Along the Robeson Trail
by Dr Stan Kmck Director UNCP's Native American Resource Center
i Note I Ills SCliinCtll w .in
co-authored by I >r I mda I
Ovendine Along with lao
week's segment and the
following lew segments it w is
published as a chapter in \ im<
American StuJi, \ m II eh,
E\l a cat i>"i W. ./ i
( ' a 11 a b a r a 111, n / / a i . n
l'niver\inc\ anil hi,:; cm m ?
\ation\. edited by -Dunne
Champagne and Ja> Stauss. >
I .ast week we began a
series which looks at the lusters
of American Indian Studies' at
the University el North ( aroliti.i
at Pembroke. I his is part two
of the series.
In order to understand the
history of the American Indian
Studies Department at the
llniversil) of North Carolina .it
Pembroke, it is important to
know a little about the history ot
the local Indian population, the
l.umbee.
'l'he modern I.umh.ee are an
amalgamation of. various
Hastern Siouan people
(including l.uttibee. ('heraw.
Waccamaw and Saponil. with
apparently smaller additional
contributions from Iroipfoian
(Tuscarora) and Coastal
Algonkian (Hattcrus) sources
(Dial anil Hliades 1975: Pierce
el al 1987). file archaeological
record in the vicinity' of
Pembroke indicates that .-alive
American people have
consistently lived along the
banks of the l.umbee River
from Paleo-lndian limes tea.
12.000 - 8.000 UC) through
Archaic times (ca. 8.000 2.000
BC) and throughput Woodland
limes (ca. 2.000 HC 1750 AD:
Knick 1988. 1992. 1993).
Native people were living here
when the first permanent white'
settlers arrived in the mid
1700s, and some of the
descendants of those Native
people chn now trace their
genealogy back to that same
I :
IHtuhI I heir history lives on in
the oral, kinship and other
iiiliur.il traditions handed down
11> in their elders.
Approximate!) 40.000 I umbee
people live in Robeson Count)
:> slav
I lie beginning ol the
I nnersitv itsell goes hack to
ihe ISSIK I wo men of the area
Hamilton McMillan, a white
politician from nearh) Red
springs, and W. 1. Moore, a
I >enl Indian minister shared
a vision about the education of
Indians residing in Koheson
Count) These men became key
players in the establishment of
the ( roatan Indian Normal
School which has evolved into
the Cnivcrsilv of North Carolina
at Pembroke.
McMillan believed that the
Indians of Robeson Count)
were the descendants of a
merger,of Coastal Algonkian
Indians ol Croaloan Island with
the survivors of John White's
(late sixteenth century) Lost
Colon) at Roanoke Island. Also
a state legislator. McMillan
introduced legislation in 1885
which would legally designate
the Indians of Robeson County
as Croatan (a word McMillan
apparently derived from the
place-name Croatoan).
At the same time the bill
sought to establish a separate
school system for the Indians.
An Indian School Committee
was created with the power to
hire teachers of their own
choosing for the schools.
However, while the Indian
community seemed appreciative
of this effort there is no
evidence that any schools were
started as an immediate result of
the new law.
I here had been no public
schools open to local Indians
since 1835. Thus in the 1880s
the illiteracy rate was extremely
high. Few Lumbee people were
qualified to teach in the Indian
schools. With this realisation.
Moore and a number of Lumbee
leaders concluded that what was
needed in order for their people
to make educational progress
was a central institution offering
studies from the elementars to
the teacher training (or normal
school) level -- an institution
which could train Indian peopleto
serve as teachers for their
own children in their own
communities. With the
assistance of McMillan in the
state legislature, a bill was
passed in 1887 establishing
what McMillan labeled as the
C'roatan Indian Normal School.
This 1887 act put the
school under the direction of an
all-Indian board of trustees. It
provided that students had to be
Indians from Robeson Count)
and at least fifteen years old.
Students also had to agree to
teach Indian people for a given
period. The legislature
appropriated $500 for the
school, but the money could
only be used to pay teachers.
No funds were allocated for the
purchase of land or the
construction of a building. In
fact, the act stipulated tnat
unless the Indians provided a
building, the law would be
repealed in the next session of
the North Carolina General
Assembly. Thus it was left to
the Lumbee people to provide
both the land and building for
their school.
Next week we will continue
looking at the history of
American Indian Studies at
UNC Pembroke.
For more information, call
or visit the Native American
Resource Center in historic
Old Main Building, on the
campus of The University of
North Carolina at Pembroke
(910-521-6282; Internet address
www.uncp.edu/nativemuseum).
The Carolina Indian Voice
published every Thursday
by First American Publications
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