Olivia Schwartz
Retired elementary school principal
Lumbee
I am Lumbee¡¦. We are a group or an amalgamation of Native Americans who came together as a group along the eastern shore of Virginia in the latter part of the 1600s and gradually moved our way down¡¦ and settled on what was then the Lumbee River in Robeson County, N.C. The Lumbee people have never lived on reservations. We¡¯ve never had oversight by the federal government. We¡¯ve been very much independent. We¡¯ve always been landowners. Early on we had small farms. Many of us had four or five acres -- just enough to maintain the household.
In the latter part of the 1600s, there were many different tribes all over the East Coast, some small, some large. But there was a lot of infighting among the Natives, and there was also fighting when the Europeans came, which left some tribes quite small and not big enough to sustain themselves. They began banding together because there was strength in numbers. As people began to move inland, they picked up more and more of these smaller tribes or remnants of tribes that had been larger at one time. There was an amalgamation of cultures. Because of the amalgamation of the tribes, our languages were lost and all of us picked up the English language and many of the English ways yet maintained who we were as Native Americans, or Indians as we were spoken of in those days. The Lumbees picked up many European ways. There was a combination of things.
Every [Lumbee] family had an herb garden for medicines because we just didn¡¯t have doctors. They grew something they called the dishrag gourd, which is loofah to people today. But that was used for washing dishes [and] ones self. We made lye soap. People lived close together too and helped each other. If one person was in need, the community would gather around and help that family.
It was traditional for the Lumbees to situate ourselves in what we called settlements. The core town was pretty much in the center and around that were different groups of people who settled according to family names. My name [was] Lowry and I came from the Lowry settlement because [of] my Dad. Normally, the male would bring the bride to the settlement where he grew up. I think that¡¯s one of the things that distinguish the Lumbees: we lived [in this area] for such a long time that when you speak to somebody, they¡¯ll say, ¡°Now, who is your father?¡± and chances are they can go back generation-to-generation. It¡¯s kind of a close-knit society. When we heard the expression it takes a village, we actually had a village. Even without a telephone, ways of communicating without being face to face were amazing to me. If one of us did something wrong at school, when we got home our parents already knew about it. It¡¯s still a mystery to me, but that¡¯s how close things were.
When the census was taken for the state of Maryland, we found there are about 10,000 Natives and about 8,000 Lumbees situated around the city of Baltimore. They¡¯ve been there since just before World War II. They came there to work on the harbor and have been there since. ... Many of the younger ones have learned from the Lumbee in North Carolina. It is still home to them.
As I understand it and lived in it, the Lumbee are very spiritual people. ¡¦The Methodist missionaries, it seemed, were more accepting of us, and the way we were living, so many of us became Methodists. In my particular family, we have a long line of Methodist preachers. In the Methodist church the preacher had to be trained...in order to become a minister ¡¦ Our circuit rider¡¯s name was Chafin. My grandpa Calvin was a preacher. ¡¦ [It¡¯s written about in a history at Duke University]. ¡¦At that time there was more emotion in the church than what we see now. Native folk [were] demonstrative, shall we say, very happy, joyful, singing people. The Methodist church brought that and great orators too. The Methodist church allowed for that. It was a good fit.
In my family, we think one of the minor chiefs on the Trail of Tears was [a relative]. I haven¡¯t connected all the dots yet. In reading some of my history, I read an interview [from] the 1800s ¡¦about [a] relative John Lowry...George Lowry¡¯s brother. John spoke to the powers that be about the settlement with the Natives that led up to the Trail of Tears. Without connecting all of the dots, it represented courage to me.
There were some freed African Americans at that time -- and I must say, this isn¡¯t a very pleasant thing to say, but some of the Native Americans had slaves. They took their slaves along on the Trail of Tears. There were also some freed men who went along. But in order to go out to Oklahoma Territory, it didn¡¯t end up slave and free. Everybody was helping each other to make it out there. That¡¯s part of history. When they got to Oklahoma Territory, to the land that had been promised to the Natives, African Americans were given land as well. They settled in Oklahoma along with the Natives. Some settled near each other, some of the African Americans chose to have their own places and not intermingle with the Natives. Some did intermingle. There was intermarriage. Today we have Black Indians, and that¡¯s part of where that came from. Also, in that period of history, the African Americans were much more educated than the Natives. When they did go out to Oklahoma Territory, often they needed each other. It worked out just fine.
In the part of the country in which I grew up in North Carolina, we had a tri-racial situation [segregation of black, white and Native America. If you went into town, there were three places where you could drink water; if there were two, that meant you didn¡¯t drink water. If we went into drug stores and bought a soda, we had to stand out in the street and drink it. If there were only two restrooms, you couldn¡¯t go. If we would go into a store to shop, Caucasians would be waited on first. In other words, we suffered the same kinds of things that happened to African Americans. But the thing that was very interesting was that it was tri-racial. The African Americans stayed to themselves. The Native Americans stayed to themselves. The Caucasians stayed to themselves. There were some problems. Because of Dr. Martin Luther King, things changed tremendously.
There is a tradition among many Native American tribes that I am not here as just an individual, not just for Olivia, but I have to care about the seven generations that come after me. I¡¯m caretaker of this land, and I am supposed to honor the land, respect the land...and leave it, if not as good, then better than when I arrived because seven generations are going to come after me. ¡¦It¡¯s respect for each other and respect for ourselves. We take the gifts we have been given and we use them the way they are supposed to be used. They came from God¡¦.
The nation as a whole ¡¦has a lot of soul searching to do. Our country has such a diversity of human beings...I think we as a people need to look at each other ¡¦ and appreciate who we are, the contributions, the races, the nationalities, ¡¦ the gifts. We¡¯re going to need lots of healing... a spiritual revival ...it will happen....
Every day as I travel in my neighborhood and my community...I see roads being built, I see bridges being built. Look to see who's making those things grow -- Hispanic immigrants. They are changing the face of this country, but yet, I¡¯m I guess I¡¯m about to make a political statement, I guess sometimes this country turns its face against them. ¡¦I think many people forget, everyone except the Natives were immigrants and somehow along the line that¡¯s been forgotten by the powers that be. That¡¯s who we are. We¡¯re a country of immigrants, and I don¡¯t recall Natives ever turning any of the boats around.