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SAMUEL PROCTOR ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM at
the University of Florida
LUM 84A
Arnold Locklear
Interviewed by Lew Barton
May 21, 1973
L: This is May 21, 1973. I am Lew Barton Interviewing for the Doris Duke
Foundation American Indian Oral History Program under the auspices of the
University of Florida's History Department, Dr. Samuel L. Proctor, Director.
Today we are privileged to be in the office of the United States Indian
Claims Commission here in Washington, D. C. where we are interviewing the
first three of five Lumbee Indian law students who have graduated this
week. Already we have interviewed two of the three law students with us
today and new we are entering into our third interview. Would you mind
telling us, sir, what your name is? I know, but we want to ask you for
the sake of our listeners.
A: Arnold Locklear. Arnold Locklear. That's A-r-n-o-l-d.
L: And what is your address?
A: Route 3, Maxton.
L: Uh-huh. You live then in what I call the prospect area, or is it a bit
farther out?
A: It would be a bit farther out and to the outer limits of the Pembroke
township and what is known as the Brook settlement, which is a short
distance southwest of Harper's Ferry Baptist CHurch. Ah...more precisely
at the junction of 17 and ah...Highway 17 and U.S. Highway 74.
L: Thank you very much. That's a very good answer and it reflects your
training, I'm sure, to be very observant. How do you feel now that
you're graduated, that you have graduated from law school?
2
A: Well, after three years it feels really fantastic to know that the
books will not have to be sought from day to day and the library will
not have to be a common environment and I'm only now looking forward to
the bar. Hopefully, that will be successful which will be in...will come
in July and assuming that's successful, I can really say that my
orientation into law, which has been a total three years in law school
will at that time in affect be behind me. But not until that time
can I truefully say that the whole law school experience is finished.
L: Well, I certainly want to congratulate you and wish you God's speed
in your profession, as I've said already. This is the field in which
our people, the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina, are desperately in
need of talent, a professional talent. And it's been inadequate in
the years gone by and sometimes not trustworthy always. We are so
happy that...for seeing five of our students graduated on time. This
is fantastic really.
A: It certainly is and as you say in our area with the Lumbee Indians,
in particular, in fact right now, as never before, though in the past
we have needed Indian lawyers in particular, now it's more prominent
or more marked than ever that we do need Indians and that decision
making positions are open. Legal problems that now directly affect
Indians as a group are being presented that need to be resolved and
it's a time in which we actually need, as I said moreso than ever,
though in the pst we have needed Indians to make such decisions, now
we do need Indians to help to solve our problems that directly affect
Indians today.
L: That's so true and this is one of the things that makes us all so happy
that...you can always expect to get sympathetic understanding from one
of our own people. Maybe this sounds a little bit prejudice and maybe
3
it is. But if it is, I guess I'll have to stand by it. I know for many
years'I've personally dreamed of the day when we would have adequate law
talent. My father always wanted me to be a lawyer, but I just didn't have
talent in that direction I suppose. Our people have long dreamed of the
time when they would have, and certainly this is going to add to it. Let's
get into your biography a bit, if you don't mind. Who are your father...
ah'..who are your father and mother?
A: My father was the late Chamis Locklear, now deceased since 1956. And my
mother is Mrs. Gretch Hatcher, and we, as I indicated earlier, live in the
Brooks settlement, and have..and that has been our home since birth. And
I hopefully, when I finish my law school experience, that is after the July
bar exam, I will be returning to that area, to perhaps raise my own
family.
L: Well, raise...you know Prospect is my old camping ground too. This is
where I was born and brought up and so we're blood brothers, I'm afraid.
Whether we likes it or not.
A: With only the Lumber River to separate us.
L: Right. And some good stuff comes out of the Prospect area
A: THat's true. It's correct.
L: I interviewed the young man several days ago, probably a cousin of yours.
But for some reason it seems to me that the Prospect community, which
is a number of Indian communities, has always been progressive, hard-
working, competitive, alert, civic-minded, all these things that
characterize our community. It was from this that the idea for the
Lumbee Recreation Center was born, wasn't it?
A: That's right.
4
L: Tell me a bit more, are you married?
A: No, I'm single yet.
L: R hlly?
A: And hopefully within a year or so after ah...as I indicated earlier
the bar exam, I hope I can find a fair maiden to be my lawful wife.
L: Well, good. Just interviewing Mr. Chavis, he's in just about the same
predicament. You don't mind this being called a predicament, do you?
A: I think it's a fortunate status.
L: I guess we may sorta disagree there. Well, no I'm kidding, of course.
But of course these interviews are a little light and serious at the
same time, because we got together and so to celebrate this singular
event in the history of our people and it's great to get together
with you guys aid it gives me a great deal of personal satisfaction
to be with allcE you and especially ...ah...by George one of the group
is from, not only the Lumbee Indian community at large, but my own
specific dear old Prospect. I love Prospect.
A: Yes, it's a you mentioned earlier, it's an area that the people
seem more or less self-determinative in the sense that they desire to
reach a goal and in the sense that they seem to be more independent
than other areas of the county or the Indian community. And I guess
this comes from our past history in that area in the sense that we
are almost one hundred percent Indian, in the sense that we never in
the past have had to in any sense of the word to fight in white community,
or the black community, because we could never look to these areas to
receive any aid or assistance. Now, therefore, I can only speculate
that we became independent by depending on ourselves and I don't know
5
that this is a correct observation, as I said I can only speculate
and it's very prevalent that people in the Prospect area are first
aggressive people and they are independent people.-And this is, as I
said, that independence it self stems from self determination.
L: Right, and now we are going to have a lawyer from the Prospect area.
Could you...Could you remember some of the leaders and other outstanding
people that come from this area? Could you name a few together maybe?
A: Well, perhaps, Mr. Moore.
L: Ah..this is Mr. Reverend Moore.
A: Uh-huh....that I helped...
L: W. R., ah...W. L. Moore?
A: That I helped to...
L: That he was the first Lumbee Indian teacher...he is the man who...
A: We have a building on Pembroke State University campus, I believe...
L: Named for him.
A: Right.
L: Moore Hall.
A: Right. THis is...Also coming from the Prospect community is Professor
Adolph Dial, now with Pembroke State University and has been for his
almost all of his professional career and been a significant leader in
Indian
the/community. And ah...
L: How about Mr. Harvard Moore?
A: Harvard Moore is now with the Robertson County Board of Education
and will be a significant input in policy decision on the county
level for the Lumbee Indians in particular.
L: Yea, and you know, remember, I believe, if I'm not mistaken and correct
me if I am, that it seems to me that this is where the Lumbee Recreation
6
Center was born. Tbis is where the idea took root and was born. This
was a great recreational facility which was erected several years
ago at the cost of a million dollars or so.
A: Approximately, and singly Mr. Lester Bullard from the Prospect com-
munity was a significant figure in that and helped to bring about
significant leadership and direction to the purpose of, ah...to the
project as a whole. At the same time coming from the Prospect community
we have a county commissioner, Mr. Herman Dial, who now, as I said
would be the ah...ah...the commissioners, Robertson County Commissioners
and all this represents considerable leadership.
L: Oh, yes. It does, indeed. Can you think of anymore?
A: The only thing I can say or mention further, off the top of my mind,
is you, Mr. Barton. You've contributed significantly in expressing
the voice of the Indian. I make that "Indian," of Robertson County
in expressing the views and opinions of the really nitty-gritty, if
I can use that term indiscriminately, opinion of the Indians as a
group in newspaper editorials and different periodicals and means of
communication that have outside the Indian community expressed our
inner feelings, I might say.
L: Well, I'm certainly am appreciative of those kind words. I don't feel
that I've done all that much, but however much or however little we've
been able to accomplish, it was with the help of our Indian people and,
of course, naturally we are glad to do whatever we can. These people,
in and around Prospect, as opposed to people in other parts of the
Indian community, and when we say Indian community at large, we mean
a large Indian community, don't we?
A: We mean approximately 40,000 people scattered across the radius, I
guess you might say of approximately of about 30 to 35 to 40 miles
radius.
7
L: Right, and Prospect is about the center of that settlement, you might
say...the Indian settlement.
A: It could be referred to sometimes as a nucleus, or not necessary...it's
not necessarily a nucleus, a hard core, 100 percent Indian community.
This is to the exclusion of blacks as well as whites.
L: Right. You can travel in any direction you like and you can go for
miles and miles and miles and you never see anybody but Indian families.
A: That's correct.
L: People are surprised to newspaper reporters and the like when they
ride through and find that this is so. They were actually in Indian
territory. And here is where it all is.
A: And it's...
L: This is the center.
A: And another unique feature of this area is the dialect that sometimes
astonishes people. That an Indian community within an Indian community
is markedly different in dialect.
L: Yes, and I think you and I reflect that somewhat don't you?
A: And with our conversation here tonight, it's basically compatible. Even
in psychology almost. I anticipate basically what in the Indian sense
of the word we're...as the conversation involved we might say almost.
And, of course, with the speech aspect itself as pronounced as it is,
it's really different and it's almost an Indian community, as I said
earlier, within an Indian community. And we here tonight with our friends
are separate from them, or not necessarily separate, but dialettically,
if I can use that term, not separate in the sense that we are alike
as opposed,,,or different from our other Indian friends that are Lumbees.
8
L: Uh-huh. Isn't that...I think that's very interesting. At least it is
to us, isn't it?
A: It certainly is.
L: Have you worked hard on trying to get rid of your Prospect accent? You
can ask me the same question too if you want.
A; Well, definitely not cause I'm proud of my heritage and the past,...well
within the past several years I've become to appreciate moreso than ever
my heritage. And at this point I'm actually trying to preserve as opposed
to destroy or do away with that which has made me. So I feel that I have
been so fortunate to have been made by my background, it would be an injustice
at this point to do away with that foundation that my whole life is based
on.
L: Right. I know what you mean, you know, being an English student, I tried
to polish up a bit, but I've never lost that, you know, Prospect accent.
And like you, I'm proud of it. I can hear anybody who speaks from our
own area and I know immediately if he's from Prospect or if he isn't.
This is something I can detect within the Indian community itself. A
friend of mine who is a girl and who belongs to another ethnic group
mentioned to me recently several...what she calls Lumbeeisms. I want
to quote this "Lumbeeism" to you and see if you remember hearing it used.
It's the word bes. For example, a girl sitting at Pembroke State
University said recently, "If this test bes as the test we had yesterday,
I don't know how I'm gonna past it." Now if it bes.
A: I've heard that term along with many other terms that are prevalent
in our area that I've never heard generally spoken in other areas,
and sometimes I, in looking at those and looking at some of the
9
historical or history books that I've read trace these things all the way
back to the early settlers that came over from John White's Lost
Colony from the Elizabethan English and it seems that the area in Prospect
in particular has been isolated to the extent that this area has
maintained more or less that culture, not necessarily culture but speech
pattern that came over from the old country, the old English in other
words.
L: Right.
A: And, I can see these things today more pronounced in the Prospect area
than any other area in the Indian communities or in the Prospect com-
munity, that is.
L: Right, and this word be, i.e.: "When I get home I be so tired, I can
hardly hold one...move one foot before another, I'm so tired. I
be so tired." Now, this is just one of many expressions like this.
Isn't it? Have you heard the word, for example, for porch? Have you
ever heard porch called by some other name besides porch?
A: That's the only term in Robertson County that I've ever heard it
referred to as is.
L: Well, I've heard it call piazza in some places. Tension for measurement
and things like this. We are gradually losing these things, aren't we?
A: That's true. I guess it might be the acculturation from of course...well,
naturally the acculturation from surrounding non-Indian origins. And
I believe that now would be the desire to preserve our heritage. It's
more important than ever that we maintain these things in the proper per-
spective.
L: Uh-huh. And not be ashamed of them. But you know, we've been taught
by formal education that, of course, we were to get away from these
things and improve our speech and so on. Of course, this is good, but
10
we still want to remember our Lumbeeisms, don't we?
A: That's correct.
L: Our Elizabethans, if you want to call it that. You know, for example,
I don't know...I doubt if this is a Lumbeeism, it's...well, it's probably
and Indianism as opposed to an Elizabethanism and that is the word you
use for measurement, that's mension. We say mension sometimes instead
of measurement. And if you're looking for something which means placed
up on the wall, for example, a picture, you say it's either barsome
or it's kinda whepsome. Have you ever heard those before?
A: I--those are common terms from my community.
L: Do you know what they mean?
A: Well, generally, the placement of the picture itself or the angle of the
picture itself.
L: Right, and if it's barsome, it means that it's flushed with the wall
and it's generally considered to be straight, but if it's kinda whoppin,
it's crooked, isn't it?
A: That's the general concept.
L: (Laugh) But these things are very interesting. Near the Prospect area
is a swamp, a great swamp which for many years was almost inpenetrable.
You could walk for, ah--oh gosh--hundreds of yards actually without even
touching ground because the growth, the undergrowth, was so thick. And
this was sorta a fearsome sort of swamp. And we would call it Beckusus
Bay. I've never known quite how to spell it, but I try to spell it the
way it sounds--B-e-c-k-u-s-u-s. Maybe you could give me a better
spelling for that. Is this the way you've always heard it?
11
A: That's--I believe I read in your book that term. Or if not in your
book, in some of your writings.
L: But you do know the bay I'm talking about, don't you?
A: Generally.
L: Yes, I know. That by--Mr. Will Locklear has cleared an enormous portion
of that bay, which in my early lifetime was inpenetrable, and he has
the richest, I daresay it is the richest, farm soil in this county, you
know. Our people are hardworking people, they don't mind tackling any-
thing. They work so very hard, for example, being brought up on the
farm in my early childhood. Sometimes I plowed all day for fiftycents
and I was darn lucky if I got that, but I was never any good at picking
cotton. I have never been able to pick 200 pounds of cotton in my life,
but I know people in the Prospect area who could do better than 500
pounds a day. Have you ever heard of one person picking 500 pounds of
cotton?
A: Not in particular. I know my mother, she's been and has picked as much
as 400 in one day.
L: Uh-huh.
A: But it has been said and I've heard through rumor, or by rumor of people
that had picked as much as 500.
L: Do you know Mrs. Alice, Mrs. Alice Bullard, well she was a Bullard before
she married...
A: Oh, yes...
L: ..and now is a Harris. Well, she---she has picked that much, I mean,
I've heard that very often, you know, from her own family that she picked
better than 500 pounds of cotton. And if a woman can do this...well, all
12
these things are unusual, aren't they, I mean...
A: And it seems as if we are from an unusual area in itself.
L: Right, and we've been isolated largely, a community that has been
isolated to the extent that we have preserved a lot perhaps of our
loyalty to each other. How about the tendency of the neighbors of the
community.
A: This has been...
L: Pitching together and helping each other, even now.
A: This seems to be more or leas a general trait in the area, even today,
other
as opposed to the/areas or Indian areas in the county. Our area in
itself has been isolated as we indicated earlier and even the school,
Prospect School and the other schools, elementary school and the
high school, it seems to be more or less a family kind of school,
a family of the community as a whole as opposed to a family by blood
line in itself and as sometimes referred to as 1.
but it trans...it goes through one, the bloodline and the community
as a whole itself is really together or in a fabric or framework you
might say. A mutual, a mutuality, and you do not find so much
division in the county. It's more or less in the group, the Prospect
group, it's more or less a clandescent kind of group of people. This is
the best way that I could possibly characterize the Prospect community,
is to say that it's in essence a clan kind of a group of people.
L: Right, the community is very closely knit, isn't it?
A: That's correct.
13
L: And they have a tendency to stick together in a clannish way. If
somebody is sick in the community, somebody is going to visit them
and sit up with them, if need be, bring them food, whatever. If
somebody butchers hogs, then the Prospect people have just about always
as they called it lived at home and boarded at the same place.
In other words, they raised a great deal of what they used, in the
garden and in the, you know, meats too, hogs and cows and chickens
and eggs.
A: So we have been an independent group of people.
L: Right, and they take pride in this. Whenever theirs something to
be done of a community nature, there even today, you find that people
sticking together, as they call it. I went by Prospect Methodist
Church, which is one of the finest churches in the county, as far as
the cost of the building and it's a fine building, brick building,
and they were raising money for something and I don't remember just
what it was, but people were coming along and they were writing
checks and they were doing this so freely as though it was something
they were doing for their own family and people would pull out a check-
book and write a hundred dollars and the guy who was taking the checks,
a friend of mine, I won't mention his name, but he was always, you know
he's been very good about things like this, about raising money. Now
are you going to give me a hundred dollars and walk away from here,
you know, and probably he'd end up getting $150 or more, you know, for
the church. You know, now look, this is for the church. And that's
about all he'd have to say, and you know, they shelled out more money.
Whatever it takes you know.
A: I believe this stems from a deep rooted sense of responsibility that's
in areas developed that's not questionable as to the purpose to be attained
by any funds that are contributed. It's a sense of trust and responsibility
14
that the group as a whole reposes in each other and the people
that accept this position assume the responsibility and it's almost
unquestionable that his performance will be commensurate with the
responsibility.
L: Right.
A: And it's a deep rooted sense of trust that has stemmed from this
area. And you generally don't find it in other areas and even in
areas outside the Prospect area in the Indian communities, you generally
don't find it. It's sorta unique that you do find it in this particular
area. Perhaps I am subjectively biased in making these statements.
L: Uh-huh. Well so am I perhaps, but these are the facts as I see them.
A: Right.
L: If somebody is sick, somebody's always going to come around and bring
some food or whatever. If somebody butchers a hog, or hogs, as they
do quite often, it isn't anything to share that meat with the neighbors,
you know. Even now, and perhaps this is the way it was done in the
overall Indian community yesterday, but much of the Indian community
have gotten away from this togetherness, but there's a sweet part of
it that still remains in the Prospect area even today and this just
does my heart good. How about you, does it make you feel good?
A: It really makes me feel good in the sense that I believe that in other
areas of our country and state and even county, the Prospect community
has found a way in contemporary times to adjust to changing needs and
at the same time maintain the community responsibility for taking care
of the community. Whereas in other areas of the county, or the state
and the nation at large, that means of perpetuating the community interest
itself as we have done in the Prospect area has not been maintained.
15
L: That's right.
A: And I don't know if it's an inate ability or if it's been by sheer
luck or whatever, but seemingly we have been able in that area to
exist in modern day society, and at the same time continue that
close nitty responsibility of taking care of our fellow man and
our immediate community. It's been a basic aspect of the Prospect
community in my lifetime and in times before me. And I'm just
glad to see that, that ah...it's a product or an element that exists
now that has been and hopefully it will ever continue to be. Though
I find this sense of looking after your neighbor in other communities
has disappeared.
L: Right.
A: And I don't know if it's genius on our part from our community, or
sheer luck, or whatever. But thank God we still have it there.
L: We've got the old human touch there, haven't we?
A: That's correct.
L: And we wouldn't think about anybody going hungry. In our community we've
heard about that...if somebody's heard about that, they'd get up at the
midnight hour and walk over there and carry them some food.
A: If this is an evil aspect of being clandescent, I wish to continue that
evil aspect if that's how you catagorize it.
L: Right. Right. I think this is a very human thing and people are so warm
and human that even, you know, when they...they have the most fantastic
gardens in that area too still that I know anything about. When you go to
a family's home and you're there during the lunch hour, they never cook
just enough for their own family or for that meal, they always cook enough
food so that anybody else that chances along will have food too and they
16
can eat. It's sorta a disgrace for a woman to cook just enough for
her bare needs. Do you bear me out on this?
A: I will bear you out on that and add to that, sorta expand on it, by
saying that the whole, the whole Prospect area is almost a self-sustaining
community in itself. Now if you go to the educational sense, educational
realm, Prospect school in particular is basically made up of the people
from Prospect community. As opposed to other areas within the Indian
realm, like Furgrouph, for example, the teachers that basically make up
Furgrouph come from Pembroke or the Prospect area to commute all the way
twenty to twenty-five miles away to the Furgrouph area. The same thing is
applied to Magnolia, wherethe teachers basically, the majority of the teachers,
commute from Pembroke or the Prospect area all the way up to the Magnolia
area to teach school on a day to day basis. But the Prospect area in itself,
the Prospect area in general is like I said a self-sustaining community.
This, it seems as if from this area, the development was early in time
and at the same time, as I mentioned earlier, the area has kept or maintained
extensive stability in its resistance to change and even down to the basics,
you might say, to looking after their fellow man. Really I can look at the
Prospect area and appreciate it from many points or view, and the fine leadership
that has come from the area. We have two lawyers hopefully from that area,
Chavis that graduated this year from,...ah, not Chavis, but ah...the Locklear,
Bullard, next year, that will graduate from Miami University is from Prospect,
and of course, my self, this year. Hopefully we will have two lawyers coming
from that immediate area.
L: Right.
A: And I don't know, I can't at this point designate other professionals that
will come from that area in particular, but I'm sure others could be
singled out.
17
L: Do you think this is why, you know when the desegregation, so-called
desegregation plan, was put forth by the Robertson County board of
education in 1970 and accepted by HEW, which we condemned, which I
personally condemned as being as bogus as a nine dollar bill. Do you
think the resistance we found in the Prospect area to this bill, I mean
this so-called desegregation plan which was not fair or considerate of
the Indian community, most Indian people felt. Do you think this is why
Prospect, and say the Oxedine area, which we remember as the Cherokee
captial area, do you think this kind of spirit is why we resisted that
and actually instituted court action. There were students, whether
this was wise or unwise, who sat in their own classrooms throughout
the entire year. This was the center of resistance.
A: That's correct and I believe that at the time the decision was made
to make such policy changes there was never contemplated the resistance
would come from the Prospect area in particular. There was never anticipated
that the resistance would be long and continuous. There was never anti-
pated that recent court decisions would eventually leave the Indian
people in general in the county of Robertson open to form a coalition
with the blacks and eventually as I foresee control the political machinery
within the county, but what I'm saying is that moves that were brought on
or the moves that were made by the white people at that time control actually
instigated or initiated a direct consolidation of effort on the part of
the Indians throughout the county and the basic core of leadership came
from the Prospect community and from the Pembroke community and you had a
consolidated effort on their part at that time and with that developing a
formative movement it now has progressed into what we have today which is
a coalition in essence which I foresee will eventually control the
18
total county government for Robertson county. But as you look at the leadership
and the county government, you have a representative from, as I mentioned
earlier, a representative from the Pembroke township and his status in
the legislature much influenced him from the Prospect area to help place
him there. At the same...this is on the state government level, and at
the same time on the county level we have a county commissioner, Mr.
Herman Dial, and also we have Mr. Harvard Moore, as I mentioned earlier,
on the board of education. But this is only another crust of the leader-
ship that has come from the Prospect area. But the dominant movement
in itself comes from the base or the majority of the people that have
persistently fought for Indian rights which in essence a substantial part
of the momentum for Indian rights has come from the Prospect area.
L: Right, now there's another interesting thing true about Prospect and
that is,...one is this, that the Lowry Trail, the old Lowry Road, which
was later adopted by the state, or the state road and the state.....
SIDE TWO OF THE TAPE WITH MR. LOCKLEAR
L: Mr. Locklear, as we were interrupted then with the tape, I was pointing
out another interesting characteristic about our mutual community where
you and I were brought up and that was in connection with the Lowry Road.
L-o-w-r-y...which was an old Indian trail built very many, many, many years
ago by ....
A: By Mr. James Lowry?
L: Yes, yes, that's right. By Mr. James Lowry. Thank you and this road was
an old Indian trail as I said. And it ran all the way to Roanoke Island,
North Carolina, which is the location of the place where the English
colonists of.1587 were landed. As a matter of fact, the three colonies
19
of Sir Walter Raleigh landed at Roanoke Island...and in 1584 the exploratory
colony, in 1585 the colony which became discouraged and returned to England,
with Sir Francis Drake, and in 1587 the so-called Lost Colony under Governor
John White, which never returned and which actually and in fact the first
colony, the first English colony to remain permanently in America.
OK. The old Lowry Road led and parts of it still exist and you know
parts of it as I said were taken as a state road. But those parts are
still there, the old road is still there, but this road led to Roanoke
Island and it led from Prospect to Roanoke Island. Now I think this
is very significant. Mr. Locklear, I hate to get away from the Lost
Colony theory because we could expound on that for hours and hours, but
at this point in my interview, I like to ask all my interviewees now this
question. If it were possible for you to rub an Aladdin's lamp and
instantly the genie appeared and said okay, change anything you want to
change about Robertson County. What would you change?
A: I guess I might wish to change the contempt or ridicule and scorn that
now is perpetuated on those that express a belief that's not compatible
with what others in the county would believe to be the true expression of
all the Indian people. Generally, I would want, or wish to see the understanding
just the relaxed atmosphere of understanding as opposed to a quick conclusion
that one is wrong for a 1 in the belief. I would like to see
in general some realistic thinking and though people have different ideas
or beliefs, Irould wish to see that there would be some kind of compromise
right now and possibly a solution, if only a temporary solution until a
permanent solution to many of our immediate problems or for many of our immediate
problems. So that eventually we can, if we have to take small steps now,
we can one day take giant steps forward. But to put it in a nutshell,
I would like to see more understanding in our own county among our own
20
Indian people and respect for different Indian beliefs in our own community,
you might say.
L: Well, that certainly is a great wish and it's my prayer that someday this
wish may be fulfilled and I believe in time, it will be. You've been
very kind to give us this interview and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I
almost forgot it was an interview at several points along the way and
we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, didn't we?
A: We certainly did.
L: This is the way it usually happens when one Prospecter meets another.
Right?
A: Yea, with a cup of coffee we can do marvelous things.
L: Right, and on behalf of the University of Florida's history department
and the Doris Duke Foundation's Averican Indian Oral History Program,
I want to say thank you so much for you have provided us with a wonderful
interview which has contributed much to our general store of knowledge
about the most interesting people in this whole world, the Lumbee Indians
of North Carolina.
A: Thank you.
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