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Sat, 19 May 2007 11:24:45 -0500 |
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Harriet E. Rasnick asked,
Wasn't there a school for Native Americans in the Patrick Co
VA/Rockingham Co NC area at one time?
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Most of these type schools were for "invented" Indian tribes; ie.,
light-skinned descendants of African Americans who were free since colonial
times and had attended school and church with whites before the Civil War.
In 1885 when North Carolina was almost equally divided between Republican
and Democrat, the former free persons of color objected to attending the
segregated schools with the former slaves. Robeson County held the swing
vote for the state and had a very large population of former free persons of
color. Democrat Hamilton McMillan invented the name "Croatan Indians" for
them and allowed them their own "Indian" schools. This swung many of their
votes to the Democrats. Once Jim Crow laws were passed and the former slaves
disenfranchised, the Croatans were no longer a force in politics. Whites
started calling them the pejorative "Crows," so they changed their name to
Cherokee Indians of Robeson County in 1913, then Siouan Indians of Lumber
River in 1934-1935, and they were recognized as Lumbee Indians in 1956. They
had a three-caste system with three sets of drinking fountains, seating
areas, rest rooms, etc.
Anthropologists James Mooney and Frank G. Speck fell for this and travelled
around the Southeast "discovering" lost tribes.
Soon after the establishment of the Robeson County Indian schools, a group
called "old issue negroes" formed their own separate school in Person
County, North Carolina, on 2 February 1887. It was discontinued about 1896
but reestablished in 1901: listed as "Mongolian" through 1906, "Cuban" from
1908 to 1911 and listed as "for the Indian race" in 1912. You can find
further information with citations in the introduction to my site:
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/introduction.htm
(Use your browser to search for Lumbee and Person County)
Paul
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