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WHt2^Hal^??ac3as*wie> ji[./ I "Building Communicative Bridges * "_ j Pembroke, n.c. In A Cri-Racial getting" robeson county -.? / VOLUME 16 NUMBER 35 . 25$ THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER., 196-J Twins Named Reci pients Of PSU Alumni Association Scholarships Bruce Woodell (left) and twin brother Brian, honor graduates of West Robeson High School, are joint recipients of the Pembroke State University Alumni Association's $1,000 Alumni Loyalty Scholarship. They are shown in front of Old Main, the PSU campus landmark. Twins Brian and Bruce Woodell of Pembroke, both of whom were members of the National Honor Society at West Robeson High School, have been named joint recipients of the Pembroke State University Alumni Association's $1,000 Alumni loyalty Scholarship. This means that each will receive $500. They arc the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Woodell. Their mother, Mrs Macie Woodell, was a '64 graduate oPPembroke Slate Univer s;iy. Both plan to pursue majors which will prepare them for careers in engineering. Along with being honor students at West Robeson High School, the twins were members of the Spanish Club and varsity football and base ball teams. Both are members of the Mt. Airy Baptist Church. Brian's hobbies are karate, foot ball, and basketball, while Bruce says he enjoys sports, hunting and fishing. I The 17-year-old twins commented as follows concerning their first impressions in enrolling at PSU. Brian: "The faculty has been very friendly and helpful, arid the student body is great, too. I also think the campus is beautiful." Bruce: "I like the way things are shaping up and think I will enjoy coming to school here a great deal." LOCAL- AGENTS ATTEND NATIONALCONEERENCE Jl MAN RANSOM ? . ? 1_ t I J 1 _l _!ll_ ..JtL I 1 Everett Davis, county extension director; Kevin Starr, Extension horticultural agent; and Greg Tray wick, Extension livestock agent, recently attended the national meet ing of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents in Char lotte. This was the first time that the North Carolina agricultural agents have hosted this national meeting. Over 2,500 persons from all 'areas of the United States converged in Charlotte for six days of conference, lectures, workshops, and tours. According to Davis, this has always been an excellent opportunity for the local agents to gain an up-to-date insight into the latest technology available for Extension workers and to visit with their counterparts from across the nation to gain ideas that will be helpful in conducting their programs here in Robeson County. Additional local flavor was pro vided for this meeting by Julian Ransom, pastor of Cherokee Chapel United Methodist Church in Wa kulla. The mission of Extension is to snare Knowledge ana siaus wiui iocai residents in order to help them better address the needs of their daily lives. The early settlers were faced with not knowing how to properly adapt to the new climate and the resources that were available in this new country. With the help of Squanto, an Indian living in the area of the new settlements, the settlers were taught how to plant com and how to prepare their harvest as well as how to use other native food products in order to survive the harsh winters. Playing on this concept, the ritual of this association is to share with all first-time attendees the legend of Squanto and to instill in them the need to willingly share their know ledge and skills with others. Mr. Ransom portrayed the part of Squanto during the luncheon for the first time attendees. Being a Lumbee Indian from Robeson County, he added a great deal of authenticity to the program and provided the opportunity to share with people from across the United States the history of our local heritage. WHATEVER MARRENED TO. . . CLAUDELOWERY CLAUDE LOWERY by Barbara Braveboy-Locklear There are some things Claude lowery just cannot seem to part with. Among them are text books he studied while a young student at the original New Hope School which was located in Scuffletown. "Why throw away something that's been good to you?" he asks in explaining his longtime practice of keeping things. The 89 year-old Lumbee Indian says he always liked to keep everything he got his hands on. The former educator has read all the books lining the walls in his rural Pembroke home. "I never had to go after reading something twice to get it," he adds. And even though he says he never amounted to much in life, Lowery's involvement in the community in which he grew up, and now lives, attests to a lifetime of service. He was one of eight children born to Elizabeth Lowery in a house where Pembroke State University is now situated. His mother died in 1962. at close to 90 years of age. He remembers a tough childhood spent picking cotton in a field where P.S.U.'s baseball diamond is now situated. That was in 1906. Lowery attended Cherokee Indian Normal School and took his first teaching assignment in 1922 at Union Chapel School. Later assignments took him to Pembroke Graded, the John Dial School and to Ieland Grove School in S.C. His last assignment was at Pembroke High School where he retired in 1954. During his early teaching career, school sessions lasted only half a year. The other six months allowed Lowery to study at the Normal School and ultimately earn the highest scholastic achievement during the 1927 summer session. When a teenager, he developed his own knowledge in carpentry. And from 1916-18. when public school wasn't in session, he built houses. "That's how I got on my feet and bought my land." In 1923, lowery manned Sarah Hunt, a "quiet woman." They settled into a life of farming in the St. Anna Community outside Pembroke. Three years later the couple moved into their own home which Lowery constructed. There they began raising the first of their 13 children. "I'd attend summer school at the Normal School until 2 p.m.," he remembers. "Then I'd come home and work on the farm until I couldn't see in the darkness of the night." With a well-developed business sense and a broad knowledge of farming, lowery worked as a supervisor for The Red Banks Mutual Association a government - sponsored farmer's cooperative. He was to take on other assignments while raising his children. Among which was highway construction engineering. He learned to read blueprints and was personally involved in building highways which Robeson ians now travel. But perhaps the most daring job ever taken by the great-grandfather was in initiating a plan to rout the Ku Klux Klan from Robeson County. "Fools' names are like fools' faces - always stuck in public places," he says in referring to Grand Wizard James W. "Catfish" Cole. Upon learning of the Klan's plans to hold a rally near Pembroke in January of 1958, Lowery called a meeting with Harry West Locklear, a Lumbee Indian leader. Other meetings followed with area men. "We called a meeting at Town Hall - just a few people - and decided to let the Klan make the first move," he says. Those attending were sworn to secrecy as to what our plan of attack would be." He says the Lumbees were visibly aroused by the Klan's attempt at intimidation and its white supremacist attitudes. And on January 18, 1958, at twilight, Klansmen began to arrive for their rally on a tract of rented land near Maxton, N.C. So did hundreds of Lumbee Indians. Fifty-eight-year-old Claude Lowery was among them. He was armed. "The fools (Klansmen) were playing a tape recording of the hymn, "Nearer My God To Thee," he comments. "I was not willing to accept the fact the Klansmen wanted to come among my people and bring discord." The routing of the KKK by the Lumbees gained international attention. Lowery says for the most part, he's led a quiet life since the incident. He retired from active farming in 1962. "Most of my children had left home, and I had no help." He leases - mostly sharecrops his land. "I've never retired though," he quickly adds. His day begins usually at the light of day when he rises, prepares and takes his breakfast. He personally maintains the grounds surrounding his home. "I even had a vegetable garden this year because I had no better sense than to have one." After a couple of hours of pitting around, he drives to visit his wife who is a longtime resident of a Lumberton nursing care hospital. There he spends several hours daily with the woman he married 65 years ago. He visits and worships with other residents during devotional hour. He no longer regularly attends Green Pine Church where he holds a charter membership. He chooses, instead, to visit Sarah each Sunday. Late afternoons find him attending to his bookkeeping and to a longtime love - American Indian history and genealogy. He sits and rattles off Indian tribes, origins, surnames, dates and events as if reading from an encyclopedia. He disputes some claims by historians of the origin of American Indians. "From my extensive research, it's common knowledge that we were a people here from the beginning. Humanity is like animals - especially the birds. They have some way of knowing their haven by sound," he comments. "For security sake, they cling together." For many years Lowery and his wife enjoyed long distance travel in the U.S. He never missed an opportunity to visit areas which enjoyed a rich American Indian history. He says he's always been a person who looked and searched for things. Lowery expresses concern over the economic plight of U.S. citizens, "We're oppressed to death." On Ronald Reagan he says, "The people that voted for him first time, I forgive them. But they had four years to know Ronald Reagan. Those that went back and voted for him again....He's allowed people to double-cross our nation at the cost of the people." Then he adds, "Fools running a country will assist in its downfall." On illegal usage and selling of drugs. Lowery cries. "God is not pleased with conditions of the nation and will not hold His W-R-A-T-H always. We've sown to the wind, and we're going to reap the wind." On education, he warns, "It will be the downfall of civilization, because today it is not cherished. It alone doesn't make people any better." And what does Claude Lowery attribute to his longevity and vast knowledge? "My God has been my caretaker. Add hard work, and a lifetime of eating cornbread, collards and meat." i ft.-*-., -<? ? . . September 18-24 Proclaimed I ndian Heritage Week I n North Carolina By Governor Martin Governor James G. Martin has proclaimed Sept. 18 24 as Indian Heritage Week in North Carolina, calling on North Carolinians "to recognize the many achievements and contributions made by these native inhabitants of North Carolina.' The week will be kicked off with an Indian Heritage Week Festival on Sunday, Sept. 18, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Town Creek Indian Mound near Mt. Gilead. Featured will be speakers, Indian dancers, Indian arts and crafts, demonstrations, Indian traders and the crowning of Miss Indian North Carolina. In his proclamation. Governor Martin pointed out that North Carolina today has the largest Indian population east of the Mississippi River with more than 65,000 Native Americans living in the state. "North Carolinians have long recognised the many contributions of the Tar Heel State's Native Am erf cans and Indian people," Martin said in the proclamation. "They have added greatly to the success story of our state and have benefited us with man/'aspects of their'rich heritage and culture." The N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs in the N.C. Department of Administration is the only stale government agency with the specific responsibility of addressing the needs of North Carolina Indians. "Indians have lived on the land we know today as North Carolina for more than 10,000 years," Admini stration Secretary Jams* S. Lofton said. "They are truly our 'native' North Carolinians and 'native' Amer icans." North. Carolina has six tribes, Cherokee, Cohaire, Haliwa-Saponi, Lumbce, Meherrin and Waceamaw Sknian -? and three major urban concentrations in Charlotte. Payette ville and Greensboro. ROBESON YOUT H ATTEN DS U-M EAR IN/I STAB I L_l T Y PROGRAM COLBY HAMMONDS A Robeson County youth recently attended a new 4-H program deve loped to enhance farm family stabi lity through "hands-on" agricultural production and financial manage ment training. Colby Hammonds, 16, son of Ronald Glenn and Linda Hammonds, Route 2, Lumberton, is among 17 youths who have enrolled in the two-year Farm Family Stability Pro gram which got underway with its first conference August 4-7 at North Carolina State University. The program is designed to teach youth who plan to operate their family farms the diversity of agri culture and the roles of technology and management in successful farming. Hammonds, who will be a Junior at Magnolia High School this fall, has worked on his family farm since age 6. He is a member of 4-H, Future Farmers of America and Future Business Leaders of America. During the conference, agricul tural experts talked about how to measure financial success or failure, how to solve farm management problems, opportunities in forestry, capital investment, marketing and the future of agriculture. Other professionals conducted classes on leadership, public speaking and interpersonal communication. Part icipants toured area farm operations to see first-hand management, mar keting and computerization. Five similar sessions are sche duled throughout the next two years. The sessions will be held in various parts of eastern North Carolina and on the North Carolina.State Univer sity campus. During the session on agriculture in the year 2000, partici pants will visit the "Land" exhibit at Epcot Center in Florida. Youths age 15-19 are eligible to enroll in the program through their county Agricultural Extension Ser vice office. The Farm Family Stability Pro gram is sponsored by the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Ser vice, with additional funding from individuals and private businesses. SAY YOU READ IT IN THE CAROLINA INDIAN VOICE i ? ______________________ DOCTORAL, FEUOWSHIRS AVAIZjABZJE FOR AMERICAN INDIAN STUDENTS American Indian students pur suing doctorate degrees at one of four institutions of the University of North Carolina System may be eligible for fellowships valued at up to $4,000 per year. According to N.C. Administration Secretary James -S. Lofton, the American Indian Doctoral Fellowship Program is available at East Carolina university, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. lb be eligible, an individual must be enrolled full time and in good standing in a doctoral degree pro grmiA, meet state residency require ments, be found to have financial need and be an American Indian under the program's definition. The N. C. Commie Jon of Indian Affairs, the only state government agency with the specific responsi bility of addressing the needs of North Carolina Indians, is housed in the N.C. Department of Administra tion, which Secretary Lofton heads. "Hie advancement of education among North Carolina Indians con tinues to be a primary concern of the commission," Lofton said. Through its field offices and varied programs, the commission works to assure the rights of Indians to pursue their cultural, social and religious tradi tions and to increase economic and educational opportunities. For mote information and for applications, contact the graduate dean of the appropriate university or Honnel Hunt with the N.C. Commis sion of Indian Affairs. P. 0. Box 27238, Raleigh 27811.7228, or tele phone (919)735-5908.
The Carolina Indian Voice (Pembroke, N.C.)
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Sept. 1, 1988, edition 1
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