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Lumbee By Grace: Landmarks in Lumbee Identity

Becky Goins Leviner: (00:02)
I'm a Lumbee.

Mike Clark: (00:04)
I am a Lumbee.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (00:07)
I am a Lumbee.

Harvey Godwin: (00:09)
I am a Lumbee.

Ragen Jones: (00:11)
I am a Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (00:12)
I am a Lumbee Indian.

Becky Goins Leviner: (00:15)
I am Lumbee.

Mike Clark: (00:17)
I am Lumbee.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (00:21)
I am a Lumbee.

Harvey Godwin: (00:24)
I am a Lumbee.

Ragen Jones: (00:26)
I am a Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (00:29)
I feel it is an act of the grace from God. I'm a Lumbee because God chose providentially that I be one. I'm proud to be one. I shall be eternally grateful that God chose this place for me in life. I wouldn't be anything else if I had a choice. Thank God

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (00:55)
I am a Lumbee, my people are the largest American Indian Nation east of the Mississippi River. Southeastern North Carolina is our home. There are more than 54,000 of us on the tribal roll. And most of us live in Robeson County, on the banks and tributaries of the river that shares our name, the dark and beautiful waters of the Lumbee River. Our identity is rooted in our Native American culture. We know who we are, and recognize our own. When we see another, Lambee in Raleigh or on the other side of the world, even when we've never met before we know each other, we may say, who's your people? Or what [side of Lockers] are you from, but we recognize our own. For centuries, we have passed on to our relations, generation after generation, the philosophy of reverence and respect for the inter woven fabric of existence. Or traditions tell us of a long history here. From our Grandparents and Great Grandparents, we learn the stories of our people, stories of courage, stories of hard work, stories of progress. We have learned many lessons in many ways we have educated ourselves. Our stories are as rich in pride and strength in humor, as our fields are in corn, and tobacco and cotton. Our farms and fields cover the land along the Lumbee. Our archaeological sites are all around us. Every one of our farmers knows where arrowheads and other ancient tools of our ancestors have been found. For as long as Native Americans have lived anywhere in the eastern woodlands. We have lived here in the Land of the Lumbee. At first we were hunter gatherers, and later will became farmers. Many centuries before non Indians came to our green homeland. We don't all work on farms these days. We are doctors and factory workers, lawyers and artist, teachers and engineers and judges and preachers and every other profession. But we all have relations near who still work on the land. We know when it is collard season and when it is strawberry season. We are great hunters and fishers. The land is a part of us. And we are a part of it. We are not all alike. We live in an intricate web of family, land and spirituality. We are part of everything. And everything is a part of us. Our churches and schools, our home places our river and swamps are the signal landmarks in the terrain of our identity. Outsiders may have difficulty seeing into the currents of history which flow in our river and our stories in our veins. But we see we know we remain I am Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (05:00)
The home and the family among Lumbee people formed that beginning of, of who they are and how their philosophies and their morals are developed. And I think that historically, Indian people, because they've been very spiritual people have, have felt very strongly to, to impress upon their children the need to be honest, and to, and to do that which is right. Indian people historically have been people of a community who worked together, who supported and encouraged each other and who sought the well being and benefit of each other. Not only as a family unit, but as a community as well. So it was important that children learn to respect not only their own homes, but their neighbor's homes as well. And I think that the value of home life has been tremendously important and has benefited to Native American people being able to maintain a sense of community, a sense of relationship to those who are around about them.

Becky Goins Leviner: (06:22)
To me being Lumbee is it's a way of life. It's not just who I am or what I do, it's, it's everything in life. I know that the people that came before me, the sacrifices they made and the things that they gave up and, and the work that they did to give me the future that I have, it's important to me, and that in itself. When you have people that are so strong and determined as your ancestors and you have that history, then you have a secure future, a path for your future and a direction for your future. And being Lumbee to me gives me that sense of security. I know where I come from, I know what other people have been through. And I know now, what I need to do to give back to ensure that my children and future generations have the same type of security and identity and self confidence in who they are that I have, within the Lumbee community, home and family seem to me and my family and my experiences to be everything. A lot of people don't understand Indian families and Lumbee families, my family in particular, there are 17 or 18 of us in what we consider our immediate family, which is what most people will consider an extended family, would most people see their grandparents or aunts and uncles on holidays or once a year, we see hours every day. And if we don't have that connection in that regular interaction with immediate family and even extended family, then I think a lot of times we feel like we lose something.

Mike Clark: (08:01)
One of the things I remember most about my childhood was the importance of family. Not only your core family, but your extended family. If someone needed something, the family was always there for you. And they no matter what it was, they will come to your aid. And I've lived in other places and I have not seen that outpouring of of help and love and care that I see in this community. I remember as a kid growing up, we didn't live on the farm, but my mom worked in the local grocery store. My dad was a school teacher. But when it came time in the summer to get fresh vegetables, they were always there for us. We didn't have to pay for it because we had family which was had farms something that I think is unique to Lumbee people is that you'll hear a lot of people call people uncle this on aunt this. And if you get right down to it, there are really no, they're not related to the people. And so the extended family can get to be quite large in that. It may not be your birth, family or blood family relations, it could be ties. Beyond that.

Ragen Jones: (09:13)
Home and family are extremely important and being Lumbee. I think that's you know, the center of every person is their home, their family, they learn the most from their family if they leave and go off to school or to work. I can't think of one person who hasn't come back home at some point in time even just for a visit.

Harvey Godwin: (09:31)
For me home and family is very important. It was brought up that way very close knit family and my mother lives in the old home place. My sister lives beside me. We both built homes out there and my cousins live across the street from us. So we still live on the original farm have heard Hillary Clinton talk about it takes a community to raise a child well. I don't know where she got that from. Maybe she got it from the Lumbees but that's what we I've always done that's what I see continuing to do. My kids, not only do I raise them because I work a lot on the road, but their grandmother helps raise them, their mother, their aunts, or uncles or cousins, everybody's involved in it. And I think that's one of the strengths of the Lumbee people that our success is due to the closeness and the way families rear their children.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (10:23)
Being the Lumbee, for me is being connected to the my tribal community, and of course, family. To me, that's one big one. When one comes into the community, the first thing they ask is, first thing they [shouldn't] ask is where does Mr. Locker live? And then we, once the introduction is made, the formal introduction is made. They usually the person they're asking directions, or who they're looking forward, they first we established the clan identification. Who's the people who's your people? Is as much Lumbee as I think as a homecoming, July 4, weekend homecoming? Who are your people? So we're all connected? But it all begins with a question Who's your people? Who's your people? So yes, family, family. Lumbee is famly defines Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (11:33)
The land in which the Lumbee live, is very fertile land, near the river and has provided good soul for farming. And at a time when Indians, for the most part depended upon the farms, not only to provide their own foods, but also to provide them jobs, and a means of income, We fortunately have been put in a very fertile place. And so the land has been important because it has provided for us not only our food, but an opportunity to work and provide for the other means that were necessary in our lives. The river has always flowed through us as, as a means of recreation, as a place to meet and fish, as a place to provide. In a number of ways I have for this, we're very grateful that we've been given the river and good fertile land around it to provide for ourselves.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (12:37)
The river is the staff has been and always will be, I think the staff that supports the people, identifies Lumbee people, her dark waters, feed our crops, give us plant life, give us food. Every body every Lumbee that has ever walked by alongside the river, or ever waited in the dark waters of the river have come away with a sense of ownership identity, a good feeling.

Mike Clark: (13:26)
If you talk to most Lumbees when they talk about home. They talk about Pembroke North Carolina, the Lumbee river, in this Robson County, and I can't tell you what the draw is about the county, the river, the land, the people. But if most Lumbees that you meet, who live away from here, they have the strong tie where they feel they have to come back quite often, in most cases, regardless of what their their profession is. They are entertaining throughout their life, the thought, When will I move back home,

Harvey Godwin: (14:05)
No matter what happened if you had your own land, you could farm or if you could raise animals, you could sustain yourself with food and we clothing and whatever else. And I think that's another part of our success. And our survival is that we had our own land without it. We couldn't we couldn't have survived because we had depend on dependent on someone else, either the government or or just handouts or whatever. And we've never been the type of hang around the four Indians because we didn't have to. And then people that did have their own land. If there were less fortunate people, they helped each other if someone's building a barn and the people their neighbors helped if they ran into trouble to help and you still see that today in where I live, it's like that. But without the land. I don't think we could have been an individual tribe the way we were or is strong because nobody can ever take that away. I think the sacredness of it just To know that the needs to be protected, just another there's a part of us. Our spirit is part of it. I think that's important enough to where they'll carry that on to future generations. And that's what's important to me.

Becky Goins Leviner: (15:11)
I think everybody needs to have some kind of connection to where they come from. And for a lot of people it's it's a homeplace. It's a house, it's a town, it's, it's something but for Lumbee people, I think, part of our identity is the land. It's the fact that we've been here, forever, we've, we've lived this land, we work this land farmed it. This is where, you know, our ancestors are buried, this is where our history and our culture grew. And the people that we are now grew out of this land, and a lot of people see the river and they see it as recreation, they see it as some nice scenery. Some people see it as a [black mist]. Some people see it as a nuisance, when the waters the rains come in, and the river swells and it washes out fields. But that's a part of our history. And that's a part of what is made Lumbee people so connected to the land is because we've lived through this, the beauty that we see every year that blossoms on that river, the tragedies that have occurred on that river, all of those things, I think work together to make the history of the people and makes the people stronger and more determined, and it gives them a foundation to grow from it gives them a connectedness to this place, and to their history, because it's always been here. And it's always been a part of the lives of the people. It's a part of our lives today. But 10, 5, 10,000 years ago, this same river in this same land was a part of our ancestors lives.

Charles P. Locklear: (17:07)
Education, I would think, next to the church has been, has been a tremendous benefit to us, in that to our, it has provided for us the means to to do well for ourselves provide for ourselves intellectually, and to give us good leadership in the schools and in the communities as well. Our ministers and all those who have served us have had the benefit of being educated. And as a result, schooling has been tremendously important to us has given every Indian child who would who would work hard the opportunity at a higher education.

Becky Goins Leviner: (17:52)
And I think our ancestors really knew that when this university was started, as the normal school, they realized that we needed teachers, we needed to educate people so that we could educate our children and our children could succeed and could compete in everyday life with with other people and other races and, and really have a strong standing a strong foundation to go out and make their mark. And I think for Lumbee people Old Main is the cornerstone of kind of their their idea of education, because Old Main is seen as a symbol of where it all started. education in general in the Lumbee community is right up there with the churches and religion. It's part of who we are. It's part of where we come from, and it's part of what we weren't so long to achieve. That. It's just who we are. It's it's what we stand for.

Harvey Godwin: (18:55)
My mother was a school teacher. My sister is a school teacher. My wife is a school teacher. My aunt's on my mother's side were school teachers. My uncles were school teachers, but that is university way back to the day of the normal school without it, they would have been school teachers. Old Main, I remember 1973 And went Old Main burn. That was during my time when I was 19 years old. I remember save Old Main and it was an issue for all of us. Very important issue.

Mike Clark: (19:27)
Education from day one was very important. I always was told and felt that if I get an education, the only thing that's going to limit what Mike Clark:does is Mike Clark:himself. So with an education, that's something once you get it, no one can take it from you. And you have that that opens doors for you. And you can do many great things. The Lumbees have made their mark in the world can I want Mark was made because of education. In that regard, when we think about Old Main, that was where my parents went to school and got their degree, their high school degree. That was the native people here saying, to the state and to the area, our people are going to be educated. So when you consider how important education is to the Lumbee people, and then you see, Old Main, it's like an icon in that, that represents where we got our start, Old Main, has to be one of the most important educational facilities for the Lumbees ever. And since we made great strides in education, I feel then it has stand up there is is a really important fact, in the Lumbee story.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (20:50)
For the Lumbe e people Old Main, and Pembroke College or their court and Indian School, was the beginning of the release from bondage. Old Main stands today as a reminder of the struggle of our early grandfathers who fought so diligently that we would be able to read, we could be able to write, we could be able to hold our own in corporate offices in the classroom, and medical facilities and courthouses, we will no longer have to be dependent upon others to read documents that were drafted for the benefit of those in power. It has meant everything. It has touched so many aspects, social, economic, political, religious, if you will, avenues, we owe a heap of debt to those who who persisted. And were able to bring about the founding of a school that we know today as University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Becky Goins Leviner: (22:31)
I think spirituality is a very big part of Lumbee identity, but I think a lot of Lumbee people look at it differently, you have several different types of spirituality. Christianity in the Lumbee community is probably the major force in the community. It's what holds the communities together. But you also have other Lumbee people who may not see an established religions such as Christianity as a part of their world, or as a total part of their spirituality. I was raised in a church I was raised to do you go to church every Sunday, and if there's a special event, you go to church on a special event, but at the same time, I was raised, traditionally as a dancer, and it was understood that, yes, you may be at a powwow on Sunday. And if you're not at a powwow on Sunday, you better be at church on Sunday morning. But for me to walk into an arena when I'm dancing, is as spiritual as to walk into a church, I believe in Christianity, and I practice Christianity, but also practice native religion as well. And for me, it's a balance of the two.

Harvey Godwin: (23:38)
Every time I see a Red Tail Hawk, something good happens that day. And, you know, some people would say, well, that's just superstition, or whatever. But to me, it definitely has some connection to me as an individual and as, as a Lumbee. Just recently, in April, 6, red tail hawks, three pairs, were flying over our house, and they flew around there for like two days, and they were amazing. And I've never seen that happen before. And a lot of good things happen to my family and, and to me professionally, immediately after that. So to me, that's a spiritual type thing, which is sort of different from religion. As far as religion is concerned, I was brought up in the church. My mother took us to church when we were kids. We were involved in the church, Baptists, and I take my kids to church. I think it's important, I think, in my opinion, that the success of the Lumbee is, has to do with it. We've always acknowledged God.

Ragen Jones: (24:38)
Religion and Spirituality both are extremely important parts of being not only Lumbee, but just Indian in general. It's like the base, the background of being Native Americans, the basis the root from everything, everything we do, can relate back to religion or spiritual beliefs and whether someone is a member of a church or It considers himself Christian. Being Native American, you have certain beliefs and certain thoughts that people people of other races don't necessarily have. But I'm just being Lumbee. In general, spirituality and religion are surely be part of it.

Charles P. Locklear: (25:14)
The organized church has been among Lumbee people for over 100 years, and historically has been the centerpiece of the community where the community revolved around the church and where the things most important took place at the church, such as weddings, and funerals, and other activities. The church has been that catalysts that kept the people together and gave the community a common place to meet, to worship the Creator, and to and to have times of fellowship and sharing when there was no other place to go.

Mike Clark: (25:57)
Church has always been there for people. That's a big part of Lumbees. And churches always reach out not just the big holidays, such as Christmas or Thanksgiving to help people. It's a continuing process that happens throughout the year. Same goes for those people who don't, who are spiritual, but don't necessarily go to a church. They view themselves as being people who are trying to be in tune with the Creator, and all the living beings and the plants and animals all day he created spirituality among the Lumbee community, whether it be with an organized group like the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian or whatever, or anyone who does the Native American spirituality is a part this integral with their daily life is not something you do on a Sunday or Wednesday. It goes beyond that it's a daily occurrence.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (26:52)
Religion is isn't an inseparable part of the round of play. For the Lumbee. There's more to religion, to the Lumbee Christian religion than then salvation. There is it goes deeper than that. It's a reason to gather to socialize. It's very It has a very strong social force. We as Lumbee people, historically have kept our hands on our work and our eyes on the Lord.

Becky Goins Leviner: (27:36)
I'm a Lumbee.

Mike Clark: (27:38)
I am a Lumbee.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (27:41)
I am Lumbee.

Harvey Godwin: (27:43)
I am a Lumbee.

Ragen Jones: (27:45)
I am a Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (27:47)
I am a Lumbee Indian.

Becky Goins Leviner: (27:49)
I am Lumbee.

Mike Clark: (27:52)
I am Lumbee.

Barbara Braveboy-Locklear: (27:56)
I am a Lumbee.

Harvey Godwin: (27:58)
I am a Lumbee.

Ragen Jones: (28:00)
I am a Lumbee.

Charles P. Locklear: (28:03)
I feel it is an act of the grace of God. I'm a Lumbee because God chose providentially that I be one. I am proud to be one. I shall be eternally grateful that God chose this place for me in life.

[End of Transcription]