Lumbee

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina numbering approximately 55,000 enrolled members, most of them living primarily in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland and Scotland counties. The Lumbee Tribe is the largest state tribe in North Carolina, the largest state tribe east of the Mississippi River, and the ninth largest non-federally recognized tribe in the United States. The Lumbee take their name from the Lumber River which winds through Robeson County. Pembroke, North Carolina, is the economic, cultural and political center of the tribe. The Lumbee Tribe was recognized as a Native American tribe by the United States Congress in 1956, under conditions that it agreed to at the time, which did not allow them to have benefits available to other federally recognized tribes. According to the 2000 United States Census report, 89% of the population of the town of Pembroke, North Carolina, identify as Lumbee; 40% of Robeson County's population identify as Lumbee.
The Lumbee are one of eight state-recognized Native American tribes in North Carolina; they have been recognized by the state since 1885. They participate at the state level in many ways, including in the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. They also participate in such national organizations as the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Education Association.
History.
Early historical references.
Archaeological evidence reveals that the area now known as Robeson County (central to modern Lumbee territory) has been continuously occupied by Native people for at least 14,000 years. Every named era found elsewhere in pre-European-contact North Carolina is also present in the archaeological record of Robeson County (artifacts from Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures). All modern vicinities of Lumbee occupation contain numerous archaeological sites as recent as the Late Woodland period (mid-1700s), and oral traditions about the history of some Lumbee families extend back as far in Robeson County as the mid-1700s.
The earliest European document referring to Indian communities in the area of the Lumber River is a map prepared in 1725 by John Herbert, the English commissioner of Indian trade for the Wineau Factory on the Black River. Herbert identifies the four Siouan-speaking communities as the Saraw, Pee Dee, Scavano, and Wacoma. Modern-day Lumbees claim connection to those settlements, but none of the four tribes is located within the boundaries of present-day Robeson County.
When this area was first surveyed by the English in the 1750s, they reported that "No Indians" lived in Bladen County, which then included parts of present-day Robeson County. Colonial Welsh timber survey parties of the same areas also reported, "No Hostile Indians, in fact No Indians to be found at all." The adjacent Anson County was identified as "a frontier to the Indians."
In 1754, colonial authorities organized the territory: everything north of the Lumber River was made part of Bladen County, and everything south of the Lumber River was made part of Anson County. Anson County's border stretched west to known Cherokee territory. Historical records are unclear as to which parts of Anson County were occupied by Indians in the early colonial period.
A 1772 proclamation by the governor of North Carolina, Arthur Dobbs, derived from a report by his agent, Colonel Rutherford, head of a Bladen County militia, listed the names of inhabitants who took part in a "Mob Railously Assembled together," apparently defying the efforts of colonial officials to collect taxes. The proclamation declared the "Above list of Rogus [sic] is all living upon the Kings Land without title." A later colonial military survey described "50 families a mixt crew, a lawless People possess the Lands without Patent or paying quit Rents." The surnames of some of the families are the same as modern-day Lumbees, but each family must be traced separately to identify individual ancestors, particularly since extensive intermarriage took place. The families were classified then as "mulattos," a term that then had several different meanings. Today, it is most commonly used to describe mixed-race persons of African-European ancestry. However, at the time, the term was also used across the South to describe any non-white individual.
Following the Reconstruction Era, white-dominated legislatures in the South imposed legal racial segregation. They required all non-white people or people of color to attend black schools in which most students were freedmen's children. In 1885, Democratic state representative Hamilton McMillan supported an effort to gain separate schools for the Indian children in the state since they and their ancestors had always been free and refused to send their children to black schools. In making his case, McMillan wrote that Lumbee ancestor James Lowrie had received sizable land grants early in the century and, by 1738, possessed combined estates of more than 2,000 acres (810 ha). Adolph Dial and David Eliades claimed that another Lumbee ancestor, John Brooks, held the title to over 1,000 acres (400 ha) in 1735 and that Robert Lowrie gained possession of almost 700 acres (280 ha).
However, a state archivist noted in the late 20th century that no land grants were issued during these years in North Carolina. The first documented land grants made to individuals claimed to be Lumbee ancestors did not take place until the 1750s, more than a decade later. None of the various petitions for federal recognition by the Lumbee people has relied on the McMillan, Dial, or Eliades claims.
Land patents and deeds filed with the colonial administrations of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina during that period show that individuals who claimed to be Lumbee ancestors migrated from southern parts of Virginia and northern parts of North Carolina. In the first federal census of 1790, the ancestors of the Lumbee were enumerated as Free Persons of Color, another term used for a wide variety of non-White people including, non-reservation American Indians, mixed race of American Indian/European, and mixed race African/European. In 1800 and 1810, the families were classified as "all other free persons" in the census (after "white" and "black").
Land records show that in the second half of the 18th century, persons since identified as ancestral Lumbees began to take titles to land near Drowning Creek (Lumber River) and prominent swamps such as Ashpole, Long, and Back. According to James Campisi, the anthropologist hired by the Lumbee tribe to support their petition for federal recognition, the area "is located in the heart of the so-called old field of the Cheraw documented in land records between 1737 and 1739." The location of the Cheraw Old Fields is documented in the Lumbee petition for recognition based on Siouan descent, prepared by Lumbee River Legal Services in the 1980s. Other researchers have noted that the Cheraw Old Fields were only a few miles south of Robeson County North Carolina, into present-day Marlboro County South Carolina. In 1771, a convicted felon, by the name of Winsler Driggers, captured "near Drowning Creek, in the Charraw settlement," was reported as hanged under the Negro Act. That mention, along with no evidence that a new settlement was established or the old settlement was abandoned, is not sufficient to confirm that the settlement on Drowning Creek in 1754 was a Cheraw settlement.
American Revolution and federal era.
Pension records for veterans of the American Revolutionary War in Robeson County listed men with surnames later associated with Lumbee families, such as Samuel Bell, Jacob Locklear, John Brooks, Berry Hunt, Thomas Jacobs, Thomas Cummings, and Michael Revels. In 1790, other men with surnames since associated with Lumbee-identified descendants, such as Barnes, Braveboy (or Brayboy), Bullard, Chavers (Chavis), Cumbo, Hammonds, Lowrie (Lowry/Lowery), Oxendine, Strickland, and Wilkins, were listed as inhabitants of the Fayetteville District; they were all "Free Persons of Color" in the first federal census.
Antebellum.
Following the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion of 1831, the state legislature passed amendments to its original 1776 constitution, abolishing suffrage for free people of color. This was one of a series of laws passed by North Carolina whites from 1826 to the 1850s which the historian John Hope Franklin characterized as the "Free Negro Code," creating restrictions on that class. Free people of color were stripped of various political and civil rights which they had enjoyed for almost two generations. They could no longer vote or serve on juries, bear arms without a license from the state, or serve in the state militia. As these were obligations traditionally associated with citizenship, they were made second-class citizens.
In 1853, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state's restrictions to prevent free people of color from bearing arms without a license. Noel Locklear, identified as a free man of color in "State v. Locklear", was convicted for the illegal possession of firearms. In 1857, William Chavers from Robeson County was arrested and charged as a free person of color for carrying a shotgun without a license. Chavers, like Locklear, was convicted. Chavers promptly appealed, arguing that the law restricted only "free Negroes," not "persons of color from Indian blood." The appeals court reversed the lower court, finding that "free persons of color may be, then, for all we can see, persons colored by Indian blood".
Civil War.
A yellow fever epidemic in 1862–1863 killed many slaves working on the construction of Fort Fisher near Wilmington, North Carolina, then considered to be the "Gibraltar of the South". As the state's slave owners resisted sending more slaves to Fort Fisher, the Confederate Home Guard intensified efforts to conscript able-bodied free persons of color as laborers. There does not appear to be documentation of conscription among the free people of color in Robeson County.
Some Lumbee ancestors are believed to have been forced to aid the Confederacy as laborers. Others are documented as drawing Confederate pensions for their service. The community says that many men tried to avoid such forced labor by hiding in the swamps. During that period, some men from Robeson County operated as guerrillas for the Union Army, sabotaging the efforts of the Confederacy and robbing local whites.
Lowrie War.
Early in the Civil War, North Carolina turned to forced labor to construct her defenses. Several Lowrie cousins had been conscripted as laborers to help build Fort Fisher, near Wilmington. Henry Berry Lowrie and several of his relatives took to the swamps where Indians resorted to "lying out" to avoid being rounded up by the Home Guard and forced to work as impressed laborers.
The Lowrie gang, as it became known, resorted to crime and conducting personal feuds, committing robberies and murders against white Robeson County residents and skirmishing with the Confederate Home Guard. They grew bolder as the war turned against the Confederates. In December 1864, the Lowrie gang killed James P. Barnes after he had drafted workers, including the Lowries, for work on local defenses. Barnes had earlier accused Henry's father, Allen Lowrie, of stealing hogs. Next, the gang killed James Brantley Harris, a Confederate conscription officer who had killed a Lowrie relative.
The Confederates struck back, searching Allen Lowrie's home in March 1865, where they found forbidden firearms. The Home Guard convened a summary court, convicted Allen Lowrie and his son William of illegally possessing firearms as men of color, and executed them.
After the Civil War, the Lowrie gang continued their insurgency, committing robberies and murders. The authorities' raids and attempts to capture gang members became known as the Lowry War. The gang consisted of Henry Lowrie, his brothers Stephen and Thomas, cousins Calvin and Henderson Oxendine, two of Lowrie's brothers-in-law, two escaped slaves who had joined the Lowries, a white man of unknown identity who was likely a Confederate deserter, and two other men of unknown relation and identity.
On December 7, 1865, Henry Lowrie married Rhoda Strong. Arrested at his wedding, Lowrie escaped from jail by filing his way through the jail's bars.
Lowrie's gang continued its activities into the Reconstruction Era. Republican governor William Woods Holden declared Lowrie and his men outlaws in 1869, and offered a $12,000 reward for their capture: dead or alive. Lowrie responded with more revenge killings. Eluding capture, the Lowrie gang persisted after Reconstruction ended and conservative white Democrats gained control of North Carolina government, imposing segregation and white supremacy.
The Lowrie gang gained the sympathy of local Indian families and even some poor whites, who refused to cooperate with efforts to stop them. Records of the pursuit of the Lowrie gang provide the first documentation of the local people's claims on mixed Indian ancestry. These early accounts refer to the Lowries and the other local Indian families as being mixed Tuscarora/white. More than 150 years before, a large number of the Tuscarora people, who spoke an Iroquoian language, migrated north to New York to join their Iroquois cousins. The Tuscarora tribe in New York considers the migration complete by the year 1722; all the Tuscarora who remained in North Carolina are not considered under the same council fire, or tribal fraction. The large migration of Tuscarora people was a result of their defeat by the Carolina colonists and their Indian allies in the Tuscarora War.
In February 1872, shortly after a raid in which he robbed the local sheriff's safe of more than $28,000, Henry Berry Lowrie disappeared. It is claimed he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his double-barrel shotgun. As with many folk heroes, the death of Lowrie was disputed. He was reportedly seen at a funeral several years later. Without his leadership, all but two members of the Lowrie gang were subsequently hunted down, and either captured or killed.
State recognition as Indians.
During Reconstruction, the legislature established public education for the first time, providing for white and black schools. All children of color were assigned to black schools, which were dominated by the children of freedmen (freed slaves). The Indian people of Robeson County had always been free and did not socially associate or interact with Blacks. They refused to send their children to school with the free Blacks and demanded for separate Indian schools. In the 1880s, as the Democratic Party was struggling against the biracial Populist movement which combined the strength of poor whites (Populist and Democrats) and blacks (mostly Republicans), Democratic state representative Hamilton MacMillan proposed to have the state recognize these Indian people of Robeson County as the "Croatan Indians" and to create a separate system of Croatan Indian schools. By the end of the 19th century, the "Indians of Robeson County" (as they then identified) established schools in eleven of their principal settlements.
An Indian school system.
In 1887, the Indians of Robeson County petitioned the state legislature to establish a normal school to train Indian teachers for the county's Indian schools. With state permission, they raised the requisite funds, along with some state assistance, which proved inadequate. Several tribal leaders donated money and privately held land for schools. Robeson County's Indian Normal School eventually developed as Pembroke State University and subsequently as the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
In 1899, North Carolina Congressional representatives introduced the first bill in Congress to appropriate federal funds to educate the Indian children of Robeson County. They introduced another bill a decade later, and yet another in 1911. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, T. J. Morgan, responded to Congress and the Croatan Indians, writing that, "so long as the immediate wards of the Government [Indians on reservations] are so insufficiently provided for, I do not see how I can consistently render any assistance to the Croatans or any other civilized tribes." [sic, civilized tribes were defined in contrast to Indians on reservations, who were wards of the government.] Those Indians in the Southeast and elsewhere who were not on reservations, such as those in Robeson County, were considered to be United States citizens and thus the responsibility of state governments. The federal government funded Indian education only for Indians on reservations.
By the first decade of the 20th century, a North Carolina Representative introduced a federal bill to establish "a normal school for the Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina," to be paid for by the federal government. Charles F. Pierce, U.S. Supervisor of Indian Schools in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, opposed the legislation since, "[a]t the present time it is the avowed policy of the government to require states having an Indian population to assume the burden and responsibility for their education, so far as is possible."
Ku Klux Klan conflict.
During the 1950s, the Croatan Indians (as they were then called) made nationwide news when they came into conflict with the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization headed by Klan Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole. Cole began a campaign of harassment against the Lumbee, claiming they were "mongrels and half-breeds" whose "race mixing" threatened to upset the established order of the segregated Jim Crow South. After giving a series of speeches denouncing the "loose morals" of Lumbee women, Cole burned a cross in the front yard of a Lumbee woman in St. Pauls, North Carolina, as a "warning" against "race mixing". Emboldened, Cole called for a Klan rally on January 18, 1958, near the town of Maxton. The Lumbee, led by recent veterans of the Second World War, decided to disrupt the rally.
The "Battle of Hayes Pond", also known as "the Klan Rout", made national news. Cole had predicted more than 5,000 Klansmen would show up for the rally, but fewer than 100 and possibly as few as three dozen attended. Approximately 500 Lumbee, armed with guns and sticks, gathered in a nearby swamp, and when they realized they possessed an overwhelming numerical advantage, attacked the Klansmen. The Lumbee encircled the Klansmen, opening fire and wounding four Klansmen in the first volley, none seriously. The remaining Klansmen panicked and fled. Cole was found in the swamps, arrested and tried for inciting a riot. The Lumbee celebrated the victory by burning Klan regalia and dancing around the open flames.
The Battle of Hayes Pond, which marked the end of Klan activity in Robeson County, is celebrated as a Lumbee holiday.
Early efforts to gain federal recognition.
The people achieved state recognition as "Croatan Indians" in the 1880s. In 1911, at the request of the tribe, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation changing their name to "Indians of Robeson County." In 1913, over the objections of the existing federally recognized Cherokee Nation tribes in Oklahoma, the North Carolina legislators, based on a petition lobbied for and created by the Croatans, added "Cherokee" to the name of the Robeson County tribe. The tribe petitioned for federal recognition as "Cherokee" Indians, but it was denied. From 1913 to 1932, North Carolina legislators introduced bills in Congress as petitioned for by the Croatan faction to change the name of the people to Cherokee and gain federal recognition, but did not succeed.
In the early 20th century, North Carolina requested federal assistance to collect information related to the status of Indians in the state. The Southeast tribes had been subject to Indian removal in the 1830s, and were assigned to reservations in Oklahoma. Those Indians remaining in the state were considered state and federal citizens; there were no Indian reservations in the state. The legislature was chiefly reviewing issues related to the state's treatment of the Cherokee descendants who lived in the state.
In 1915, the report of Special Indian Agent O.M. McPherson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was sent to the North Carolina legislature. He primarily reported on the Cherokee in the state. He noted that the Indians of Robeson County had developed an extensive system of schools and a political organization. He thought that, as state-recognized Indians, they were eligible to attend federal Indian schools. But, as they were highly assimilated, spoke English, and already worked in the common state culture, he doubted that the federal Indian schools could meet their needs. Congress did not provide any additional funding to support education for Indians in North Carolina.
In 1924, the Cherokee Indians of North Carolina petitioned for federal recognition as "Siouan Indians"; their request was rejected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Congressional committees continued to refuse to have the federal government assume educational responsibility for the Indians of Robeson County, as they were state citizens and part of that jurisdiction's responsibility.
Federally commissioned reports.
In the 20th century, numerous federally commissioned studies related to the Lumbee were conducted by anthropologists, ethnologists, and historians. They reflect changing concepts of what constituted Indian identity. In 1912, legislation was introduced to the US Senate to establish a school for the Indians of Robeson County. When the bill was sent to committee, it requested information from the Department of the Interior. The Indian Office sent Charles F. Pierce, the Supervisor of Indian Schools, to Robeson County to conduct a study of the tribe. Pierce reported that the state and county were providing funds to educate the 1,976 school-age Indian children. He also stated in his report that "one would readily class a large majority [of the Lumbee] as being at least three-fourths Indian.
On April 28, 1914, the Senate called for an investigation into the status and conditions of the Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties. The Indian Office sent Special Indian Agent O.M. McPherson to the county to obtain information regarding the educational system of the tribe. In his report, submitted to the Senate on January 4, 1915, he wrote:
While these Indians are essentially an agricultural people, I believe them to be as capable of learning the mechanical trades as the average white youth. The foregoing facts suggest the character of the educational institution that should be established for them, in case Congress sees fit to make the necessary appropriation, namely the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical school, in which domestic science shall also be taught.
John R. Swanton, a noted anthropologist-historian, reported on possible origins of the Indians of Robeson County in his work on Southeast Indians. He wrote:
The evidence available thus seems to indicate that the Indians of Robeson County who have been called Croatan and Cherokee are descended mainly from certain Siouan tribes of which the most prominent were the Cheraw and Keyauwee, but they probably included as well remnants of the Eno, and Shakori, and very likely some of the coastal groups such as the Waccamaw and Cape Fears. It is not improbable that a few families or small groups of Algonquian or Iroquoian may have cast their lot with this body of people, but contributions from such sources are relatively insignificant. Although there is some reason to think that the Keyauwee tribe actually contributed more blood to the Robeson County Indians than any other, the name is not widely known, whereas that of the Cheraw has been familiar to historians, geographers and ethnologists in one form or another since the time of De Soto and has a firm position in the cartography of the region. The Cheraws, too, seem to have taken a leading part in opposing the colonists during and immediately after the Yamasee uprising. Therefore, if the name of any tribe is to be used in connection with this body of six or eight thousand people, that of the Cheraw would, in my opinion, be most appropriate.
In 1935, Indian Agent Fred Baker was sent to Robeson County in response to a proposed resettlement project for the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County. At the time, the people were attempting to organize as a tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which largely applied to Indians on reservations to encourage their self-government.
Baker reported:
I find that the sense of racial solidarity is growing stronger and that the members of this tribe are cooperating more and more with each other with the object in view of promoting the mutual benefit of all the members. It is clear to my mind that sooner of later government action will have to be taken in the name of justice and humanity to aid them.
D'Arcy McNickle, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, came to Robeson County in 1936 to collect affidavits and other data from people registering as Indian under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. McNickle stated, "there are reasons for believing that until comparatively recently some remnant of language still persisted among these people."
In the 1960s, Smithsonian ethnologists Dr. William Sturtevant and Dr. Samuel Stanley described the Lumbee as "larger than any other Indian group in the United States except the Navajo", and estimated their population as 31,380 Lumbee (from North and South Carolina) in 1960.
Indian New Deal.
The federal Indian Reorganization Act in 1934 was chiefly directed at Native American tribes on reservations. It encouraged them to re-establish self-government, which had been diminished since the founding of reservations and the supervision by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
At this time, the Indians of Robeson County renewed their petition for federal recognition as a tribe. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) sent John R. Swanton, an anthropologist from the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Indian Agent Fred Baker to evaluate the claim of the Indians of Robeson County to historical continuity as an identified Indian community. In 1934, the future Lumbee revived their claim to Cherokee identity, joining the National Congress of American Indians under the name, "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County."
Swanton speculated that the group were more likely descended in part from Cheraw and other eastern Siouan tribes, as these were the predominant Native American peoples historically in that area. The Indians of Robeson County split in terms of how they identified as Native Americans: one group supported the Cheraw theory of ancestry. The other faction believed they were descended from the Cherokee, although the tribe had historically occupied territory in the mountains and western part of the state rather than the area of Robeson County. North Carolina's politicians abandoned support for the federal recognition effort until the tribal factions agreed on their identity.
In 1952, under the leadership of D.F. Lowrie, the tribe voted to adopt the name "Lumbee." The North Carolina legislature recognized the name change in 1953. The tribe petitioned again for federal recognition.
Lumbee Act.
The Lumbee Act, also known as H.R. 4656 (), passed by Congress in late May 1956 as a concession to political lobbying and signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, designated the Lumbee as an Indian people. It withheld full recognition as a "Tribe", as had been agreed to by the Lumbee leaders. The Lumbee Act designated the Indians of Robeson, Hoke, Scotland, and Cumberland counties as the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina."
It provided further, "as requested by the Lumbee HR 4656 stipulated that '[n]othing in this Act shall make such Indians eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians.'" It also forbids a Government relationship with the Lumbee and forbids them from applying through the BARS, the BIA administrative process to gain recognition. This restriction as to eligibility for services was a condition which tribal representatives agreed to at the time in order to achieve status as a recognized tribe and have the Lumbee name recognized. The Lumbee had essentially assimilated into early colonial life prior to the formation of the United States. They lived as individuals, as did any other colonial and U.S. citizens. Lumbee spokesmen repeatedly testified at these hearings that they were not seeking federal financial benefits; they said they only wanted a name designation as Lumbee people.
Petitioning for full federal recognition.
In 1987, the Lumbee petitioned the United States Department of the Interior for full federal recognition. This is a prerequisite to receive the financial benefits accorded federally recognized Native American tribes. The latter have generally been those tribes who had signed treaties with the federal government and had reservations established, and a history of a tribal relationship with the federal government. The petition was denied because of the Lumbee Act.
The Lumbee resumed lobbying Congress, testifying in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1993 in efforts to gain full federal recognition by congressional action. All of these attempts failed in the face of opposition by the Department of Interior, the recognized Cherokee tribes (including North Carolina's Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians), some of the North Carolina Congressional delegation, and some representatives from other states with federally recognized tribes. Some of the North Carolina delegation separately recommended an amendment to the 1956 Act that would enable the Lumbee to apply to the Department of Interior under the regular administrative process for recognition. In 2004 and 2006 the tribe made renewed bids for full recognition, to include financial benefits.
In 2007, US Senator Elizabeth Dole from North Carolina introduced the Lumbee Recognition Act. It was not enacted. Lumbee Tribal Chairman Jimmy Goins appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in September 2007 to lobby for federal recognition of the tribe. Goins testified on the Lumbee's decades-long efforts to gain recognition. The Committee meeting was also a part of the 2008 documentary "Looking For Ms. Locklear", made by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal.
On January 6, 2009, US Representative Mike McIntyre introduced legislation (H.R. 31) to grant the Lumbee full federal recognition. The bill gained support of more than 180 co-sponsors, including that of both North Carolina US Senators (Richard Burr and Kay Hagan). On June 3, 2009, the United States House of Representatives voted 240 to 179 for federal recognition for the Lumbee tribe, acknowledging that they are descendants of the historic Cheraw tribe. The bill went to the United States Senate. On October 22, 2009, the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved a bill for federal recognition of the Lumbee. The bill includes a no-gaming clause. The Senate adjourned for 2010 without taking action on the bill.
2020 Presidential Election.
During the 2020 Presidential Election campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden announced, on October 8, 2020, his support for federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe by pledging his backing to the Lumbee Recognition Act. Two weeks later, on October 21, 2020, President Donald Trump also announced his support for federal recognition of the tribe via the same legislation. The following weekend, Trump held a rally in Robeson County to shore up support among Native Americans. During the rally, Trump stated that "[The] Lumbee Nation is forgotten no more!" Trump's rally was significant in that it was the first official visit to Robeson County, NC by a sitting US President in history.
While historically, most of Robeson County had trended Democratic --- voting for Barack Obama by an 18 point margin in 2012 --- Donald Trump carried the county narrowly in 2016, winning by a 5 point margin over Hillary Clinton; his margin of victory in 2020 increased dramatically to an 18 point victory over Biden. Many attribute this swing in Trump's favor to his visit and explicit support for recognition of the tribe by the federal government.
Theories of origins.
Lost Colony of Roanoke.
In 1885, the Democratic politician Hamilton MacMillan proposed the theory that the Native inhabitants of Robeson County were descendants of England's "Lost Colony of Roanoke", who intermarried with what he described as the "Croatan Indians." The Roanoke colony disappeared during a difficult winter, but the colonists reportedly left the word "Croatan" carved into a tree, hence the name MacMillan gave to the proto Lumbee.
MacMillan's theory was part of a Reconstruction era effort to woo the proto Lumbee to the Democratic Party by creating an "Indian" school system that would free these new "Croatan Indians" from sending their children to school with the children of the recently emancipated slaves.
By the early 1900s, Robeson County whites used "Cro" as a racial epithet to describe their "Indian" neighbors. The Lost Colony theory of origins fell out of favor in the early twentieth century. "Croatan" was dropped from their tribal name and replaced by "Indians of Robeson County", although Lumbee historian Adolph Dial continued to advocate for the theory in the 1980s.
Cherokee descent.
The proto Lumbee first began identifying as Cherokee Indians in 1915, when they changed their name to the "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County." Four years earlier, they had changed their name from the "Croatan Indians" to the generic "Indians of Robeson County." But the Cherokee occupied much further to the west and in the mountains during the colonial era.
In his unpublished 1934 master's thesis, graduate student Clifton Oxendine theorized that the Lumbee descended from Iroquoian-speaking Cherokee. Citing "oral traditions," Oxendine suggested that the Lumbee were the descendants of Cherokee warriors who fought with the British under Colonel John Barnwell of South Carolina in the Tuscarora campaign of 1711–1713. He said the Cherokee settled in the swamps of Robeson County when the campaign ended, along with some Tuscarora captives.
The Oxendine theory of Cherokee origin has been uniformly rejected by mainstream scholars. First, no Cherokee warriors are listed in the record of Barnwell's company. Second, the Lumbee do not speak Cherokee or any other Indian language. Third, Oxendine's claims of oral traditions are completely unsubstantiated; no such oral traditions survive or are documented by any other scholar.
The Lumbee have abandoned this theory in their documentation supporting their effort to obtain federal tribal recognition. The federally recognized Cherokee Nation categorically rejects any connection to the Lumbee, dismissing the Oxendine claims as "absurd" and disputing even that the Lumbee qualify as Native American.
Cheraw descent.
Shortly after abandoning the Croatan label and changing their name to the generic "Indians of Robeson County", the proto Lumbee seized on the speculations of Indian agent McPherson that they may be related to the defunct Cheraw, a band of Siouan-speaking Indians that had been reduced by war and disease to 50 or 60 individuals by 1768.
The 1915 "McPherson Report" said in reference to the Cheraw (quoting the "Handbook of American Indians", 1906):
Their numbers in 1715, according to Rivers, was 510, but this estimate probably included the Keyauwee. Being still subject to attack by the Iroquois, they finally—between 1726 and 1739—became incorporated with the Catawba ... They are mentioned as with the Catawba but speaking their own distinct dialect as late as 1743 (Adair). The last notice of them in 1768, when their remnant, reduced by war and disease to 50 or 60, were still living with the Catawba.
The Catawba are a federally recognized tribe. The McPherson Report does not explain how or when the remaining four or five dozen Cheraw identified in 1768 separated from the Catawba and became the ancestors of the Lumbee.
Siouan descent.
After repeated rejections under the Croatan, Cherokee and Cheraw labels, the proto Lumbee petitioned the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1924 for recognition as "Siouan" Indians. This petition was rejected largely on the grounds that Siouan was a language, not a tribe. Moreover, there was no record of the Lumbee or their ancestors having ever spoken the Siouan or any other Indian language.
Keyauwee descent.
In 1933, John Swanton wrote that the Siouan-speaking Keyauwee and Cheraw of the Carolina Piedmont were the most likely Indian ancestors of the people known from 1885 to 1912 as Croatan Indians and later as the Indians of Robeson County. He suggested that surviving descendants of the Waccamaw and the Woccon likely lived in the central coastal region of North Carolina. In the 21st century, these tribes are extinct as groups, except for a small band of Waccamaw that live on Lake Waccamaw and have been recognized by the state.
Swanton traced the migration of Southeast tribes. In addition to the Keyauwee, Cheraw, Bear River, Waccamaw, and Woccon already mentioned, he noted that the Eno and Waxhaw migrated from Piedmont, South Carolina northeast to the north-central part of North Carolina, then back south again to a point on the Pee Dee River just south of the border of the two Carolinas.
According to Blu, by the 1770s remnant Indians, from the once distinct tribal communities of the Cheraw, Keyauwee, Hatteras, Waxhaw, Sugaree, Eno, and Shakori, gathered along the Lumbee River, near the border that now divides North and South Carolina. Some of these Indians moved further southward to join with the few surviving Catawba, but the majority settled near the pines, web of wetlands, and river that bear the name of the Lumbee. Over time in a process of ethnogenesis, they identified as a common people.
Settlements.
The Lumbee are heavily concentrated in Robeson County on the southern border of the state. Over the years, the Lumbee have migrated to other areas primarily for employment. Sizeable Lumbee settlements are in Cumberland, Sampson, Hoke, Scotland, and Columbus counties; in Greensboro, Charlotte, Detroit, Baltimore, and Claxton, Georgia (settled from 1865 to the 1920s to work turpentine and cotton).
Culture and traditions.
Language.
The Lumbee language is not a Native American language, but rather a form of American Indian English. In 2020, the ISO 639-3 language code "lmz" was retired from use, as it was determined that no separate Lumbee language has ever existed. Linguists have speculated that the ancestors of the Lumbees had been native peoples who had originally spoken the Cheraw Dialect of the Eastern Siouan language prior to adopting English sometime before the early 1700s. The Lumbees emerged as an English-speaking tribal group with a Native American identity in the colonial era.
Lumbee Homecoming.
Lumbee Homecoming is a celebration held annually in Pembroke, NC since 1968. Homecoming is important in bringing together members of families, many from great distances, for a weeklong celebration of Lumbee culture. Festivities include a parade, a pow wow, pageants, and other cultural events. 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the homecoming and saw crowds of over 20,000 spectators, including the current Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper.
Communities.
Lumbee communities were linked together by their extensive kinship ties, church affiliations, their sense of themselves as Indians, and their control of their educational system, all of which served as a mechanism for defining tribal membership and maintaining tribal boundaries. Communities are basically self-governing. One form of self-governance in the early 20th century was exhibited by a fraternal organization known as the Red Men's Lodge. By 1914, lodges existed in Prospect, Magnolia, Pembroke, Saddletree, Oxendine, and Union Chapel. Lodge members maintained social order, carried out ceremonies, marched in parades, and conducted funerals. The 1987 Lumbee Petition states that, "[w]ith so many prominent leaders it is easy to understand how the lodges could maintain order and, at the same time, protect the tribal members from organized violence from whites in the area".
Lumbee patchwork.
Lumbee patchwork is a traditional Lumbee craft. Drawing on the abundant flora around them, they worked the Long Leaf Pine cone into a design for their blankets, rugs, and clothing. Patchwork can be seen at the UNCP Native American Resource Center, powwows, cultural events, quilting bees, and culture classes around Robeson County. In 1993, the Lumbee patchwork dress was recreated for Miss Lumbee Natascha Wagoner, who was chosen as the 8th Miss Indian USA. The dress, designed by Hayes Alan Locklear and sewn by Kat Littleturtle, set a standard for the Lumbee women and became a cultural symbol.
Religion.
Today the Lumbee primarily practice Christianity, and attending church is an important social activity. Churches have Sunday schools, youth organizations, senior citizens' programs, Bible study programs, and choir practices. Gospel songs are popular. Ministers are highly respected. When a sizeable number of Lumbee people move to a city, they tend to settle in a particular section or neighborhood and establish a church. This took place in Lumbee communities in Baltimore, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Charlotte, and Claxton, Georgia.
A study has documented Lumbee Methodism back to 1787. Lumbees created two church conferences of Indian congregations — the Burnt Swamp Baptist Association, founded around 1880, and the Lumbee River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Association in 1900. In 1984 Bruce Barton documented 104 Lumbee churches. Prospect United Methodist Church, with 1,008 members in 2017, has purportedly the largest congregation of Native Americans in the United States.
Government.
According to its constitution, adopted in 2000, the Lumbee tribal government is organized into three branches: the tribal chairperson (executive), the 21-member Tribal Council (legislative), and Supreme Court (judicial). The tribal chairperson and the Tribal Council are elected to three-year terms. Harvey Godwin, Jr. was elected Tribal Chairman in December 2015.
Legislative branch.
Lumbee's Legislative branch consists of 21 Elected Council Representative members from 14 districts who each serve 3-year terms (Lumbee Tribe, 2020).
Judicial branch.
The Lumbee's judicial branch consist of the Supreme Court and the Tribal Administrative Courts. The Lumbee's Supreme Court "five (5) sitting judges whom are nominated by the Tribal Chairman and appointed by the Tribal Council. Two of the sitting judges shall be graduates of accredited law schools and three shall be lay people. The Chief Judge bears administrative responsibilities and is elected on an annual basis by the sitting judges" (Lumbee Tribe, 2020). The Lumbee's Tribal Administrative Courts "is established to provide due process and further protect the rights of tribal members, and designed to ensure tribal members are treated equally through the administration of tribal programs. The Tribal Administrative Court will hear cases dealing with the administrative issues such as housing, enrollment, and energy assistance" (Lumbee Tribe, 2020).
Services.
After state recognition, the tribe established a normal school to train teachers for Indian schools in Robeson County. The Lumbee Tribe operated primary and high schools for its children. The normal school was developed as a four-year college and later university, and it has been integrated into the state's University of North Carolina system. The University at Pembroke is open to all races.
Veteran Affairs.
Veterans Affairs of the Lumbee Tribe offers assistance with educational benefits, community resources, and assistance for homeless veterans. They can also help with concerns such as: how to get into the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, how to get prescription medications from the Veterans Affairs pharmacy, and how to arrange transportation to the VA Medical Center for appointments. It is not affiliated with, supported, nor endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Elder Services.
The mission of The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Elder Services is to assist Elders in maintaining an independent, healthy, and productive life by providing opportunities for services through a network of various community resources. Elder Services will support and uphold quality of life for our Elders though love, respect, and honor.
Youth Services.
Youth Services provides the children of the Lumbee Tribe a healthy, positive environment. The Lumbee Tribe is committed to protect and support the tribal youth through their growth into becoming contributing members in the community. Programs offered include:
Teen Impact/Volunteerism and Community Service.
Teen Impact is a tribal-based community service club for teenage members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. The Volunteer Program of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina assists and mentors the teen volunteer as he/she donates service hours to a community cause of their choice
Department of Energy.
The Tribal Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) provides a one-time payment to assist eligible American Indian families pay their heating cost. The application process is held the first two weeks of November each year.
Housing.
The mission of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Housing Program is to provide opportunities for affordable, safe and sanitary housing options for Lumbee Indian families in the service areas of Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson and Scotland Counties. Programs offered under the Lumbee housing program include:
Lumbee Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Services.
This program provides vocational rehabilitation to any Lumbee Indian with a disability living in the Lumbee Tribal area. The objective of the program is to prepare for, obtain or retain gainful employment. It is their goal to improve the quality of life for Lumbee Indians with disabilities.
Primary documents.
"The undersigned, your petitioners, a part of the Croatan Indians.. Swear Descent from the Lost Colony of Roanoke." The Bill did not pass.


Roedde House Museum

The Roedde House Museum is a late-Victorian home located at 1415 Barclay Street in Vancouver, Canada. It was the home of Gustav Roedde and his family. The house was built in 1893 and was allegedly designed by architect Francis Rattenbury in the Queen Anne Revival style. After having been a rooming house for years, the house was restored and refurnished in the 1980s and has been open to the public as a museum since 1990.
The Roedde Family.
Gustav Roedde (1860-1930) emigrated from Grossbodungen, Germany to Cleveland, US in 1882 where he completed his apprenticeship as a bookbinder. During a Halloween party, he met Matilda Cassebohm (1862-1951), who emigrated from the island of Helgoland, Germany. The two were married in Cleveland in 1883. Together they lived in different cities; San Francisco, California and Victoria, British Columbia, before settling down in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1888. Gustav Roedde's bookbindery blossomed along with Vancouver's quick development. His skills, such as the paper marbling technique, made him a successful businessman. The company continues to operate as G.A. Roedde Printers under new ownership.
The family grew to include seven children and three St. Bernard dogs. The family's first born, Anna Henrietta died at age four after eating poisoned berries. When World War I began, the sons Walter Herman Widemann (adopted) and William August travelled to Europe to fight for the British army and returned safely. During that time, daughter Emma Cather moved back to the Roedde House with her two daughters, Emma Gwendolyn and Kathleen Frances. Stories have been passed down, that the children used to play in the upstairs storage room to hear the adults’ conversations on the lower floor. In 1925, daughter Anna Catherine was killed at age 28, while on duty as a nurse at the Vancouver General Hospital. During the same year, the family moved to a new home on Drummond Drive, in Point Grey.
House history.
The house's alleged architect, Francis Rattenbury (1867-1935), was an ambitious English immigrant. He also designed The Empress Hotel and Vancouver's 1910 provincial courthouse (currently the Vancouver Art Gallery). The Roedde House's asymmetrical plans, verandas and turret are all features of the Queen Anne Revival style. Both the interior and exterior of the house are made of cedar and fir, due to the cheap availability of lumber at the time.
In the late 1970s, the house was at risk of being demolished. The Community of Arts Council of Vancouver urged that the building not be torn down due to its historical significance. They succeeded and the house was designated a “Class A Heritage Building” in 1976, which meant that the house could not be moved, nor the exterior walls changed. The City of Vancouver restored the exterior of the house. In 1984, the Roedde House Preservation Society was formed to implement the interior restoration. Historical records were used to insure the house replicated what it would have looked like between 1893 and 1925. Stripping down wallpaper helped discover the original colours of the walls and the house was furnished with all the accoutrements of middle-class life in the 1890s. On May 12, 1990, the Roedde House Museum was officially opened by then-Mayor Gordon Campbell.
The Museum.
The museum's collection of over 2,700 artifacts includes furniture, clothing, books and household items; some of which were owned by the Roedde family. Highlights include, the George III longcase clock manufactured in 1775, the upright Steinway piano dated 1893 and other interesting items like the stereoscope, the chestnut roaster and the universal bread maker.
In addition to guided tours, the museum features Classical and Jazz Concert series. On Sunday Tea and Tour, the museum serves the “Roedde House Blend”, made especially by the Metropolitan Tea Company for the Museum.
References.
1. Roedde House Museum Website
2. Bingham, J. (1996). More than a house: the story of Roedde House and Barclay Heritage Square.


Waban

Waban (16041685) was a Native American of the Nipmuc group and was the first Native American convert to Christianity in Massachusetts.
Life.
Waban was born about 1604 at Musketaquid, near the present town of Concord. His conversion to Christianity came on October 28, 1646 (Julian calendar), when the missionary Reverend John Eliot preached his first sermon to Native Americans in their own language in Waban's large wigwam in Nonantum, Massachusetts, and Waban and many of his tribe listened but were later forced at gunpoint to move from their land.
Waban maintained close and friendly relations with the white settlers of Massachusetts and, in April 1675, reported to an English magistrate that trouble was brewing amongst the Wampanoags. Within two months, Waban's predictions came to pass when a Wampanoag named Metacomet, known as "King Philip," led his nation in the initially successful King Philip's War. Metacomet's subsequent death in August 1676 signalled the end of the brief war, and the rebellion soon collapsed due to a lack of leadership. Nevertheless, Waban, falsely accused of being a conspirator, was imprisoned in October 1675. After a brief period of captivity, Waban was released in the spring of 1676 and returned to his settlement of Natick, Massachusetts.
Waban is often considered to be tribal chief of the Nonantum tribe, but this is a misnomer. According to John Eliot, Waban was actually "the chief minister of justice", not a "sachem", but the title "chief minister of justice" is not used by Native Americans. In reality, Waban did not hold an authoritative, political position within his own nation.
The exact date of Waban's death is not known, with it being reported as early as late 1676 or early 1677 and as late as ca. 1685 when Rev. Daniel Takawambait wrote down and published the final words of Waban and several other Indians in a pamphlet entitled "Dying Speeches and Counsels Of such Indians as dyed in the Lord."
Namesakes.
One of the villages of the city of Newton, Massachusetts, is named Waban, while Nonantum is another village in the city.
Waban Hill is a geologic feature in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, in the eastern part of Newton, Massachusetts.
One United States Navy ship, USS "Waban", a steamer in commission from 1898 to 1919, has been named for Waban, and kept the name (as "SS Waban") while in post-Navy mercantile service from 1919 to 1924.


Hall Roosevelt

Gracie Hall Roosevelt (June 28, 1891 – September 25, 1941) was an American engineer, banker, soldier, and municipal official who was the youngest brother of First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt and a nephew of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Early life and education.
Gracie Hall Roosevelt, generally known as Hall, was born on June 28, 1891 in Neuilly, France. He was a son of Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (who died when he was three years old) and Anna Rebecca Hall (who died when he was one-and-a-half years old). His uncle was Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.. and his grandmother was Martha Bulloch. Through his sister, Eleanor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was his brother-in-law, and through his father, his fifth cousin once removed. He was also the uncle of Elliott Roosevelt. He was named Gracie for his father's aunt, Anna Bulloch and her husband James Gracie, and Hall for his mother's family.
Before his death, Eleanor's father had implored her to act as a mother towards her toddler brother, and it was a request she made good upon for the rest of Hall's life. After his father's death, Hall and Eleanor were reared by their grandmother at her estate in Tivoli, New York. While at Tivoli, Eleanor doted on Hall, and when he enrolled at Groton in 1907, Eleanor accompanied him as a chaperone. While he was attending Groton, she wrote her brother almost daily, but always felt a touch of guilt that Hall had not had a fuller childhood. She took pleasure in Hall's brilliant performance at school, and was proud of his many academic accomplishments, which included a master's degree in engineering from Harvard in 1913.
Career.
According to his obituary in "The New York Times", "even if he had not belonged to the nation's first family, he could have been justly proud of his career as an electrical engineer, World War flier, banker, financier and municipal official."
After graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt began working as an assistant professor of Engineering at a Harvard engineering camp in 1914. Later that year, he began working in the Yukon for the Canadian Klondike Company as an electrical engineer. In 1915, Roosevelt began his 15-year career at General Electric, a career he started and returned to after his service in the War.
From 1929 until 1930, he served as executive vice president of Detroit United Railways and vice president of the American State Bank in Detroit.
After retiring from public service, Roosevelt entered the private sector again in 1932, and served as a consulting engineer in Chicago, Detroit, and New York, until 1938. In 1939, he became vice president of the Commercial Investment Trust, Inc. in New York City.
Public service.
On July 14, 1917, which was Bastille Day in France, after the outbreak of World War I, Roosevelt enlisted with his cousin Quentin Roosevelt (the youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt) in the Army Air Service. Hall went first to aviation school in Ithaca, New York, became a pilot, then an instructor of pursuit plane flying in Gerstner Field, Louisiana and then Dorr Field and Carlstrom Field in Florida where he successfully designed an early pursuit plane and taught many to fly.
In 1930, Hall, who was a Democrat although he never held elected office, became the chairman of the Detroit Unemployment Bureau and was tapped by for service in the municipal government of Detroit by mayor (and future Supreme Court justice) Frank Murphy. Hall was named chairman of a mayoral committee on unemployment, and in January 1931 he was appointed city comptroller. In this role, Roosevelt "performed the difficult tasks of obtaining credit from banks in various parts of the country. As head of the unemployment bureau, he did much to feed, clothe, and find work for the needy."
Personal life.
In 1912, at age 21 while still enrolled at Harvard, Hall was married to Margaret Richardson (1892–1971), a young woman he met at school. Margaret was the younger daughter of prominent surgeon Maurice Howe Richardson. Together they had three children:
When Hall wanted to seek a divorce in 1925, it was only with Eleanor's approval that he followed through with his decision. In the late 1920s, Hall married again and found work in the railroad industry. Hall had three children from his second marriage to Dorothy Kemp (1898–1985):
In 1937, Hall sought a divorce from his second wife. By this point, alcoholism, a problem he shared with his father, had come to dominate Hall's existence, and he was unable to hold down any job he was offered. He spent the last few years of his life in a small building on the Hyde Park estate, and he died in Washington, D.C. on September 25, 1941 at age 50. Roosevelt's funeral was held in the White House, and his body was transported to Tivoli, New York, where he was entombed in the Hall family vault in the St. Paul's Episcopal Churchyard. Eleanor Roosevelt survived her brother by 21 years.
References.
Notes
Bibliography


David John Mosher Wood

David John Mosher Wood (March 4, 1840 – August 16, 1918) was an American Indian agent and Methodist minister.
He served in the military during the Civil War, was a Methodist minister and Indian agent appointed by President Benjamin Harrison.
Early life and family.
Wood was born at Mount Gilead, Ohio, March 1, 1840, eleventh child to David and Esther Ward (Mosher) Wood. He was a brother to Samuel Newitt Wood and Stephen Mosher Wood. On September 23, 1860, David was married to Eliza Mary Johnson, daughter of Jonathan Joshua Johnson and Joanna Cobb of Marion County, Ohio. She was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, December 27, 1840. David and Eliza then moved to Marion County, Ohio. On March 6, 1861, Eliza Mary Johnson was listed as married contrary to discipline in the Mount Gilead Monthly Meeting records. The Wood family were members of the Alum Creek Monthly Meeting. On February 12, 1862, their first son, Willie O. Wood, was born at Mahaska County, Iowa; he died the same day. On April 7, 1863, their second son, Samuel Newitt Wood, was born in Morrow County, Ohio. On December 11, 1863, their son Samuel N. Wood died at Leavenworth, Kansas. On September 8, 1864, their first daughter, Lula May Wood, was born at Paola, Miami County, Kansas. On October 1, 1870, their third son, John Berta "Berty" Wood, was born. On November 5, 1874, John "Berty" Wood died and was buried in Otter Creek Cemetery at Liberty Center, Warren County, Iowa. On April 27, 1880, their fourth son, Rolla Burton Wood, was born. On June 6, 1906, David John Mosher Wood was married to Adeline Mary (Snider) Reynolds; she was previously married to Norman Henry Reynolds.
Military career.
Wood's service in the Civil War began as a private in Co. D, 33rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, he took part in the Battle of Newtonia in Newton County, Missouri. He was discharged from the 33rd on March 28, 1863 for promotion to full 2nd lieutenant in Company B., 15th Regiment Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. On October 19, 1864, Wood took part in the Battle of Lexington, in Lafayette County, Missouri. General Sterling Price’s forces collided with Union scouts and drove them back and engaged General James G. Blunt’s forces. The Union forces had to retreat to a defensive position near Little Blue River. On October 21, 1864, Wood took part in the Battle of Little Blue River. On October 22 and 23, 1864, Wood took part in the Battle of Byram's Ford, also known as the Battle of the Big Blue River, which was part of the larger Battle of Westport. On October 23, 1864, Wood took part in the Battle of Westport. On October 28, 1864, Wood took part in the Second Battle of Newtonia; General Sterling Price’s confederate cavalry force was in retreat after the previous defeat and had stopped to rest two miles south of Newtonia. They were spotted by General James G. Blunt’s Union cavalrymen, McLain’s Colorado light Artillery, supported by the 15th Kansas Cavalry opened on the rebels. It was a Union victory and Price fled into Indian Territory.
Indian agent.
On July 18, 1889, Wood was commissioned and appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to be agent for the Indians of the Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, and Oakland Agency, in the Indian Territory replacing Elihu C. Osborne. These were four separate tribes; the Ponca, the Pawnee, the Tonkawa and the confederated tribe of Otoes and Missouria and had essentially four separate subagencies with their own individual government and business affairs. So Wood and family moved to Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma. On June 18, 1893, Wood was replaced by James P. Woolsey of Rogers, Arkansas, appointed by Grover Cleveland.
Methodist Minister.
On September 11, 1887, Wood was sent as a Methodist Episcopal Church missionary from the Des Moines conference to the Indian territory and was stationed at Catoosa in the Cherokee nation. On January 1, 1888, Wood assumed the duties in the Tulsa church until a permanent preacher could be assigned. On March 10, 1888, Wood attended the South Kansas Conference of the M. E. Church, where Bishop Bowman announced his transfer from the Des Moines, Iowa conference. It was around this time that he moved to the Pawnee reservation as a missionary. On October 18, 1888, the eighth conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church met at Catoosa, Oklahoma, where Wood was made superintendent of the territory south and west of Arkansas River and Pawhuska. On March 21–26, 1889, there was a Methodist Indian Mission Conference held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wood was appointed for the Pawnees. Sometime in 1892, Wood was admitted to the Oklahoma Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On December 13, 1900, Wood and family moved to Glencoe, where Wood had accepted the position of pastor at the Glencoe M. E. Church.
Death.
On August 16, 1918, Wood passed away at Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma. He died at the home of his son, Rolla Wood. Brief funeral services were held at the house Sunday morning, conducted by Rev. E. V. DuBios, pastor of the First Methodist church, assisted by the Rev. Adolphus Carrion of Pawnee, full-blooded Sioux.
Notes.
David's brother, Joseph Mosher Wood, was a delegate from the Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends that petitioned President Ulysses S. Grant to take a more gentle approach with the American Indians. This led to Grant's Peace Policy in which he appointed members of the Society as Indian agents.


William Shelton (chief)

William Shelton (1869-1938) was the last hereditary chief of the Snohomish in Tulalip, Washington. He was also an author, a notable sculptor, and an emissary between the Snohomish people and the United States government.
Shelton was one of the few Snohomish to speak both English (which he learned when he enrolled himself in a mission school) and Lushootseed, the language of the Coast Salish.
During his lifetime, Shelton carved a number of story poles (often mistakenly called totem poles), very few of which still remain. One of those remaining story poles was cut in half after it began to rot. The top half now stands on the grounds of the Tulalip Elementary School. Historical photos of the complete pole exist in the digitized holdings of the nearby Everett Public Library.)
Shelton's 1925 book "The Story of the Totem Pole or Indian Legends" is subtitled "Early Indian Legends As Handed Down From Generation To Generation Are Herewith Recorded By Chief William Shelton Of Tulalip, Washington." The book is the only record of many legends of the Coast Salish people. At a time when the US government sought to destroy all vestiges of Native American culture in the Pacific Northwest, Shelton was able to work out a deal with Washington State governor Roland Hartley wherein he was permitted to carve a story pole in exchange for his willingness to create a written record of the oral legends behind the figures he wished to carve on the pole.
At the time of Shelton's death in 1938, the 71-foot pole was still unfinished. Members of the tribe finished carving the pole on his behalf. That pole stood on the grounds of the state capitol campus in Olympia, Washington, until November 3, 2010, when it was removed due to safety concerns.
Shelton was married to Ruth Sehome Shelton (Siastenu), who survived him by 20 years, until Oct. 4, 1958. Ruth was a fluent speaker of Chinook, a trade lingo derived from French, English, and Native American languages.


Wyman Lincoln

Wyman L. Lincoln (17 January 1828, Newfane, Vermont – 1 February 1894, Chinook, Montana) was a member of the Wisconsin State Senate during the 1865 and 1866 sessions. Lincoln represented the 15th District and was affiliated with the National Union Party. Born in Vermont as the son of Amasa Lincoln and Lucy Richardson, he married Harriet Gracia Ingraham (1832–1920) there around 1848. The family moved to Avoca, Wisconsin between 1850 and 1859. In 1878, President Hayes appointed "Major Lincoln" Indian Agent at Fort Belknap Agency, Montana, for which he moved his family to Blaine County. While he was agent, the Fort Belknap Agency and its 2,000 Gros Ventre and Assiniboine inhabitants were moved 20 miles East from a region south of Chinook, Montana to the current region south of Harlem, Montana.


Timeline of the Jimmy Carter presidency

Jimmy Carter, a Democrat from Georgia, was elected President of the United States on November 2, 1976 and was inaugurated as the nation's 39th president on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. The following articles cover the timeline of the Carter's presidency:


Bridge River

The Bridge River is an approximately long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of Lillooet; its flow, however, was near-completely diverted into Seton Lake with the completion of the Bridge River Power Project, with the water now entering the Fraser just south of Lillooet as a result.
The Bridge River hydroelectric complex, operated by BC Hydro, consists of three successive dams, providing water for four hydro power plants with the total rated power of total 492 megawatts.
Name.
Its name in the Lillooet language is Xwisten (pronounced Hwist'n), sometimes spelled Nxwisten or Nxo-isten). Dubbed "Riviere du Font" by Simon Fraser's exploring party in 1808, it was for a while known by the English version of that name, "Fountain River", and some old maps show it as Shaw's River, after the name of one of Fraser's men.
The Bridge River Ocean, an ancient ocean, takes its name from the Bridge River.
Course.
The Big Canyon.
Upstream from Moha the now-dry riverbed runs through the immense gorge of the Bridge River Canyon, which lies immediately downstream from Terzaghi Dam, the principal dam of the Bridge River Power Project. Terzaghi Dam forms Carpenter Lake, the longest and largest of the power project's reservoirs at about 40 kilometres. Just upstream from Gold Bridge, which is at the upper end of Carpenter Lake, is Lajoie Dam, which forms Downton Lake.
Its confluence with the Fraser occurs at a double gorge formed by the two rivers, which are forced through narrow banks at this point and so reminiscent of a fountain (in another version of the name, the surname of one of Fraser's men was supposedly "du Font", giving the location its name of the Lower Fountains (the Upper Fountains being another few miles upstream on the Fraser, today's community of Fountain The river came to be called the Bridge River due to the location of a bridge across the Fraser at this point, originally a pole-structure built by the native St'at'imc people but replaced at the time of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858 by a white-run tollbridge.
Tributaries.
Because of the diversion of the river to Seton Lake by Terzaghi Dam and tunnels through Mission Mountain, which is in that area the south flank of the Bridge, what Bridge River water enters the Fraser now is largely the flow of one of the Bridge's tributaries, the Yalakom River. The Yalakom, whose name means 'the ewe of the mountain sheep' in the Chilcotin language, was in old times known as the North Fork of the Bridge. The South Fork of the Bridge River is many miles upstream, at the community of Gold Bridge, and is today known as the Hurley River (originally Hamilton's River). Several other large feeder streams contribute to the diverted flow of the Bridge, including Gun Creek, Tyaughton Creek, Marshall Creek, and Cadwallader Creek; the last-named is a tributary of the Hurley, about 15 kilometres upstream from its confluence with the Bridge.
Economy.
Hydroelectricity.
Bridge River Power Project harnesses the power of the Bridge River, by diverting it through a mountainside to the separate drainage basin of Seton Lake, utilizing a system of three dams, four powerhouses and a canal. The powerhouses have a maximum generating capacity of 480 MW and an average annual production of 2670 GWh. Development of the system began in 1927 and was completed in 1960. The waters initially pass through the Lajoie Dam and powerhouse and are then diverted through tunnels and penstocks from Carpenter Reservoir to the two powerhouses on Seton Lake Reservoir.
Fishery.
Due to the force of the rivers at the Bridge's original confluence into the Fraser, the area has been for millennia the most important inland salmon-fishing site on the Fraser. The flow of the Bridge River, however, was near-completely diverted into Seton Lake with the completion of the Bridge River Power Project in 1961, with the water now entering the Fraser River just south of Lillooet as a result. The salmon fishery of the Bridge River was near-entirely destroyed by this diversion.
Gold mining.
It is along Cadwallader Creek that the major mines of the Bridge River goldfields are located at Bralorne and Pioneer Mine. Other mining towns and camps built around mines in the Bridge River goldfields were Minto City, Wayside, Congress, Lajoie, Haylmore and Brexton (aka Fish Lake). Around Bralorne other localities such as Ogden grew up along road right-of-ways and slips of land between the mineral claims which dominate the northwestern flank of the Bendor Range in this area, providing services not approved of by company towns, including "sporting houses", some of which were also in Gold Bridge until forced to move to Minto as Gold Bridge became larger. Other gold-mining activity is found throughout the river's basin. During the 19th Century, large hydraulic mining operations lined the banks of the river for the thirty kilometres between the community of Moha, at the confluence of the Yalakom and the Bridge.
Environment.
Spruce Lake Protected Area.
Gun Creek and Tyaughton Creek jointly drain the south flank of the protected wilderness area known as the Spruce Lake Protected Area, popularly known as the South Chilcotin although the area is not actually in the Chilcotin, which lies north of it, but in the Chilcotin Ranges. The official designation for the area has changed since it was first proposed for a park in the 1930s, due to the efforts of the prospecting and mining community in the goldfield towns. The protectionist vs. resource extraction battle over that area has raged since that time, and names used in debates for the area have included the Charlie Cunningham Wilderness, the Spruce Lake-Eldorado Study Area , the Spruce Lake-Eldorado Management Planning Unit (SLRMP), Southern Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park, and South Chilcotin Provincial Park. In 2007 the name was changed again to the Spruce Lake Protected Area, reflective of the government's downgrading of the area from park to mixed-use in certain areas.


Treaty of Vincennes

The Treaty of Vincennes is the name of two separate treaties. One was an agreement between the United States of America and the Miami and their allies, the Wea tribes and the Shawnee, and was signed on June 6, 1803. The purpose of the treaty was to get the native tribes to formally recognize the American ownership of the Vincennes Tract, a parcel of land captured from Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The second occurred on August 27, 1804 and was to purchase land from the tribes.
Treaty of 1803.
The United States was represented by William Henry Harrison, the Governor of the Indiana Territory. Harrison had been granted authority to settle the American claim to the Vincennes tract by President Thomas Jefferson. The Vincennes tract had been purchased by the Kingdom of France from the Piankeshaw, a Wea tribe, around 1740. The tract was ceded to Great Britain as part of the peace settlement after the French and Indian War. George Rogers Clark captured the territory from the British in the American Revolutionary War, and the United States claimed the tract by right of conquest. In 1802, the government surveyor Thomas Freeman, began a survey of the land, called "Freeman's Lines and Corners". The survey led to objections from some of the native tribes as to the exact boundaries, and extent of the tract. Jefferson decided the best solution would be open talks with the tribes and compensate them for their claims on the land.
The Vincennes tract was a parcel of land that lay rectangular across the Wabash River. The majority of the land lay on the east bank, but a small parcel was also included along the west bank. The fortified town of Vincennes, an old French trading post, was the primary settlement in the area. In total, the tract contained about of land. The negotiations were successful and in exchange for compensation, the tribes recognized the American ownership of the tract.
Treaty of 1804.
The Treaty of Vincennes signed in 1804 was to purchase additional lands for settlement. The area purchased was south of the Vincennes tract and the Buffalo Trace, north of the Ohio River, and east of the Wabash River. The treaty had the effect of connecting Clark's Grant and the Vincennes Tract. The area had many squatters living on native owned lands which led to rising tensions with the tribes; the treaty relieved pressure on the settlers, allowing them to freely settle the land.


New York and Harlem Railroad

The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 1852 between Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem. Horses initially pulled railway carriages, followed by a conversion to steam engines, then one to battery-powered Julien electric traction cars. In 1907 the then leaseholders of the line, New York City Railway, a streetcar operator, went into receivership. Following a further receivership in 1932 the New York Railways Corporation converted the line to bus operation. The Murray Hill Tunnel now carries a lane of road traffic, but not the buses.
The line became part of the New York Central Railroad system with trackage rights granted to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad into Manhattan. It is now part of the Metro-North Railroad system, and the only Manhattan trackage of that system. As of 2017, Metro-North operates commuter passenger service from Grand Central Terminal, via Southeast (change from electric to diesel power), to Wassaic. The trackless right-of-way from Wassaic to Chatham is being converted to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.
History.
Construction.
The company was incorporated on April 25, 1831 as the New York and Harlem Railroad, to link New York City with suburban Harlem. Among the company's founders was John Mason, a wealthy banker and president of Chemical Bank who was among the largest landowners in New York City. They decided to build their railroad on the eastern side of Manhattan Island, convinced that it would never be able to compete with steamboat traffic on the Hudson River.
The first section, along Bowery from Prince Street north to 14th Street, opened on November 26, 1832. After that, the following sections opened:
Between 1847 and 1856, a track was built in Grand Street between Centre Street and Bowery (along with one block on the Bowery) for northbound trains. Southbound trains continued to use the old route.
In 1864 or 1865, a branch was added for trains between downtown and the East 34th Street Ferry Landing, running along 32nd Street, Lexington Avenue and 34th Street. This was the start of separate horse car service, running between Astor House and the ferry.
Grand Central Depot opened just north of 42nd Street in October 1871, and intercity passenger trains from the north were ended there. Freight trains continued to operate along the tracks south of Grand Central, as did streetcars (still turning off at 42nd Street).
Operation and control.
As in other early railroads, the dominant propulsion in the railroad's early years was horse power. In 1837, steam engines were introduced, but their use was limited to areas outside of the heavily settled parts of the city, which was then north of 23rd Street.
The New York City Common Council passed an ordinance on December 27, 1854, to take effect in 18 months, barring the NY&H from using steam power south of 42nd Street, due to complaints by persons whose property abutted the right-of-way. Before that, the steam locomotives had run to 32nd Street. When the ordinance took effect, the NY&H had not done anything. After much debate, including an injunction issued preventing the city from enforcing the ordinance, the courts struck down the injunction on July 30, 1858.
In 1864, the railroad was purchased by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who consolidated it five years later with the Hudson River Railroad to form the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, a precursor of the much larger New York Central Railroad.
On July 2, 1870, horsecars started to run not only to the 34th Street Ferry but to 73rd Street via Madison Avenue. These trains ran through the Murray Hill Tunnel and turned west on 42nd before going north on Madison (northbound cars used Vanderbilt Avenue to 44th Street). The line was soon extended to 86th Street and then to Harlem.
On April 1, 1873, the NY&H leased its freight lines to the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, but the horsecar line south of Grand Central remained separate. This eventually became the New York Central Railroad and then part of Penn Central and Conrail. Metro-North Railroad took over the line in 1983.
The first electric streetcar open to passengers in New York City, a Julien electric traction car, was run on September 17, 1888 on the line to 86th Street. The line went back to using horses for a time, but switched to a "below-grade third rail" (commonly called a "conduit") in 1897. On July 1, 1896, the Metropolitan Street Railway leased the streetcar lines.
Receivership and conversion to bus operation.
The New York City Railway, which leased the Metropolitan, and hence also these lines, went into receivership on September 24, 1907. The receivers returned operation of the Fourth Avenue line back to the Metropolitan Street Railway on July 31, 1908. The lease was terminated on January 31, 1920 with operation was returned to the NY&H.
On October 10, 1932, it was leased again, this time to the New York Railways Corporation, with the right to convert the line to bus operation. The stockholders voted to do this on February 19, 1934.
An approximation of the route is now traveled by NYCT Bus's M1 bus. The Murray Hill Tunnel now carries a lane of roadway, but not the buses.


Alberni Valley Heritage Network

The Alberni Valley Heritage Network in Port Alberni, British Columbia consists of the Alberni Valley Museum (First Nations culture, local and industrial history and folk art), the McLean Mill National Historic Site (a historic steam-operated sawmill), the Alberni Pacific Railway (a steam-powered heritage railway), and the Maritime Discovery Centre.


Montagu Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon

Montagu Arthur Bertie, 7th Earl of Abingdon, DL (13 May 1836 – 10 March 1928) was an English peer.
Early life.
Montagu Arthur Bertie was born on 13 May 1836 at Hanover Square, Mayfair. He was the eldest of nine children born to Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon (1808–1884) and Elizabeth Lavinia (née Vernon-Harcourt) Bertie, Countess of Abingdon (1816–1858). His younger brother was Francis Bertie, 1st Viscount Bertie of Thame, who served as the British Ambassador to France.
His maternal grandparents were George Granville Vernon-Harcourt, a British Member of Parliament, and Lady Elizabeth Bingham, the eldest daughter of Richard Bingham, 2nd Earl of Lucan. His paternal grandfather was Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon, and his first wife Emily (née Gage) Bertie, who was the fifth daughter of General Hon. Thomas Gage, the Commander-in-Chief, North America. Through his great-grandmother, Margaret Kemble Gage, he had Dutch and Huguenot ancestral roots from the Schuyler, Van Cortlandt, and the Delancey families of British North America.
Lord Norreys attended Eton College in Windsor.
Career.
Bertie served as High Steward of Abingdon and the Deputy Lieutenant of Berkshire. His father had served as Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire from 1854 until 1881 and his grandfather before him from 1826 until 1854. Upon his father's death in 1884, he succeeded to the peerage as the 7th Earl of Abingdon and the 11th Lord Norris.
As Lord Norreys, he entered the 3rd Reserve Battalion, Princess Charlotte of Wales Berkshire Regiment (formerly the Royal Berkshire Militia) on 12 March 1858, he resigned but was appointed Major by his father in 1861. He was later made Honorary Colonel on 27 October 1880. He was also a Justice of the Peace for Oxfordshire and Berkshire and served on the governing body of Abingdon School from 1901 to 1915.
Personal life.
On 10 July 1858 he married Caroline Theresa Towneley (1838–1873) at the Roman Catholic Royal Bavarian Chapel in London. She was the daughter and co-heiress of Colonel Charles Towneley, a Member of Parliament for Sligo, and Lady Caroline Molyneux (daughter of William Molyneux, 2nd Earl of Sefton). They lived at Wytham Abbey in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) and had four children together:
After the death of his first wife in 1873, he remarried to Gwendoline Mary Dormer (1865–1942) on 16 October 1883. Gwendoline was the daughter of James Charlemagne Dormer, a British Army officer who was only two years Bertie's senior. Together, they were the parents of four more children:
In 1911, he broke up and sold the family estates at Albury and Great Haseley.
The Earl of Abingdon died on 10 March 1928, aged 91, at Oaken Holt in Oxfordshire, in South East England. He was buried at Abingdon Abbey in Abingdon. His widow lived to age 77 and died on 16 September 1942.
Descendants.
From his first marriage, and through his eldest daughter, he was a grandfather to Henry FitzAlan-Howard, 2nd Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent, who served as a captain in the First World War and was wounded. Through his eldest son, he was the grandfather of Montagu Towneley-Bertie, who succeeded his grandfather in his titles. Through his daughter, Lady Alice Bertie, he was the grandfather of Priscilla Reyntiens, a London councillor whose second marriage was to Montagu Norman, 1st Baron Norman, governor of the Bank of England.
From his second marriage, and through his daughter Lady Gwendoline Bertie, he was the grandfather of the artist John Spencer-Churchill and Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, who married Anthony Eden, the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-1950s. Through his son Hon. Arthur Bertie, he was the grandfather of Richard Bertie, 14th Earl of Lindsey. Through his youngest son, The Hon. James Bertie, he was the grandfather of Andrew Bertie, Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Through his youngest child, daughter Lady Elizabeth Bertie, he was the grandfather of Sophie de Trafford, who married Charles Lyell, 2nd Baron Lyell and great-grandfather of Charles Lyell, 3rd Baron Lyell.


Grattan massacre

The Grattan Massacre, also known as the Grattan Fight, was the opening engagement of the First Sioux War, fought between United States Army and Lakota Sioux warriors on August 19, 1854. It occurred east of Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory, in present-day Goshen County, Wyoming.
A small detachment of soldiers entered a large Sioux encampment to arrest a man accused of taking a migrant's cow, although such matters by treaty were to be handled by the US Indian Agent. After one of the soldiers fatally shot Chief "Matȟó Wayúhi" (Conquering Bear), the Brulé Lakotas returned fire and killed a total of 29 soldiers, Lieutenant John Grattan, and a civilian interpreter. The massacre, as it was called by the American press, is considered an early and significant event in the Plains Indian Wars.
Background.
In the late summer of 1854, about 4,000 Brulé and Oglala were camped near Fort Laramie, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of 1851. On August 17, a cow belonging to a Mormon traveling on the nearby Oregon Trail strayed and was killed by a visiting Miniconjou (Sioux) named High Forehead.
Lt. Hugh Fleming, the senior officer of the small garrison, consulted with the chief, "Matȟó Wayúhi" or Conquering Bear, to discuss the loss of livestock. Lt. Fleming was evidently unaware, or chose to ignore, that such matters were, by the terms of the Treaty of 1851, to be handled by the local Indian Agent, in this case John Whitfield. He was due to arrive within days with annuities with which restitution could be made.
Aware that the matter was not under the purview of the military, Conquering Bear still attempted to negotiate, offering a horse from his personal herd or a cow from the tribe's herd. The cow's owner persisted in demanding $25 instead. Lt. Fleming asked the Sioux to arrest High Forehead and deliver him to the fort, which Conquering Bear refused; he had no authority over the Miniconjou and did not want to violate his people's tradition of hospitality. The day's talk ended in stalemate.
On August 19, 1854, Second Lieutenant John Lawrence Grattan, of the U.S. 6th Infantry Regiment, a recent graduate of West Point and supernumerary waiting for a vacancy in the regiment, led an armed detachment into the Indian encampment to take custody of High Forehead and bring him back to the fort. Grattan was inexperienced and described as contemptuous of the Lakotas' ability as warriors. This was his first encounter with the Sioux.
A commander at Laramie later recalled, "There is no doubt that Lt. Grattan left this post with a desire to have a fight with the Indians, and that he had determined to take the man at all hazards." In Grattan's party were a sergeant, a corporal, 27 privates and a French-Indian interpreter named Lucien Auguste; the military forces had two artillery pieces in addition to arms.
Events.
By the time the detachment reached the encampment, Auguste was intoxicated from drinking along the way, as he feared the encounter. Grattan broke his bottle and scolded him. Auguste was not well liked by the Sioux; he spoke only broken Dakota, and had little grasp of other dialects. As they entered the encampment, he began to taunt the Sioux, calling their warriors women, and saying the soldiers were not there to talk, but to kill them all. James Bordeaux, who owned the nearby trading post and observed the encounter, later recounted Auguste's comments.
Historians estimate the encampment had some 1,200 warriors among the total 4,800 population. According to Bordeaux, Lt. Grattan began to realize the risk. He stopped to discuss the situation with the trader. Bordeaux advised him to talk directly with Conquering Bear and let him handle the situation. Grattan seemed to understand and continued on into the encampment. Going first to the lodge of High Forehead, he ordered him to surrender to the US forces. High Forehead said he would die first.
Grattan went to Conquering Bear, saying the Sioux should arrest the guilty party and turn him over. Conquering Bear refused but tried to negotiate, offering a horse as compensation for the cow. Bordeaux reportedly said the interpreter Auguste taunted the Sioux, and failed to fully or accurately translate Conquering Bear and Grattan's comments, as there seemed to be confusion between them. Conquering Bear asked for the trader Bordeaux to act as interpreter, as the Sioux trusted him and his language ability. Called by the Sioux, Bordeaux rode to the meeting place; later he said he could see the situation was out of hand. As Grattan pressed Conquering Bear, numerous Sioux warriors moved into flanking positions around the soldiers. Bordeaux returned to the trading post, where he told associates to arm themselves, as a fight was brewing.
Ending the discussion, Grattan began walking back to his column. A nervous soldier fired his gun, shooting a Sioux. The warriors started shooting arrows while leaders tried to take control. Conquering Bear was mortally wounded and died nine days later near the Niobrara River. The Sioux warriors quickly killed Grattan, 11 of his men, and the interpreter. A group of some 18 soldiers retreated on foot trying to reach some rocks for defense, but they were cut off and killed by warriors led by Red Cloud, a rising war chief within the Sioux. One soldier survived the massacre but later died of his wounds.
Conquering Bear was the only Lakota who was killed. The Sioux spared Bordeaux, both because he was married to a Brulé Sioux woman, and he had a friendly relationship with the tribes.
Aftermath.
The enraged warriors "rampaged throughout the night, swearing to attack other whites." They rode against Fort Laramie the next morning but withdrew; they looted the trading post but did not harm Bordeaux. On the third day after the US attack, the Brûlé and Oglala abandoned the camp on the North Platte River and returned to their respective hunting grounds. On the fourth day, the military asked Bordeaux to arrange a burial party. His team went to the scene and found that the slain soldiers had been ritually mutilated. Grattan’s body was identified by his watch and was returned to the post for burial. The remains of the troops were interred at the site in a mass shallow grave.
The soldiers' remains were later exhumed and re-interred at Fort McPherson National Cemetery, where a white marble monument was erected in their memory. Grattan's remains were moved later and reinterred to Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas. A historical marker was later erected about one-half mile from the site of the events (see photo above.)
The U.S. press called the event the "Grattan Massacre." Accounts generally ignored the US soldiers' instigation of the event by their failure first, to leave it up to the Indian agent to settle, as called for in the treaty, and second, shooting chief Conquering Bear in the back. When news of the fight reached the War Department, officials started planning retaliation to punish the Sioux. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis characterized the incident as "the result of a deliberately formed plan."
Col. William S. Harney was recalled from Paris in April 1855 and sent to Fort Kearny, where he assembled a command of 600 troops, consisting of men from the 6th Infantry, 10th Infantry, 4th Artillery, and his own 2nd US Dragoons. In all he had four mounted companies led by Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke and five companies of infantry under Major Albemarle Cady. They set out on August 24, 1855 to find the Sioux and exact retribution. Harney was quoted as saying, "By God, I'm for battle—no peace."
Warned by Thomas S. Twiss of the Indian Bureau that the army had put a force in the field, half of the Lakota camped north of the Platte went into Fort Laramie for protection as "friendlies". The other half, generally led by Conquering Bear's successor Little Thunder, remained at large. They considered themselves peaceful but knew that Harney was out with a force. They continued to harbor warriors sought by the army. Harney engaged them in the Battle of Ash Hollow (also known as the Battle of Bluewater Creek) on September 3, 1855. U.S. soldiers killed 86 Brulé Sioux, half of them women and children, in present-day Garden County, Nebraska. The "New York Times" and other newspapers recounted the battle as a massacre because so many women and children were killed. The village of 230 persons was caught between an assault by the infantry and a blocking force by the cavalry.
Harney returned to Fort Laramie with 70 prisoners, most of them women and children. On October 25 the three warriors sought by the expedition surrendered, were held for a year at Fort Leavenworth, and were released. Harney ordered the tribes to send representatives to a treaty council at Fort Pierre in March 1856, where a treaty was signed on terms dictated by the War Department. Twiss tried to undermine the treaty, and Harney had him removed from office, although he did not have the authority to do so. Commissioner of Indian Affairs George W. Manypenny successfully lobbied the Senate to reject the treaty, and Twiss was reinstated. Harney's actions against the Lakota restrained them for nearly ten years. The US was soon involved in the American Civil War, and did not have resources to fight on the Great Plains.
Historians such as Griske believe the following nearly quarter-century of intermittent warfare on the Great Plains was triggered by the Grattan massacre. Others suggest numerous factors, especially US desire for control of lands that were Sioux territory, that contributed to make warfare inevitable.
Notes.
Footnotes
Citations


Conde McCullough

Conde Balcom McCullough (May 30, 1887 – May 6, 1946) was an American civil engineer who is primarily known for designing many of Oregon's coastal bridges on U.S. Route 101. The native of South Dakota worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation from 1919 to 1935 and 1937 until 1946. McCullough also was a professor at Oregon State University.
Early life.
Conde McCullough was born in Redfield, South Dakota, on May 30, 1887. In 1891, he and his family moved to Iowa where his father died in 1904. McCullough then worked at various jobs to support the family. In 1910, he graduated from Iowa State University with a civil engineering degree.
Career.
McCullough began working for the Marsh Bridge Company in Des Moines, Iowa, where he remained for one year. He then went to work for the Iowa State Highway Commission. He moved to Oregon in 1916 and became an assistant professor of civil engineering at Oregon Agricultural College, and the sole structural engineering professor at the school. In 1919 he became the head of the Bridge Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation, making him personally responsible for the design of Oregon's bridges at a time when the state was completing Highway 101.
His designs are well known for their architectural beauty. McCullough advocated that bridges be built economically, efficiently, and with beauty. He helped design over 600 bridges, many with architectural details such as Gothic spires, art deco obelisks, and Romanesque arches incorporated into the bridges. In 1928, he graduated from Willamette University College of Law and passed the bar the same year. In 1935 he moved to San José, Costa Rica to help design bridges on the Pan-American Highway. He returned to Oregon in 1937 to become the assistant state highway engineer.
Later life and legacy.
In 1934 McCullough was granted an honorary doctorate from Oregon State University. He published "The Engineer at Law" with his son John McCullough who also was an attorney. McCullough died of a stroke at his home in Salem, Oregon on May 6, 1946. He was interred in the Mount Crest Abbey Mausoleum at City View Cemetery in Salem. His wife Marie was interred there after her death in 1954. Following McCullough's death, the state of Oregon renamed the Coos Bay Bridge in his honor.