Post by slick on Dec 30, 2004 19:26:47 GMT -5
Names such as Locklear and Oxendine are common amongst this unique Amerindian people. Heather Locklear (yes that one) said in an article that her father was part Indian. I'm not sure how much though. She is mostly of Scottish origin. Some look more European while others look more African.
LUMBEE INDIANS
The Lumbee of Robeson County in North Carolina are the largest and most cohesive of the Mestee groups. They are descended from the Hatteras tribe of Algonquin Indians from the coast, who absorbed the "Lost Colony" of English at Roanoke Island. This is disputed by many, who say this colony perished, but the survival of the family names from this colony plus their own tradition plus the difficulty in explaining a group of English speaking Indians living in wooden houses in North Carolina before the arrival of other English colonists, with most of their men having beards, makes evidence which I find convincing [AD]. There were a couple of other English colonies from the sixteenth century which were lost, and the most common names of the group, Oxendine, Locklear and Chavis, are local names, Oxendine and Locklear being of Lumbee origin and Chavis from South Carolina Mestees, probably the Brass Ankles. They presumably absorbed the remnants of the Cheraw tribe and other Siouan Indians indigenous to the area plus free mulattos, runaway slaves, and renegade whites [AD]. Some of them claim to have some southern Iroquoian (Cherokee and Tuscarora) ancestry, but this is not confirmed by history or names, unless the ubiquitous Goins is accepted. They founded Pembroke State College, which was for many years an all-Lumbee institution. The Museum of the American Indian there contains much on their history and culture.
They take the name Lumbee from the Lumbee or Lumber river (Lumberton, where many of them live, also takes its name from this river). They were called Croatan for many years after the location of the Hatteras group under chief Manteo which the Roanoke colony is thought to have joined. When this name was abandoned because of the contempt with which it was used by whites, they first called themselves Cherokees of Robeson County and then switched to Lumbee, perhaps as a result of Cherokee anger over the usurpation of their name by an unrelated group.
They are the most Indian of all the Mestee groups and the only one to be accepted as Indian by recognized Indian groups. Some of them are recognized as Indian by the Bureau of Indian Affairs but not as descended from any historical Indian tribe and are therefore denied all benefits. They also have the only truly heroic leader in their history, Henry Berry Lowrie (Lowry in some sources). In a conflict during the Civil War growing out of the use of Lumbee men as slave labor in Confederate camps and the harboring of escaped Union prisoners of war, the Confederate Home Guard attacked the Lowrie family and a leader killed three of Henry Lowrie's brothers. Henry Lowrie, then a teenager, killed this man and organized the Lowrie Band which hid in the swamps of Robeson county and raided Confederate camps and stole many supplies [AD]. With his full black beard and cloudy grey eyes, Henry Lowrie was clearly a Mestee and not pure Indian. After the war, his band protected the Lumbees from the Ku Klux Klan, who left the Lumbees alone until 1958, when some 700 armed Klansmen held a rally outside Pembroke because a Lumbee boy had been dating a white girl. 3000 Lumbees attacked the rally, seizing the Klan banner and many rifles and white robes, and the Klansmen fled in terror and have not bothered the Lumbee since [BB].
Source:
Multiracial Activist[/http://www.multiracial.com/readers/nassau.html#lumbeeindians]
LUMBEE INDIANS
The Lumbee of Robeson County in North Carolina are the largest and most cohesive of the Mestee groups. They are descended from the Hatteras tribe of Algonquin Indians from the coast, who absorbed the "Lost Colony" of English at Roanoke Island. This is disputed by many, who say this colony perished, but the survival of the family names from this colony plus their own tradition plus the difficulty in explaining a group of English speaking Indians living in wooden houses in North Carolina before the arrival of other English colonists, with most of their men having beards, makes evidence which I find convincing [AD]. There were a couple of other English colonies from the sixteenth century which were lost, and the most common names of the group, Oxendine, Locklear and Chavis, are local names, Oxendine and Locklear being of Lumbee origin and Chavis from South Carolina Mestees, probably the Brass Ankles. They presumably absorbed the remnants of the Cheraw tribe and other Siouan Indians indigenous to the area plus free mulattos, runaway slaves, and renegade whites [AD]. Some of them claim to have some southern Iroquoian (Cherokee and Tuscarora) ancestry, but this is not confirmed by history or names, unless the ubiquitous Goins is accepted. They founded Pembroke State College, which was for many years an all-Lumbee institution. The Museum of the American Indian there contains much on their history and culture.
They take the name Lumbee from the Lumbee or Lumber river (Lumberton, where many of them live, also takes its name from this river). They were called Croatan for many years after the location of the Hatteras group under chief Manteo which the Roanoke colony is thought to have joined. When this name was abandoned because of the contempt with which it was used by whites, they first called themselves Cherokees of Robeson County and then switched to Lumbee, perhaps as a result of Cherokee anger over the usurpation of their name by an unrelated group.
They are the most Indian of all the Mestee groups and the only one to be accepted as Indian by recognized Indian groups. Some of them are recognized as Indian by the Bureau of Indian Affairs but not as descended from any historical Indian tribe and are therefore denied all benefits. They also have the only truly heroic leader in their history, Henry Berry Lowrie (Lowry in some sources). In a conflict during the Civil War growing out of the use of Lumbee men as slave labor in Confederate camps and the harboring of escaped Union prisoners of war, the Confederate Home Guard attacked the Lowrie family and a leader killed three of Henry Lowrie's brothers. Henry Lowrie, then a teenager, killed this man and organized the Lowrie Band which hid in the swamps of Robeson county and raided Confederate camps and stole many supplies [AD]. With his full black beard and cloudy grey eyes, Henry Lowrie was clearly a Mestee and not pure Indian. After the war, his band protected the Lumbees from the Ku Klux Klan, who left the Lumbees alone until 1958, when some 700 armed Klansmen held a rally outside Pembroke because a Lumbee boy had been dating a white girl. 3000 Lumbees attacked the rally, seizing the Klan banner and many rifles and white robes, and the Klansmen fled in terror and have not bothered the Lumbee since [BB].
Source:
Multiracial Activist[/http://www.multiracial.com/readers/nassau.html#lumbeeindians]