book, "Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity,
and the Making of a Nation" (UNC Press; 2010; 339 pages), on
April 13 at the Chancellor's Residence.
Dr. Lowery's appearance was a part of the Native American
Speaker Series, sponsored by the American Indian Studies
Department and Office of Academic Affairs.
The book tells the story of a formative era of the Lumbee Tribe
by the UNC-Chapel Hill historian, who is a member of the tribe.
"Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South" is often a personal look
at a harsh time that includes references and photos of family and
friends living in a close-knit community.
The setting for the reading and book signing was also very
personal. Dr. Lowery's husband, Willie Lowery; parents Waltz
and Louise Maynor; two sisters, Dr. Cherry Beasley and Lucy
Maynor; and many friends were among the 85 in attendance at
the Chancellor's Residence for the reading and book signing.
Dr. Lowery said "Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South" is
her effort to "pay forward the blessings" she has received from
her family and community because she will "never be able to
pay them back."
"The story I tell in this book is not always pretty, but I think
it's an honest story," she said. "It's about how a group of Native
Americans carved out a place for themselves with an iron-sided
wall in place between the races.
"White supremacy was a fact of life" in the era, she said.
University, a master's degree in documentary filmmaking from
Stanford University and a master's degree and doctorate in
history from UNC-Chapel Hill. The book was derived from her
dissertation, although a more personal version.
There are four layers of identity among the Lumbee, Dr.
Lowery maintains:
· First, there is kinship, or "who's your people" as the local
saying goes;
· Second, there is place, or "where do you stay" in terms of
church and community;
· Third, tribe; and
· Fourth, race.
Dr. Lowery carefully described several archival photos of
school students and family members that she distributed via
book, are archetypes of a time long gone.
"This is the picture of poverty amidst affluence all around,"
she said of a photo of a woman and her two children in the
family kitchen that is lined with advertising posters, probably put
there to block cold wind.
The complexities of race, blood quantum, tribal government
and federal recognition were outlined as they shaped the tribe's
identity over time.
Using photographs, letters, genealogy, federal and state
records and first-person family history, Dr. Lowery demonstrates
how the Lumbees challenged the boundaries of Indian, Southern
and American identities.
The era depicted in the book begins and ends with great
triumphs in Lumbee history - the story of Henry Berry Lowry's
war against tyranny during the Civil War and Reconstruction and
the 1958 rout of the Ku Klux Klan.
"I wrote this book for my people to remind ourselves of how
we can divide and unify ourselves in the face of threat," she
concluded.
Dr. Rose Stremlau, a faculty member in UNCP's American
Indian Studies Department, was Dr. Lowery's roommate in
Chapel Hill as the book came together. She introduced her
friend.
"Malinda was close-up to the conversations...around the
kitchen table and in the tobacco fields," Dr. Stremlau said. "She
struggled to tell this story.
"Her people are on every page," she said. "She is passionate
about the well-being of her people."
Former UNCP Chancellor Joseph Oxendine, a Lumbee, was
in the audience. He said he is in one of the book's photos.
"It's a fascinating story," Dr. Oxendine said. "I am pleased
with what she's doing to remind us of our identity and to be
proud of it."
UNC Board of Governors, and Magnolia Lowry, a retired faculty member.