Carolina Indian
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I'OLl'ME 2V XI MUER 3 THURSDAY, JAM ARY 17. 2002 v>
Little Miss Lumbee
Brandi Chavis
Little Miss Lumbee Brandi Chavis
Once I wished upon a star and on July 4th 2001 that wish came true. I was
chosen to represent the Lumbee Nation as the reigninu Little Miss Lumbee
2001-2002. I immediately thought of the parades that I would have the opportunity
tq ride in. however, as die year progressed riding in the parades was
nothing compared to the opportunities that awaited me. It has wanned my
heart to see the love of the people with open anns as I traveled throughout the
south representing the Lumbee Nation at pow-wows. churches, schools, parades
and other events. 1 he most joy that I have receiv ed from rtiy reign is to
see the children I meet at events who are smiling and want only a hug or a
chance to just touch my dress. In my mind and heart I am thinking that we are
all special in the eves of Gqd. so I try to make everyone feel special too. in
some way. This is the greatest joy of being Little Miss Lumbee.
I have traveled to fifteen schools in Robeson County, parade after parade,
pow-wow after pow-wow. north and south. On the lonely roads going home at
night I look at the tired look on my mother's face and think "to mvself. no
matter how far we go, TFiERE'S NO PLACE UKJ2HOME. LUMBEE LAND.
HOME OF MY PEOPl.E. As I've put on my regalia and dressed up in my
fancy dress to go to special events, often I have felt like Cinderella dressing
up for the ball. When I close my eyes I think: how soon it will be over. The
places I ve gone and the people I've met will stay in my heart forever. I don't
count the visits. I don't count the days, I just wake up and look in the mirror
and say. "I'm Little Miss Lumbee and today is a special day." If I'm asked to
sing, dance, or go to a special event. I do it with pride. I do it for the people I
represent. YOU. There have been times that I went to bed tired and woke up
sleepy, but I remember what my mom said, " for everyday that you awake is a
day you are blessed and God will send you out today so do your best."
I have visited nursing homes and I have seen love, joy, grief, and despair. I
have found that by showing a little love for others, it will brighten up the
darkest day. The youth can make a difference to the elders of our nation, they
can make them feel young again by just giving them a little bit of their time
each day. Just to see their eyes glow like a big Christmas tree is worth it all to
me. These are things I will always cherish as the best times of my reign.
I pray for God each day to keep our people safe and help us all live as one.
Even it you are not of the Lumbee Nation, you are God's children and you are
still my people. We are all one in the eyes of God. May God help guild us to
be the light of the world: that vve may shine the light of Love, Peace, Joy, and
Happiness.
I'm just a little girl, but my eyes see all. my ears hear the voices of the elders
of pur nation. Teach us to be wise, turn us down the right paths. But most of
all love us.
1 would like to give thanks to my mother and father.' grandparents, and
sponsors for making this a dream to always remember. Thank-y ou. LRDA for
helping a little girl's wish come alive. But most of all thank you. the Lumbee
people for accepting me: little me. for being me.
Again, proudly representing the ninth largest tribe in the United States and
the biggest east of the Mississippi River. I am your reigning Little Miss Lumbee
2001-2002. Brandi Rcnee Chavis.
lfyou need me to entertain or make an appearance, please contact me through
LRDA. Ms. Angel at (910) 521-8602. oral home (910) 272-0283.
With the greatest honor and love
May god Bless Us All
Your reigning Little Miss Lumbee
Brandi Renee Chavis
Pembroke Area Chamber of Commerce
to Hold Annual Awards Banquet and
Awards Program
The Pembroke Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual banquet
Saturdav. January 26 at the Chavis University Center at UNC-Pembroke.
The program will include presentations by outstanding speakers and business
leaders with the program theme of "A Salute to America".
Tony Normand.CEO. ofCOMTech. the Carolina Commerce and Technology
Center that is under development near Pembroke, is the guest speaker.
According to Ben Jacobs. President of the Pembroke Chamber, the program
will also give special recognition to area veterans and area business leaders.
The Banquet will honor the Chamber Business of the Year which is
Healthkeeperz (formerly Pembroke Drug Center' Tl.C Home Health Care
Agency). Ben Jacobs said. "Mr. Howard Brooks, the owner of Healthkeeperz.
is an outstanding leader in our community who has done much to improve
commerce and the quality of life in our area. He has an outstanding business
and we wish to learn more about his success."
New members of the Board of Directors will be installed as part of the
dinner program. The program will also feature special entertainment with a
patriotic spirit. A dance will follow the dinner program.
Jacobs said we encourage the Chamber members to contact the Chamber
office or officers to get your banquet tickets or place a reservation. Ticket
sales have been brisk and seating is limited. Please contact Ron Brown, Angie
Revels, or Ben Jacobs for tickets or call the Chamber office at 521-0647 to
request reserved tickets.
The officers of the Pembroke Area Chamber of Commerce include: President.
Ben Jacobs: Vice-President. Teresa Cutnmings: Treasurer. Ron Brown:
Secretary. Angela Revels: Executive Director. Brian Brooks.
For additional information contact Ben Jacobs 521-8602.
Mclntyre Announces $150,000 for
Robeson County Public Library
Washington. D.C.? U. S. Representative Mike Mclntyre announced today
that the Robeson County Public Library has received SI50.000 in federal
funds for renovation to the library.
Congressman Mclntyre stated. "The library belongs to everyone, and everyone
will benefit from these improvements. The is great news for the citizens
and children of Robeson county, and the money comes just in time for
Christmas! Our library is always at the forefront of positive change, and this
grant will continue that tradition. Congratulations to Bob Fisher, the executive
Director, and the Board of Trustees."
The United States Department of Agriculture has awarded the library a
$150,000 grant to renovate the public library to include replacement of the
heating and air conditioning systems. Mclntyre also cited Jerry Batten and
Irma McPhcrson for their work with USDA's Rural Development Division on
this project. '
Congressman Mclntyre is a member of the House Agriculture Committee.
I
Evita Saybrianna Sanderson has ended her 2001 year of pageantry
with another win, for a total of more than 20 throughout
the year.
Evita was crowned as the Princeton Christmas 0-6 Majestic winner.
She also won Photogenic, Christmas Wear, Best Smile, Best
Hair, Prettiest Eyes, Best Dressed, Most Beautiful, Natural Beauty,
Personality, aqd Best Model in her age group. She also tied for
Overall Christmas wear and Overall Congeniality,
Evita is the 4 1/2 year old daughter of Sabrina Sanderson and
Michael Floyd. The granddaughter of Sylvia L. Sanderson and
the late James Edward and HUry Francis Floyd. The great granddaughter
of the late Gus Howard and Eva Mae Locklear and the
late Ira and Nancy Sanderson.
First Birthday, First
Snowfall for Brannagan
Happy Birthday la Brannugan Kai Lock/ear who turned / yr. old Jan. 5,
2002. His parly was held al Pembroke first Baptist Church.
His theme for the purly was Clifford the Big Red Dor. lie is the son of
Billie Jo and BrannaRan l.ocklear.
Thanks to all that made his party a Rreal one.
Purnell Swett High School News
YCA members (pictured from left to right), Byron Locklear, Connie
Scott, Aaron Lowry, coordinator Connie Locklear, Jessica Graham,
Phillip Oxendine, and Candice Lowry show off the "goods"
donated by PSHS students, faculty, and staff during the Thanksgiving
food drive for the needy.
r
Faye Caton to Chair Southeastern Regional
Medical Center Foundation Board
I.uckcy Welsh. president and CEO
of Southeastern Regional Medical
Center, announced "the election of
I aye C Caton to lead the SR.MC
Foundation Board
"Faye Caton has served on the
loundation Hoard lor the past tour
years. and we are vers fortunate that
she has stepped forward to take on
this new leadership role." Welsh said
Caton is a firm believer in both
physical fitness and raising money for
worths causes. Last November, she
combined both these personal passions
when she and her daughter
raised SI0.000 to benefit the American
Diabetes Association by walking
more than 26 miles in a marathon
held in Bermuda.
"I believe in setting goals and then
working to accomplish them. " she
said.
A native of Georgia. Caton is a
nurse by training. She attended Georgia
State University and earned her
nursing degree from the Piedmont
Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta.
Since 1978 she has lived in
l.umbcrton and recently retired from
the family business after 23 years of
service.
She serves on the Friends of the
Library Board of the Robeson
County Public Library and is a member
of the Lumberton Ladies' Racquet
Club. She chaired an SRMC
Foundation Gala in 1995 that raised
more than S32.000 for the Southeastern
Cancer Center and health care
scholarship loans. She attends St.
Francis de Sales Church.
She is married to Bob Caton. president
and CEO of F.agle Distributing
Company . They are parents of two
grown children. Karen Granger of
Lumberton and Bob Caton Jr. of At
lama.
"It is quite an honor to be associated
with the SRMC Foundation
Hoard." Caton said. "Pin very excited
about the progress we have made w ith
the capital campaign to help fund the
Patient Bed l ower and expansions and
renovations of Emergency Services
and the Cancer Center Our goal is to
support SRMC so that the highest
quality of health care is availabFe for
all the citizens of this community "
Other members of SRMC Foundation
board are: Larry Chavis. Claude
Fulghum. Dixon Gerber. M.D.. Jerry
Johnson. Raymond Johnson. Randall
Jones. Doris McCormick. John
McLean. Anne McQueen, Stephen
Royal. M.D.. Lisa Rust. Hal Sharpe.
Horace Stacy Jr.. David Walker and
Coble D. Wilson Jr.. M. Carr Gibson
and Hector MacLean serve as Trustees
Emeriti.
,w. Lumbee River pund
The Significance of Lumbee Dialect
by Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Professor, NC State University and
Lumbee River Fund Advisory Committee Member
For almost a decade now, linguists from the North Carolina
Language and Life Project have been studying Lumbee dialect. Over 20
articles, theses, and books have been written during this period, including
several by residents of the community. In addition, a major museum exhibit
has been constructed and a TV documentary has been aired featuring
"Lumbee English." Such extensive attention to Lumbee language may seem
strange to those who take their everyday speech for granted. Why is llumbee
language so interesting, and what do these studies tell us? And what
difference does it make?
LumbeeEnglish represents the case of a unique cultural dialect that
is closely linked with etjinic identity. As Hayes Allen Locklear put it, "That's
how we recognize wlio we are...we know just who we are by our language."
Detailed linguistic investigation of a wide range of pronunciation,
grammatical, and vocabulary features, and listener ratings of speech samples
clearly support what most Robesonians already know?it is often possible to
identify a Lumbee based solely on speech. In a master's thesis by Renee
Hammond of Saddletree, she reports about an experiment in which she played
12 anonymous speech passages of 20-30 seconds to listeners from Robeson
County?four Lumbees, four African Americans, and four European
Americans. The results showed that over 80 percent of the time, Robeson
County residents could correctly identify a Lumbee based exclusively on
speech.
So what is the significance of this seemingly obvious finding that
there is a Lumbee dialect of English? Language is one of the most natural and
significant symbols of cultural behavior. If there are important cultural
differences, language will unconsciously follow. In the case of Lumbee
language, distinctive language behavior persisted despite constant institutional
efforts to repress and obliterate any cultural distinctiveness, including the
extermination of the Lumbce's ancestral language or languages.
In many respects, speech is symbolic of Lumbee status as a Native
American tribe and the struggle to maintain a steadfast sense of Indian identity
while challenging conventional stereotypes. Perhaps no term is more
indicative of the Lumbee language situation than the term Lumbee itself.
Many outsiders assume that this term is simply an invented word made up in
the 1950s, but Stanley Knick. in The Lumhee in Context: Toward an
Understanding, shows that this term was recorded much earlier. Pirthermore.
the Lumber River was once referred to as the Lumbee River. After examining
the possibility that the term Lumbee may have come from a Native American
language, Catawban-Siouan language specialist Blair Rudes speculates that
Lumbee derives from a coastal dialect form of Catawban meaning "bank of a
river," originally pronounced something like yahmp-bee (though it is
impossible to give equivalent sounds in English)..
It cannot simply be concluded, as some have done, that Lumbee is a
recent innovation taken from the word lumber. It is just as easy, and perhaps
more realistic, to suggest that European Americans took the Native American
name for a river and people. Lumbee. and assumed that it was related to the
term lumber in a process linguists call FOI.K ETYMOLOGY. In this process, a
word is rcintciprctcd so that it makes sense in terms of existing words. It is
not far-fetched to suggest that European Americans may have taken the
indigenous term Uanhee 'bank of trie river' and modified it into a word that
matfe sense to them?lumber. Whatever its historical roots might be, it is
clear that the term Lumbee is not simply a recent innovation and that it has
come to be associated exclusively with the Native American community
strongly connected to the river.
Like the term Lumbee itself, the language has shown creative
adaptation. That the symbolic role of language has shifted from an ancestral
Native American language to a distinctive dialect of English is a testament to
the linguistic adaptability, resiliency, and vitality of the Lumbee language
community?ana the Lumbee people.
upcoming Events (f0r more information, please contact Malinda
Maynorat mmaynor@nc.rr.com, or Hatty Miller at 521-1511 or
redmoon 1239@cs.com):
Storytelling Workshop, Saturday. January 19. 10:30-12:30 pm. Indian
Education Resource Center
"Celebrating the Past?A Pictorial History of 1INC Pembroke" exhibit
opening, February 10, 3-5 pm. Mezzanine Level, James B. Chavis Student
Center