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July - August, 2002: 1. "Telling Our Own Stories" project completed-July, 2002 Our year-long project, "Telling Our Own Stories," funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council, culminated with several public events held during the week of Lumbee Homecoming in July, 2002. Based on the Storytelling Workshops we conducted between October and April (see "Past Projects," below), we held three photograph and oral history exhibits, a Genealogy Workshop (hosted by Barbara Braveboy, with speakers Cynthia Hunt, Elisha Locklear, Garth Locklear, and Grady Locklear), a Sports Legends Roundtable (featuring Kelvin Sampson, Ned Sampson, Joe Oxendine, Bruce Barton, and James Moore), and a Traditional Arts Exhibit tent (with Mary Sue Locklear, Sadie Dial Foust, Elisha Locklear, and Jo Humphreys). Attendance at all these events was quite high, we increased our network of supporters and raised over $1,100 for our endowment. We have just submitted our final financial and narrative report to the Humanities Council. "Telling Our Own Stories" hasn't really ended, of course-there is always more work to do along the lines of what we have completed. As many of you know, however, the work of interviewing and gathering photographs is labor-intensive and my own recent absence from Robeson County has slowed our progress considerably. To continue that side of our work, I hope that volunteers would consider taking the initiative to complete small documentation projects on their own. (I know that Barbara Collins, Hatty Miller, and Chad Locklear have recently begun a project, for example). We have much of the equipment that is necessary and I'm willing to lend it to those who are interested in pursuing these projects. We might consider expanding into video, for example. There are other options as well-what would you like to see us do? More storytelling workshops? Other types of projects? Do you have students (high school or college) that might need an oral history project as a service or research project? Our genealogy workshop at Homecoming was such a success that many audience members asked us to do another one-we could also plan an event like that in the springtime. Please send me your ideas. 3. "Field School" Grant Submitted In August, the Lumbee River Fund and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University submitted a proposal to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to support a collaborative "Field School" in Robeson County. From the Project Description: We propose a collaborative field school in which residents from across the state will be trained not only in the use of oral history and photography, but also how to apply this work to affect social change. This field school will focus on Robeson County's Lumbee and Tuscarora Indian communities. Our training will allow a variety of nonprofit participants to learn skills they can take back to their own homeplaces and enable both Indian and non-Indian residents of Robeson County to share experiences with one another. All the participants' work will strengthen the Lumbee River Fund's efforts to collect and preserve the history of Robeson County's Indian communities. The three areas we will cover in the field school are environmental awareness, leadership and social change, and race relations and education. Unfortunately, Z.
Smith Reynolds declined to support the project. But we still think it's
a good idea, and hope to continue refining it and raising money to support
it. Please let me know if you'd like to see a copy of the full proposal,
or if you have any fundraising ideas that we might follow up on. June, 2002: We launched our website, located at www.uncp.edu/lumbeeriverfund/. The site contains a mailing list submission form, information about our current, past, and future projects, how to donate or volunteer for the Fund, and an extensive list of links to other resources about Lumbees, Tuscaroras and historical research. It will soon include the digital presentations created by Duke University undergraduates for the seminar we hosted in the Spring of 2002. February - June, 2002: "'Now That's History': Memories of UNC Pembroke" is our second annual photo exhibit celebrating UNCP's present by looking into the recent past. It is currently on display on the Mezzanine Level of the James B. Chavis Student Center on UNC Pembroke's campus. In 2001, enrollment reached record levels and UNCP's reputation soared throughout the southeast. Our current successes are built on the successes of the past, especially the years from the 1930s to the1970s. This eclectic exhibit of photographs and oral histories displays that period and records the personal memories of school and community spirit, reminding us of the interaction between the university and the Indian community. The photos and stories were contributed by community members whose lives have been transformed by the university. February - April, 2002: Duke University's Religion 196S class conducted a fieldwork project on Lumbee and Tuscarora "sense of place." The class was a seminar for junior and senior undergraduates, and the purpose of the fieldwork was threefold: to expose students to how a living Native American community experiences their homeland, to help students gain skills in community documentation work, and to produce materials for your work and the Lumbee River Fund's collection of materials on Indian life and culture. Lumbee River Fund advisory committee members Josephine Humphreys and Louise Maynor presented a workshop on Lumbee history, religion, and culture, with Mary Sue Locklear, healer and herbalist. The students then visited Robeson County on March 1-3 and worked in groups with five community members: Rev. Welton Lowry, Mary Sue Locklear, Elisha Locklear, Bruce Barton, and Paul Locklear, Jr. Their work concluded with an evening of presentations that was attended by community members, LRF advisory committee members, and some of the interviewees who actually participated in the project. The students' work will be deposited into the LRF archives and copies given to all the participants. October, 2001 - April, 2002: We have held a series of Storytelling Workshops, held at the Indian Education Resource Center and at Old Prospect United Methodist Church. Community members have attended, brought their old family photographs, and told stories about their family history that we've recorded on audiotape. Each photograph is duplicated and preserved, and the workshop participant can take their photos home with them. October, 2001 - March, 2002: The Lumbee River Fund published a bi-weekly column in the Carolina Indian Voice, that contained information about the Fund's work, excerpts from oral history interviews, and other commentaries on Lumbee history and culture. We hope to resume the series soon. October - December, 2001: Dr. Linda Oxendine's American Indian Studies Colloquium at UNC Pembroke conducted their own Lumbee oral history projects, sponsored by the Lumbee River Fund. The class received training in oral history interviews from UNC Chapel Hill's Southern Oral History Project. Then they worked in small groups to explore topics like the life history of Mr. James Moore of Prospect, bootlegging, burial practices, etc. The materials they produced will be available to the Lumbee River Fund and stored in our archives. July - September, 2001: We conducted an inventory of the oral history resources already available about Lumbees. With the support of the North Carolina Language and Life Project, LRF staff member Chad Locklear traveled to Florida to copy the collection of Lumbee oral history tapes from the Doris Duke collection at the University of Florida. He also created an Excel database which listed the tapes and their contents, and obtained information on documentation done about Lumbee individuals from other institutions. All of this has been gathered into a database which will be housed at both the Indian Education Resource Center and the Native American Resource Center in Pembroke. Updating the database is ongoing. July, 2001: We launched a long-term project to document the work of Mrs. Mary Sue Locklear, a Lumbee healer and herbalist who lives in St. Pauls, NC. We've taken photographs, done audiotaped interviews, and collected some of her products and herbs. In the future, we plan to use digital video as well. In the end, parts of our work will go on display at the Indian Education Resource Center in Pembroke. July, 2001: At the Lumbee Homecoming parade, we shared a tent with the UNCP Alumni Association in front of Old Main on UNC Pembroke's campus. We had an informal exhibit of fourteen 11x14 photographs, with subjects ranging from a Prospect family in front of their old homestead (1918) to Burnt Swamp Baptist Association (BSBA) ministers in front of Old Main (1965) to Mr. Earl Lowry receiving the Keys to the City of Pembroke (circa 1955). The oldest photo we exhibited was taken around 1912. The photos came to us courtesy of Dorothy Blue, James Moore, BSBA's Indian Religion Museum, Sally Sampson Bolognese, and Joe McGirt. February - March, 2001: Members of the LRF's advisory board, family, and friends took two canoe trips on the Lumber River, hosted by River Bend Outfitters in Fair Bluff, NC. Our first trip started at Fair Bluff and our second began at Princess Anne State Park. February - December 2001: "Celebrating the Past-A Pictorial History of UNC Pembroke." Photo Exhibit at the James B. Chavis Student Center on UNC Pembroke's campus. This exhibit documented the long-standing connections between UNCP and the Lumbee people. It was organized roughly according to the University's name changes, a theme that the exhibit committee felt represented its transformation from an Indian institution to a regional institution and that recognized the community's profound impact on the University's development. The photos reflect the growth and sense of hope that has characterized the Lumbee people. |
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Lumbee River Fund | www.uncp.edu/lumbeeriverfund/ |
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