WHAT NEXT???
We found it intriguing that the City of Lumberton
would approve the Lumberton Tree Commission's $7700
budget request but felt it necessary to cut the
Southeastern Family Violence Center's budget from
SS000 to $3000; a 40 percent cut Why? Doesn'tthat seem
to suggest something significant about Lumberton* s
priorities?
Perhaps the city council cannot see the acts of family
violence for the trees!
"Ib plaque or not to plaque, that it the question.'
Several citizens approached the Robeson County
Commissioners to request (5000 so they could purchase
$20 plaques for each Robe soman who participated in the
Gulf War. The commissioners first approved $2500 to
purchase certificates. This caused some to storm (no pun
intended) out af the meeting. They felt their sons and
daughters were being cheated out of something that was
rightfully theirs. Later that evening the commissioners
reversed themselves and voted the full $5000 for the
purchase of plaques.
First we wish to make it clear we not only support all of
our fighting men and women, but we also deeply
appreciate their efforts and sacrifices. However, we do
not feel the county needs to allot tax money to purchase a
plaque for each Robesonian who served in the Gulf. The
men and women who fought in Iraq did their sworn duty.
They were weO trained and paid by the U.S. Government
to do just what they did and they performed
magnificently. After all, that was and is their job!
One person became incensed because the county was
not going to buy her son a plaque. She indicated she
would buy him one or get her church to give her the
money. That's exactly what she should do rather than
extort money from the people of Robeson County. After
all, the county commissioners were trapped. We
understand no commissioner would publicly oppose this
bad idea and we have grown to accept the lack of
intestinal fortitude of our county commissioners. But the
precedent of purchasing plaques, to honor those who have
merely done what they were trained to do, is a dangerous
one. After all, many of us had loved ones who paid the
ultimate price in Bull Run, Wounded Knee, WWI, WWII,
Korea, Vietnam (to mention a few)...what about
THEM?Don't they count!!! Are they not also worth $20?
**************************************************
The "bad faith" award goes to the Veeder Root
ri?IT"" J' ?f Elizabeth town. The company makes digital
and petroleum counting machines and because of a
downturn in the market, Veeder Root decided to lay off
some employees. At least that's the rationale the
company gave the laid off employees.
Veeder Root then turns around and lists the openings
created by the lay offs with MegaForce Temporaries
which in turn hires some of the laid off workers to work in
their old jobs at Veeder Root The employees, since they
are now working for MegaForce, earn less for doing the
same work and Veeder Root enjoys the advantage of
having temporary employees without having to pay fair
wages or benefits.
While we have singled out Veeder Root, the practice is
not that uncommon. Several Robeson County industries
also use similar schemes to avoid paying adequate wages
and benefits. Some use this method and work individuals
up to six fhenths in a "temporary job" and then release
that individual and hire another for the same "temporary
job." It's not fair and one day the chickens will come
home to roost!
Hie legislative committee of the Lumberton Area
Chamber of Commerce recently met to make public its
"stand" on several issues. Too bad no one seems to know
where the chamber stands when it comes to the nature of
Indians and their role and value to the development of
Robeson County. Few have forgotten the map, widely
distributed by the chamber, which unfairly characterized
the Indians of the region as a band of hostile, uncivilized
people.
Perhaps the Lumberton Area Chamber of Commerce
could be forthright enough to endorse the Lorn bees
petition for federal recognition and thereby send a strong,
positive signal that the chamber does recognize and
appreciate, not only the traditions and history of the
Lumbee people, but also the value of their contributions
to the growth and development of Robeson County. It
would be a nice gesture.
N.C. Senator Dennis Winner introduced a bill several
weeks ago which proposed to drop "at Chapel HOI" from
the school name so that the school would be "The
University of North Carolina." Winner defended his
proposal by saying he was merely restoring the original
name of the school at Chapel Hill. Needless to say the
copycat universities (eg. UNC-C, UNC-G, UNC-W...)
were very upset If UNC-CH became "The University of
North Carolina" then what would these other schools be
called and how would they convince anyone that their
reputations and recognition were built upon something
other than the name of the premier university in North
Carolina. We will never know because Sen. Winner's
proposal was withdrawn. It was a loser from the start
Once again we are thankful for the wisdom and
foresight of those individuals who opposed the name
change for F^mbroke State University. Pembroke State's
reputation or recognition is not based on the "UNC
name" connection. While PSU is a part of the university
system, it enjoys its own unique traditions, reputation,
and name. If Sen. Winner's proposal had been approved,
Pembroke State University could have continued its long
history of service with little notice or no negative fallout
from the change. Those universities with "UNC" names
would have had some serious adjustments to make.
Often times it's far better to honor one's history and
remain true to the foundations which resulted in success
and work harder to make a well deserved reputation
rather than shortcut the hard work by grabbing another's
name in the vain hope that some of the glitter will rub off
on you.
Pembroke State University is not the University of
?k>rth Carolina at Chapel Hill?nor does it desire to be.
???*?????????*?????????????????????*?????????***?*
It's sad when anyone who is supposed to provide moral
leadership to a community falls. It's criminal when such
an individual is providing this instruction for our young.
The Children's Bible Mission has long been at work in
Robeson County, oftentimes without the knowledge or
consent of the parents of school age children. But, since
we are in the Bible belt many felt no overwhelming need
to consult parents as the CBM had always had a presence
here and they have always done well; until now.
CBM's leader in Robeson County was Dave Johnson.
The children affectionately called him "Mr. Dave." CBM
has now removed Dave Johnson from Robeson County
'for his safety and for treatment.' We cannot help but
wonder what "treatment" CBM plans for the children of
Robeson County.
In our view, religios education should remain a function
of the church and the home unless a parent wishes to send
their child to a private school which provides such
instruction. Public education is having a hard time in
providing quality instruction in traditional subjects like
reading, math, and science. It has no place in attempting
to provide religious instruction. Although CBM perform
ed well for many years, the damage of one such incident
cannot be gauged or ignored. Our innocence has been
lost?time has wrought many hardships and changes?
the time has come for CBM's presence in our schools to
end.
Some feel federal judges are increasingly under attack.
Over the past twelve years, three federal judges have
been killed at their homes. To combat this problem, a
group of federal judges submitted a proposal to purchase
a cellular telephone and a home security system for every
federal judge in the United States. This proposal would
cost the taxpayers of this country approximately $11.5
million.
From our point of view the idea of spending taxpayers'
money on home security systems and telephones for
judges in preposterous. Just a little over two years ago
taxpayers coughed up a 40 percent pay raise for federal
judges. Hiey now earn a minimum of $116,000. But even
mote troubling'is the self-serving, callous disregard for
others that this proposal represents. While judges might
feel threatened, we wonder1 if <hey have everti talked'with
a Jaw enforcement officer. Do they have any idea how
many law enforcement officers are wounded and killed in
the line of duty each year? Do they understand and
appreciate the demands placed on the policemen who
wbrk in the streets of our cities each and every day? What
remedy would federal judges suggest to protect law
enforcement officers-should the taxpayer also buy every
policeman in ^he United States a cellular telephone and a
home security system or perhaps judges could guarantee
policemen a little relief by insuring repeat offenders do
some "hard time" behind bars without possibility of
parole?
While we sympathize with the occupational hazards of
being a federal court judge, we do not feel the taxpayers
of this country need to be overiy concerned with this
problem. Neither should they subsidize efforts to relieve
the fears of federal court judges. While the taxpayers' job
might not be as dangerous, it is extremely stressful
knowing that judges feel they are owed $11 million when
there is an obvious, less expensive, and simpler solution
to their problem. Ifa judge is concerned with his safety, he
can either purchase the necessary home security system
himself or he can change jobs. It's that easy, k is our
understanding that taxpayers do not mind helping those
who are unable to help themselves, but those who can
stand on their own two feet should do so. Judges should
take a lesson and do a little more standing and a little less
sitting?we've always admired someone who could think
on their feet," so if safety is an issue, let's assist the
front-line law enforcement officer first He is the one at
most risk and therefore the most deserving!
c^-fCong <cRO(J z?on
'jtiy !i>?. J(aiet. 'j>i**et,i o/ l(u \P<b'U
cNaiivt c^imtxiean -tfttou\ca Ctultx
In the last segment, we saw that trade with Europeans
was beginning to have sweeping effects on Native
Americans. While trade was a perfectly natural thing for
Indian people to do, and they had been trading with each
other for thousands of years, the introduction of European
trade changed things forever. One of the sources of
trouble in the new Indian-European trade system was the
basic difference in trade philosophy between Indians and
Europeans. The Indian trade philosophy was that the
economic benefits were only part of a complex network of
social, political, and cultural relationships. In contrast,
the philosophy of most European traders centered almost
entirely on the economic benefits of trade; business was
business.
An example of how this difference in trading
philosophy produced tragic results can be found in the
history of the Che raw Indians. By 1670, the Che raw were
involved in trade relations with the Virginia colonists,
from whom they got guns, horses, and other trade goods.
The Che raw traded some of these goods to the Catawba
and their other Siouan-speaking kinsmen who were more
removed from the Virginia colonial settlements. The
Cheraw no doubt believed that they could depend on the
Virginia traders as they would on their other trading
partners; they had probably established the kind of
kinship trading relations with the Virginians which, in the
Cheraw philosophy, meant the Virginians were their
adopted kinsmen and friends as well as their business
associates.
But the Carolina colony, seated in Charleston (then
called Chariestown), wanted to control the trading
business with the Catawba and other Siouan groups on
their northern frontier. Thus they passed a resolution in
1698 which prohibited the Virginians from trading with
any of what the Carotians saw as "their Indians."
For a while, this competition between the Virginia and
Carolina traders pleased the Che raw, because competi
tion made trade goods cheaper and more readily
available. But during the on-going competition, many
Charleston traders became increasingly abusive to the
Indians, especially to the Yamassee and their Muskogean
kinsmen. Resentful of the many abuses, in 1715 the
Yamassee attacked the Carolina traders in what came to
be known as the Yamassee War.
Shortly after the Yamassee began this organized
conflict, the Che raw and some of their Siouan kinsmen
(Catawba. Waleree, and others) attacked the Carolinians
from the north, driving the colonial traders from the
San tee Valley. Hie Cheraw thought, since the Carolina
traders were waging a kind of "trade war" against the
Virginia traders, that they would be able to continue
trading with the Virginians for guns and ammunition
while attacking the Carolinians.
But the Cheraw's trading philosophy was not the same
as the colonists. Soon after the Indians attacked the
Carolina traders, the Virginia colonial government placed
a ban on trade with the Cheraw, and sent reinforcements
and supplies to Charleston. When the Cheraw sent
representatives to Williamsburg to discuss re-opening
trade with what they saw as their old kinship/ trading
partners, they found Carolina traders sitting alongside
Virginia traders at the bargaining tablet Hie Cheraw's
expectations, based on the old Native American
philosophy of trade, were clearly not met Hie Cheraw
found themselves caught in the middle of conflicting trade
philosophies, without ammunition, and were consequent
ly defeated.
Ill the next segment of Along Hie Robeson Hail, find
out more about the effects of trade on Native Americans
in the early historic period. For more information, visit
the Native American Resource Center in Old Main
Building, on the campus of Pembroke State University.
\
??^ Reflections
MOTHERHOOD AND MIXED EMOTIONS
"Help me be a mother. Lord, to my two boys. A
REAL mother who looks beyond their clutter and their
noise."
This is the beginning of a little poem I put together
when Donny, Gordon, and their sister, Wanda, were all in
their teens. I could have said the same thing (and I surely
should have prayed these thoughts over and over every
day) when my boys were still pre-schoolers.
Wanda Kay was not the little lady I had dreamed that
my daughter would be. Instead, she was a tomboy-- as
much out of necessity as inclination, T m sure. But she
tried, from the time she was two, to understand an
unusual Mom who often felt that no one else really did.
Not so the boys. Or, if they did, they were not going to
let me know. So these two "bundles of energy" had wills
of their own which constantly seemed to clash with their
mother's plans for them to behave like little gentlemen.
' And HMn tMJy left that Jul* night to' help their daddy
sell the farmwgetablcs, we didn't take time to say
"good-bye." After all, we'd be seeing each other the very
next day, and for years and years after that. (How
thankful I am that their daddy and I took time for a brief,
non-verbal farewell.)
Hie way things worked out, our family was unfinished.
We were not ready for what took place as they were
nearing Pembroke and home the next day. We hadn't had
time to get our relationship resolved.
Of course, maybe we never would have. But I like to
think we would some day. I'm so thankful that my mother
lived long enough for the two of us to go through that
painful, but necessary, process of reconciliation and
understanding. This winter, after her 94th birthday,
Mother and I used my visit to her home in Montana to
finish resolving old misunderstandings. Now I appreciate
her more than ever before!
Because I didn't get to do this with Donny and Gordon,
I suppose my tendency these past 11 years has been to nil
my mind with other things instead of dwelling on them.
But there are special times in my memory.
My Flag Day Boy
Just before Flag Day every June my mind goes back to
June 14,1960, and my first experience of bringing a baby
into this world. Fm so thankful, in spite of everything, to
have had the privilege of being a parent to my special
"Donny Noy" for just over 30 years/'As I think back over
each of those years from 1900 untij 1960, Fm sure that
there never was and there never will be any other baby
boy/young man exactly like Donny.
How I wish I had somehow let him know every time I
was proud of him. I wish I had not been afraid to say, with
words or with actions: "Donny, you have a mother who
loves you and believes in you: And she always will."
Yes, Donny, I always will!
. ? ? , , ~ -; , ; !
s
School News NWWWWMIMWWMMWIM
Robbie Renee Lock!ear of Route 3, Lumberton
received a bachelor of science degree during commence
ment exercises at Wake Forest University May 20.
Virginia Governor L Douglas Wilder spoke on "Hie
Stress of Success."
Nearly 700 undergraduates received degrees. Another
467 graduates received degrees from the Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences, the School of Law, Babcock
Graduate School of Management and the Bowman Gray
School of Medicine.
Wake Forest is one of the nation's highest- rated
universities. U.S. News & World Report has ranked it the
best university of its category in the South four straight
years. Four Wake Forest students have been named
Rhodes Scholars in the last six years. The university was
founded in 1834.
Sat Yoi Head It In
TUB CAROLINA INDIAN VOICE
j11^^
I DEPOSITS FEDERALLY IN8URED TO $100,000.00
labMrtlri Anally For l?ly WkMnwal ? Raw Sutyact To Chant* WW*** Nouca
PROGRESSIVE
SAVINGS A LOAN, LTD.
I SmTc "USSSSSO"' "ISN"?" I
I ** m"" ?? -- I
H. Mitchell
Baker, III, P.A.
ATTORNEY AT LAW
Fighting for victims' rights is what we do
.. .and it's all we do.
? Wrongful Death
? Serious Auto
Accidents
No Chorgo For
Rovlowlng Your Com
1-800
S42-2664
919-739-731t^
4804 PiMiHiiiilla
' ~? '
^ VINYL SIDING V
Vinyl Siding Available for ALL HOmes NSW or C/SKol
Cover the Wood Work on Brick Homes ?
NEVER PAINT AGAIN!!!
738 ? 5*4-09
ALL TYPES OF BUILDING ? REMODELING
Room Additions, Enclose Cerports ? Porches,
Install Replacement Windows, Build Garages
ROOFING
No Middle Man FREE ESTIMATES
FOR ALL YOUR HOME IMPROVEMENT NEEDS
Al's Aluminum 8
Remodeling
We Cover Homes, Comsercial Buildings S Churches I
RELIABLE ? INSURED M
Pharmacist
I A bear hug for Dad
Have you been puzzling over how to cxpreM j
your love for that ? pedal Dad on FATHER'S DAYti
this year. Whether you get him more cologne, or a
new tie,oraomethlng with a duck on it, don't forget ?
to give him aomethlng that can aleo affect hie
health...a good old bear nug.
j Medically apeaking, a good hug can cauae the
| brain to atop releaalng atraae chemlcala, and actlvataa
| a relaxation reaponae, which la healthy for Dad god
for everyone around hlml
j We aalute the Dad'a in our community thla
Father'a Day, and wlah them all the beat of health! I
j 9(t?(tH 'Assurance' ToCicy
fftrrt** 1