The Lumbee Problem Essays -- essays research papers

The first reading was the foreword and the fourth chapter from the book, The Lumbee Problem The Making of an American Indian People, entitled, What be they trying to do now? In this reading, the author, Karen I. Blu, examines the political write up of the Indians of Robeson County, northerly Carolina and goes into detail about her findings during her visit there between 1967 and 1968. Blu argues that the political history of the Lumbee Indians was greatly affected by the relationships between them and non-Indians as well as each others perceptions of one another. The fourth chapter focuses on the Black-Indian unification that was formed during this time and the details surrounding its emergence, objectives, and achievements. Blu noted that the three item aims of the confederation were (1) the registration of non-White voters, (2) the election of non-Whites to county offices, and (3) the active participation of non-Whites in the county elected Party organization. The coalitio n was successful in their first two goals as the registration of non-White voters increase noticeably in 1968 and one humankind support by the coalition was elected. However, these successes were eclipsed by the facts that the registration of White voters also increased and the elected candidate that was supported by the coalition was a man who was also solidly supported by Whites. Despite these slight failures, the coalition succeeded in getting non-Whites to actively part...