"I Will Pour Out My Spirit On All Flesh"
Native American Spirituality in North Carolina
Proper 25, Year C
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Native American Congregational Life in North Carolina In the 1700’s and 1800’s, waves of European colonists pushed coastal Indian tribes into swamps and less desirable areas in eastern North Carolina while in the west, many Cherokees were forced to leave their mountain homeland for Oklahoma on the “Trail of Tears.” Racism and Jim Crow laws pushed many North Carolina Indian farmers off the land they had cultivated for years as timber companies and wealthier whites bought up titles and land rights. In eastern North Carolina, many Native Americans and those of mixed heritage attempted to conceal their racial identities in order to avoid persecution. Assimilation was a survival mechanism. This became problematic later on to tribes like the Lumbee and Meherrin in their attempts to receive state or federal recognition of their Indian heritage. One way that Native Americans in North Carolina preserved their identity and culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was through the establishment of their own schools and churches. Most were simple structures erected in the same way as a barn-raising with community members sharing the cost and labor. For example, Prospect United Methodist Church in Robeson County was established in this way in the 1870’s and grew quickly to become one of the largest Native American congregations in the country. As the number of individual churches increased, denominations established religious conferences and associations. The Burnt Swamp Baptist Association was formed by several churches in the 1870’s and became the first documented Native American religious organization in North Carolina. Native American churches, like schools, played an important role in Indian communities. Churches hosted both religious and secular activities, provided social opportunities for young and old, and became an economic safety net for members in times of trouble. The church was seen as the moral center of the community, defining accepted codes of conduct. It was a harsh punishment, indeed, to be “ex-communicated” from one’s home congregation since the church filled so many roles in community life. Ideologically, Native American churches in North Carolina were very similar to other rural churches in the deep south having been formed by the wave of Evangelical fervor that swept the country at the time, and by the end of the nineteenth century most Indian congregations were either Baptist or Methodist. Summer revivals were an eagerly anticipated annual event, and baptisms were routinely performed in the river. Although many of these congregations retain a conservative, evangelical identity, the “pan-Indian” movement of the twentieth century has made it more acceptable to incorporate Native culture and tradition into religious life. Some Cherokee congregations have adapted the ancient practice of “going to water” for use in modern worship services. “Going to water” was a traditional spiritual practice of immersing oneself in a river in order to receive physical and spiritual purification and healing. Lumbee churches have traditionally recognized individuals in the congregations with a gift for healing, particularly those who could use herbal remedies, “lay on hands” or “blow out fire,” i.e. cure burns or other injuries or sickness through blowing breath on or touching the affected person. Dollie Lowery, of Pembroke, remembers that her mother was known for such a gift, and it was recognized as coming from God. Says Dollie, “This is a way that God takes care of us.” Historical information above from Keeping the Circle: Native American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina 1885-2004 by Christopher Arris Oakley, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2005; The Lumbee Methodists: Getting To Know Them by Joseph and Lula Jane Smith, Commission of Archives and History, NC Methodist Conference, 1990. Additional information from interview conducted by Denise Cumbee Long at UNC-Pembroke, April 9, 2003.
1. North Carolina has the largest Native American population east of the Mississippi River – over 115,000 by the US Census’ 2008 estimate. NC has the fifth highest Native American population in the U.S. The Lumbee are the largest Indian tribe east of the Mississippi and ninth largest in the nation with 56,000 members. The Lumbee people live primarily in four North Carolina counties: Robeson, Cumberland, Scotland, and Hoke. According to the 2000 census, Robeson County’s population is 47% American Indian. 2. The 2000 census counted 99,600 who identified themselves as Native American only and an additional 20,000 who identified themselves as Native American in combination with another race. 3. Although American Indians live in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties, nearly three-fourths of the population lives in 11 counties, five of which are clustered in the southeastern part of the state. Forty-seven percent of North Carolina’s American Indian population lives in Robeson County (mostly Lumbee). Seven percent of North Carolina’s American Indians live in Jackson and Swain counties (mostly Cherokee). 4. There are eight state-recognized tribes among the American Indian tribes in North Carolina: the Eastern Band of Cherokee (who live primarily in Swain, Jackson, and Graham counties), Coharie (Harnett, Sampson), Haliwa-Saponi (Halifax, Warren, Nash), Lumbee (Robeson, Scotland, Hoke), Meherrin (Hertford, Bertie, Gates, Northampton), Occaneechi Band of Saponi Nation (Orange, Alamance), Sappony (Person), and Waccamaw-Siouan (Columbus, Bladen). 5. The Eastern Band of Cherokee is the only federally-recognized tribe, the only one to reside on a federal reservation, and the only group served by the Indian Health Service of the United States Public Health Service. Federal recognition allows its members to receive benefits from federally funded health-care and housing programs, as well as eligibility for a range of other aid programs administered by federal agencies including the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. departments of education, transportation, and energy. In 1956, the United States Congress passed the Lumbee Act (HR 4656) which provided federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe, but did not make the tribe’s members eligible for federal Indian services. 6. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has an estimated 13,500 members. The Cherokees, as a federally recognized tribe, operate North Carolina’s only casino, which opened in 1994 and distributed approximately $8,894 in casino profits to each member in 2006 and $9,438 in 2008. 7. The Lumbee tribe has petitioned since 1889 for federal recognition which would allow them to participate in badly needed federal programs, but the Cherokee tribe has been one of the most vocal opponents, arguing that the Lumbees should have to qualify through the Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative process which would determine whether the tribe meets the seven standards set forth for federal recognition. This process has been widely criticized as slow, arbitrary and subject to political influence. Also, the Cherokee once worried that the Lumbees, by their sheer numbers, would diminish federal money available to the Eastern Band and other tribes. In June 2007, the U.S. House voted overwhelmingly to give the Lumbee status as a federally recognized Native American tribe. 8. Like other Indian populations in the country, North Carolina’s Native American citizens continue to have serious health issues, including diabetes and substance abuse; excessive school drop-out rates; and higher-than-average unemployment and poverty rates. Effective programs for combating these issues often originate from within the tribes themselves. For example, the Lumbee tribal government, with help from the College of Design at NC State University, uses HUD grants to rehabilitate dilapidated housing and build new affordable single-family homes using designs that take into account cultural preferences for open spaces and Eastern North Carolina-style farmhouses. The Lumbee housing rehabilitation program has a waiting list of 1,195 homes in need of major repair whose owners can’t afford to fix them. The Eastern Band of Cherokees enacted a law in February 2007 that banishes from the reservation members of the tribe who are convicted of drug dealing. Similar laws have been adopted by tribes in other parts of the country, such as the Upper Sioux, the Chippewa, and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone. 9. Pembroke State College for Indians, founded in 1887 as the Croatan Normal School, was the first state-supported four-year institution for Indians in the nation. It became a member of the University of North Carolina regional university system in 1972 and is now UNC-Pembroke. 10. The Cherokee language is in danger. Of the 13,400 members of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, just 460 are fluent in Cherokee, and 72% of those speakers are older than 50. The Tribe is aggressively taking action to preserve the language through a public campaign to encourage elders to speak Cherokee to children, and a day care center, the Kituwah Immersion Academy, where the children cared for are spoken to exclusively in the Cherokee language. SOURCES 1. News and Observer, January 7, 2007, 16A; 2008 population estimates, www.census.gov; “U.S. House backs Lumbee recognition, June 4, 2009,” www.lumbeetribe.com/Press%20Room/U.S.%20House%20backs%20Lumbee% |
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