Nov 042011
Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies (University of North Carolina Press Paperback))
With more than 50,000 enrolled members, North Carolina’s Lumbee Indians are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes how, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and maintained a distinct identity in an era defined by racial segregation in the South and paternalistic policies for Indians throughout the nation. They did so against the backdrop of some of the central issues in American history, including ra
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Review of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South,
Dr. Lowery’s book is a significant contribution to a better understanding of America, particularly the American South, and is important in helping to break long-standing practices to “silence Indian people.” Her own relationship to the subject adds depth and significance to the documentary record that the book is based on; her own recollections and family narratives are indispensable in telling the whole story of Lumbee identity.
Her portrayal of how the Lumbees developed an identity illustrates how culture and society affect our experiences and contributes to “the larger story of the American nation,” particularly the effects of segregation and white supremacy that disempowered so many. As she states in her preface, “the historical evidence makes little sense without a Lumbee perspective.” In addition, the book helps us to understand that as Indians affirm their identity, they are also affirming their identity as Americans.
Soon after the book was published, I asked Dr. Lowery to visit my humanities class on the American South at a N.C. community college. The students were fascinated by her examples and appalled that they (most of whom live within 90 minutes of Robeson County) had not realized that the Lumbee experiences are an important part of their culture as well and that they were so poorly informed about this cultural component of the American South. That several students have since purchased the book on their own demonstrates its value to them and lifelong learners who seek a broader and clearer focus on culture and history.
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|A complex and personal history of the struggle for Lumbee identity,
Professor Maynor Lowery’s fine history of the Lumbee experience in the Twentieth Century south is an important work. It is both a nuanced scholarly history of a frequently misunderstood and maligned group and a personal story of identity and survival from a historian who is herself from that community. Maynor Lowery effectively documents the changing and negotiated identity of the Lumbees, as both the community and outsiders applied different tribal names in attempts to define them as an Indian tribe. Maynor Lowery describes the complicated relationships within the Lumbee/Tuscarora community as well, as different groups used different strategies in the struggle to maintain independence in the face of southern racism. Maynor Lowery also documents the actions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Indian Reorganization Act period not previously discussed in such detail, including the highly questionable use of then-accepted physical anthropology techniques to discern the “Indianness” of Lumbee individuals through measuring hair curliness, teeth shape, and skin tone. Ultimately, through a description of the complicated history of the Lumbees’ struggle to define and maintain their distinct identity, a struggle that remains as the Lumbees continue to seek federal recognition as an Indian tribe, Maynor Lowery provokes important questions about race and what is it means to be “Indian” in Twentieth Century America. Those interested in southern race relations, federal Indian law and policy, and ethnohistory will get much out of this work. I recommend it highly.
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|An Authentic American Story.,
Lowery has brilliantly taken the history of an under-recognized people and introduced them in such a way, that one feels a strong kinship with the Lumbee Indians well before the conclusion nears. Throughout the book, her readers are invited to take an earnest look at the struggle for identity and recognition, which spans the years of a divided South and continues to this day. Her pen passionately details important events in the tribe’s timeline, and the proud characteristics of those who call themselves Lumbee. This is a must for history lovers everywhere, all who read will be enlightened.
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