http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/558303

The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians

This book is basically a narrative of the major personalities, experiences, and fears of the Lumbee Indians of southeastern North Carolina. A pioneering effort to record the history of the Lumbees, the book is necessarily based on "logical supposition and oral history". It attempts to answer 2 questions: (1) Who are the Lumbee Indians; and (2) What are their origins? In 1953, approximately 40,000 Indians living mainly in Robeson County took the tribal name "Lumbee" from the Lumbee River. These Indians who have never been placed on reservations, nor been wards of the State or Federal government, were formerly known by several different names: Robeson Indians; Indians of Robeson County; Croatan Indians; and the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County. Though the Indian strain is very strong in the Lumbees, they have so thoroughly adopted the white man's ways, little remains of their Indian culture. They have always considered themselves Indian, as have the white communities surrounding them. Their history is one of struggle -- struggle to gain acceptance as Indians, to escape the emasculating effects of discriminatory laws, and to join the mainstream of society as first-class citizens. A selected bibliography as well as the appendices which give a list of lost colonists, notable legislation, Lumbees in national affairs and in elective offices conclude the book. (Ah).

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