Background Information
The pageant was written by Deloria, a Sioux ethnologist
who had been working for the previous twelve years with anthropologist
Franz Boas at Columbia University. Deloria was commissioned by the Farm
Security Administration and the Office of Indian Affairs to live in
Robeson County, get to know the Indians and their history, and write
and direct a pageant which would tell their story. The timing of this
project coincides with the beginning of the Red Banks Mutual Association
project (see The Lumbee Indians: an annotated bibliography, page
143).
The two-hour pageant, which had a cast of around 150
Indian people (public school students, Normal School students, and towns
people), was performed in the 600-seat gymnasium of the Indian State
Normal College (now University of North Carolina at Pembroke) on December
5, 6, and 7, 1940, and again on Dec. 5, 8 and 10, 1941. The second season
added a section on “The Indian in National Defense.”
The pageant traces the Lumbee from their origins (one
scene hints at the Lost Colony theory), through the Henry Berry Lowry
period, to the present. It also features Lumbee churches and schools.
It was attended in the first season by Polly Lowry Oxendine, the last
surviving daughter of Henry Berry Lowry; and in the second season by
the state's governor, J. Melville Broughton.
Description of the Pageant
Although the typescript is labeled “Part III no.
3” on the cover page, examination of a copy of the program
for the 1940 performance (housed in the Guy Benton Johnson papers--see
The Lumbee Indians: an annotated bibliography, item 468) indicates
that this script actually represents Part I, “A Symbolical Prelude,”
and Part II, “The Life-Story of a People: From the Modern Questor's
Notebook.” It gives most of Episodes One, Two, and Three of Part
II. The cover page also bears a handwritten note that it is the original
rough draft, so it may be that Part III was added in a later draft.
This portion of the pageant presents “A Symbolical
Prelude,” in which an aboriginal Questor has a vision in which
he is touched and spoken to by a personification of Earth. The Questor's
ancestors were trying to answer questions about their identity, origins,
and surroundings (especially the wonders of the natural world).
Other parts of the Symbolical Prelude are:
Brief descriptions of Primitive Religion, Primitive
Sorrow, and Primitive Hospitality, followed by an interpreting chorus.
The Modern Questor's appearance changes to that of a
serious, scholarly researcher, still concerned with the question of
where his people came from but now using different methods.
A brief discussion of aboriginal life, mentioning the
Lost Colony theory of tribal origin but stating that there is insufficient
evidence for drawing conclusions.
A look at early days along the Lumber Riverstating
that a definitive date for Lumbee settlement here cannot be found, describing
the Indians' acculturated state when discovered by French Huguenots
in 1703, and mentioning an early land grant from King George II to Henry
Berry and James Lowry.
A description of a subscription Indian school that was
constructed as a log cabin and staffed with a teacher paid for by Indian
parents.
A brief scene called Pioneer Justice describing an encounter
between Henry Berry Lowry (acknowledged as a hero of his people) and
a young boy, Me-Mekie, who wants to right the wrongs against his people
by fighting the Yankees or joining the Lowry Gang.
Progress since 1885, consisting of descriptions of “the
churches today,” “the schools today,” and “Pembroke
College.”
Glimpses of public health, the Boy Scouts, and the Girl
Scouts.
Brief scenes of the Indians' role in World War I and
the (current) World War II.
At the end , praise of Home, Country, and God; and a
mention of the Farm Security Administration's project and the homes
for Indians it funded.
Publication
type: Manuscripts and archival material