'Lumbee' runs through history of local Indians, Robeson County

[IndigeNews]

'Lumbee' runs through history of local Indians, Robeson County
by Lawrence T. Locklear The Robesonian
2 years ago | 7614 views |

John Charles McNeill spent many happy boyhood summers swimming in the
cool waters of the "Lumbee" River with other "sunburnt" boys. Born in
1874 in the village of Riverton in Scotland County, N.C., McNeill
became one of the most prolific and well-known writers in the state at
the beginning of the 20th century. He continued his flirtation with the
"Lumbee River" during his tenure as a writer with The Charlotte
Observer between 1904 and 1907.

In his 1906 poem "Sunburnt Boys," McNeill evoked memories of summers
spent swimming in the "Lumbee River." The first stanza read, "Down on
the Lumbee river / Where the eddies ripple cool / Your boat, I know,
glides stealthily / About some shady pool. / The summer's heats have
lulled asleep / The fish-hawk's chattering noise, / And all the swamp
lies hushed about / You sunburnt boys . . .."

McNeill articulated in the 1905 essay "Lumbee" his displeasure with the
perversion of the river's "sweet Indian name." Of the Lumber River
name, he wrote, "She is a tortuous, delicious flirt, but she does not
deserve the punishment put upon her by geographers, who have perverted
her sweet Indian name of 'Lumbee' into something that suggests choking
sawdust, rotting slabs, and the shrill scream of the circular saw.
Though she be now wedded to civilization, she should not have been
robbed of her maiden name. But her playmates know . . . [s]he is just
as wild, wandering about in her solemn swamp, as she was when the
Indians dubbed her 'Lumbee.'" Through his essays and articles, McNeill
thrust the word "Lumbee" into the mainstream vernacular. After his
death in 1907, he was affectionately referred to as "Poet of the
Lumbee."

However, long before McNeill's flirtation with the "Lumbee" River, its
legal designation as Lumber River contradicted the oral traditions of
local American Indians. In 1809, the N.C. General Assembly designated
the 115-mile stretch of Drowning Creek from the Scotland County-Hoke
County border to the N.C.-S.C. state line as Lumber River. As it
crosses into South Carolina, the Lumber River becomes the Little Pee
Dee River, which eventually flows into the Great Pee Dee River and the
Atlantic Ocean.

Origin of 'Lumbee'

An abundance of oral and written evidence from the late 19th and early
20th centuries suggests the word "Lumbee" originates with the American
Indians. Before McNeill made "Lumbee" famous, the earliest documented
mention of "Lumbee" was by Hamilton McMillan in 1888. McMillan
(1837–1916), a representative in the General Assembly from Red Springs,
N.C., introduced legislation in 1885 that legally designated the
American Indians of Robeson and surrounding counties as the Croatan
Indians and established a separate school system under their control.

McMillan's 1888 pamphlet, "Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony," was one
of the earliest histories of the tribe. According to oral "traditions .
. . preserved by the old members of the tribe," he wrote, "the Indians
built great roads connecting the distant settlements with their
principal seat on the Lumbee, as the Lumber River was then called."
Those roads stretched from the river north to "old settlements" in
Fayetteville and Cross Creek in Cumberland County, N.C., and southwest
"towards an ancient Croatan settlement on the Pee Dee [River]" near
Cheraw, S.C. McMillan added, "The name Lumber, as applied to the river,
was originally Lumbee or Lombee." By 1888, based on McMillan's
writings, local Indians had a well-established tradition of referring
to the river by the name "Lumbee."

Other instances supported the oral traditions of local American
Indians. On Oct. 26, 1900, the all-Indian Lumbee River Conference of
the Holiness Methodist Church was organized under the leadership of the
Rev. H.H. Lowry. Selection of "Lumbee River" as the name of the
conference indicates that "Lumbee" had a history, a familiarity, and a
resonance that predated McMillan's and McNeill's attentions. The
Holiness Methodist conference name was changed from "Lumbee River" to
"Lumber River" during the 1950s.

The May 10, 1904 Robesonian newspaper article "Lumberton As It Now Is,"
an account of the early history of the county seat, suggested a meaning
for the word "Lumbee." The article read, "Tradition . . . has it that
Lumberton . . . was an Indian trading post, where gathered the
forebears of our Croatan people on the river to which they had given
the name Lombe which in the Indian tongue, means black, because of its
dark waters. This name in time became corrupted into Lumber, the cause
being the floating of lumber down its stream . . .."

O.M. McPherson, an Indian agent with the federal Department of the
Interior, suggested in a 1914 report on the Indians of Robeson and
adjoining counties that the word "Lumbee" is probably of Siouan origin
because of its similarity to the possibly Siouan words Santee, Wateree,
Congaree and Pee Dee – all names for tribes and rivers in North and
South Carolina.

Ubiquitous use

Soon after McNeill's 1905 essay, the use of the word "Lumbee" was
ubiquitous throughout Robeson County by Indians and non-Indians,
although it still retained the legal name of Lumber River. References
to and the use of "Lumbee" and "Lumbee River" in local publications
were found in 1888, 1900 and every year between 1904 and 1952, while
documented uses of "Lumbee" by non-Indians far exceeded those of
Indians prior to 1952, when Indians adopted Lumbee as the tribal name.
Unless otherwise noted, uses in Lumberton and Maxton, N.C. were by
non-Indians, while those in Pembroke, N.C. were by American Indians.
The omnipresent use of "Lumbee" beyond Pembroke suggests it was readily
embraced by the county's larger non-Indian community.

The word "Lumbee" was used in conjunction with site names. The city of
Lumberton was tied to the river because of its lumber and naval stores.
Therefore, in 1912 it was identified in The Robesonian as the "Little
city on the Lumbee," in 1913 as the "City by the Old Lumbee" and in
1919 as the "City on the Lumbee." In 1923, Lumbee Beach, in Maxton,
served as a gathering spot for family reunions and swimming contests.

Like the Lumbee River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church,
numerous organizations and clubs shared their name with the "Lumbee"
River.

The Lumbee Research Club was established in Lumberton in 1914 to study
American literature, music and art. In 1932, the membership, later
renamed the Lumbee Study Club, erected a still-present stone marker on
the grounds of the Robeson County Courthouse in Lumberton to
commemorate the bicentennial of George Washington's birth in 1732.

Sea Scouting, founded in the United States in 1912 and in Lumberton in
1933, was organized to promote better citizenship and to improve
members' boating skills and knowledge. The Lumberton ship, the S.S.S.
Lumbee, was chartered in 1933 and was active until the early 1960s. The
new Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Pembroke was called the Lumbee
Memorial Post in ads announcing organizational meetings in 1944.
However, it was chartered on Oct. 9, 1944, as the Locklear-Lowry
Memorial Post No. 2843, named after the first Lumbees killed in World
Wars I and II.

Other uses by clubs and organizations, all located in Lumberton,
included: Lumbee Tent No. 18, Knights of the Maccabees, a fraternal
benefits society, in 1913; Lumbee Council No. 224, Junior Order United
American Mechanics in 1931; Lumbee Log Rolling Association of Woodmen
of the World in 1936; Lumbee Baptist Minister's Conference, established
in 1939; Lumbee Kennel Club in 1940; and the Lumbee Bridge Club, also
in 1940. That same year, the Robeson Dental Society changed its name to
the Lumbee Dental Society after admitting dentists from Bladen,
Cumberland, Hoke and Scotland counties into its membership.

Lumbee Publishing Co., in Lumberton, was one of the many businesses to
derive its name from the "Lumbee" name. In 1909, the company published
the 4th edition of Mary C. Norment's "The Lowrie History," which was
originally published in 1875. It recounts the Henry Berry Lowry War
(1864-1874) and the death of her husband, Owen C. Norment, captain of
the local Home Guard.

The Lumbee Theatre, which opened in Lumberton in 1914, was dubbed "the
new vaudeville and picture house." Other uses for business names
mentioned in The Robesonian included: Lumbee Foundry in 1923; Lumbee
Beauty Shoppe in 1930; Lumbee Filling Station in 1933; The Lumbee in
1934; Lumbee Store Co. in 1935; Lumbee Service Station in 1937; and
Lumbee Sundry & Soda Shop in 1945, all in Lumberton. In 1925, The
Lumbee Veneer Co. was located in the mill town of Alma, near Maxton.
Lumbee River Electric Membership Corp., chartered in 1940, is still
operational.

Sports-related uses included the Lumbee Basketball Conference, an
all-Indian high school conference that was begun in the 1920s and
formally organized in 1939. While competition was held in various
sports, basketball was by far the most popular. Members were Indian
high schools in Robeson County and later in Cumberland and Hoke
counties. The conference was renamed the Robeson County Indian High
School Athletic Conference, and in 1966, the Tri-County Indian
Conference. The conference disbanded after the 1967 season and, in
1968, conference schools joined the previously all-white North Carolina
High School Athletic Association. Another sports-related use was
"Lumbee" as the nickname for the 1950 baseball team in Fair Bluff, a
town located on the river in neighboring Columbus County.

Businesses, an athletic conference, sports teams and even local events
shared their name with the river. Two of the events, both held in
Maxton, included the Lumbee Harvest Festival in 1925 and the Miss and
Little Miss Lumbee beauty pageants held at Lumbee Beach in 1936.
Thirty-two years later, in 1968, Lumbee Indians held their first Miss
Lumbee beauty pageant. The Lumbee Junior Dairy Cattle Show was held in
Lumberton in 1945.

A musical group that adopted the Lumbee name was the Lumbee Serenaders.
They provided music for a square dance in Lumberton in 1932. The Lumbee
Quartet furnished music for the second countywide meeting of Indian
teachers at Cherokee Indian Normal School (now The University of North
Carolina at Pembroke) in 1936.

McNeill and the river he made famous had literary societies named for
them at Lumberton High School (1923). The Lumbee Literary Society was
also established at Cherokee Indian Normal School around 1928 for the
male high school students.

The yearbooks at Lumberton High School and Pembroke State College for
Indians shared their names with the river. Lumberton High School's The
Lumbee was published by the class of 1923. The Lumbee Tattler,
published in 1941, was the college's first yearbook.

Tribe adopts name

In 1952, the tribe changed its name from Cherokee to Lumbee. The Rev.
D.F. Lowry (1881-1977), a proponent of the change, argued, "Because the
tribe is composed originally of members from different tribes, no one
historical name is appropriate. Rather, . . . the tribe should take its
name from a geographical name, [like] earlier tribes in the area
[did]."

After a series of community meetings over the previous year discussing
the name change, a referendum was held Feb. 2, 1952, with only Robeson
County Indians participating. "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina" was
adopted by a wide margin, with 2,169 voting for Lumbee and 35 to retain
"Cherokees of Robeson County." Nearly 50 percent of the 4,500 to 5,000
registered Indian voters in Robeson County participated in the
referendum.

Opponents of the name change boycotted the vote, although they
predicted a victory for "Lumbee." After its adoption as the tribal
name, use of the word "Lumbee" by non-Indians in Robeson County
decreased precipitously.

In 1953, the General Assembly enacted legislation legally changing the
tribal name from "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County" to "Lumbee
Indians of North Carolina." On June 7, 1956, President Dwight D.
Eisenhower signed into law the Lumbee Act, which recognized the tribe
but simultaneously denied it the benefits and services of federal
recognition.

Change sought for river

As early as the late 1930s, suggestions arose to change the legal name
of the river to "Lumbee." In 1939, R.C. Lawrence, a local author and
classmate of McNeill, suggested, "The change should be made since the
commercial term with which the word 'lumber' is associated is wholly
unfitted to so beautiful a stream as that of our river. There is a
tradition that its original name WAS Lum[b]ee."

In 1971, state legislators from Robeson, Hoke and Scotland counties
caucused to discuss a proposal to change the name of the river. Similar
discussions to change the name of the river persist within the Lumbee
Indian community.

John Charles McNeill, after spending many youthful summers swimming on
the banks of the "Lumbee" river, would have surely agreed with Lawrence
and local Indians to return the river to its ancestral name of Lumbee.

[Images at link]
[img 1] Rep. Hamilton McMillan
[img 2] John Charles McNeill
[img 3] Lumbee Literary Society at Pembroke High School (1940s)
[img 4] Lumbee Study Club monument at Robeson County Courthouse (1932)
[img 5] Lumbee River
[img 6] Lumber River Sign
[img 7] The Rev. D.F. Lowry

http://www.robesonian.com/view/full_story/16630996/article-
%E2%80%98Lumbee%E2%80%99-runs-through-history-of-local-Indians--
Robeson-County