayboy, Barbara Braveboy-Locklear, Delano Cummings, Adolph Dial, Malinda Maynor, and Julia Lowry Russell. Brief identifications of the authors are given at the end of the book.

The following are some of the themes and topics dealt with in the writings:

• Role of the poet or writer
• Military service and war
• Love
• Remaining true to Native American identity and values
• Nature
• Interracial marriage
• Oppression by the dominant race or by the government
• “Going to town” (Lumberton)
• Segregation
• Federal recognition
• Rural life
• Faith
• Hair
• Death and funerals
• The Lumbee River
• Veterans
• Old Main
• Henry Berry Lowry
• Grandparents
• Family life
• Ancestors
• Women
• Children
• Elders
• Fishing
• Ku Klux Klan routing of 1958
• Lost Colony
• Alcoholism
• Discrimination
• Tribal origins
• Henderson Oxendine

This annotation was written on: August 26, 2003; edited on September 5, 2003

Home Page URL: lumbeebibliography.net