"This book is nothing less than a retelling of American history itself, a story marked not just by violence and

betrayal, but also by kindness, tenacity, and a deep sense of belonging. Lowery is a fine writer with a splendid
narrative flair."
–Elizabeth Fenn, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author of Encounters at the Heart of the World

"I have been waiting a long, long time for just this book, a comprehensive history of the Lumbee people by a
distinguished historian who is also a Lumbee Indian. Lowery’s voice is one that can speak powerfully not
simply about the history, but from within the history and her own family. It is an eloquent voice, an important
history, an extraordinary people."
–Josephine Humphreys, author of Nowhere Else on Earth

The Lumbee Indians

An American Struggle
Malinda Maynor Lowery

Jamestown, the Lost Colony of Roanoke, and Plymouth Rock are central to America's mythic origin
stories. Then, we are told, the main characters–the "friendly" Native Americans who met the settlers–
disappeared. But the history of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina demands that we tell a different
story. As the largest tribe east of the Mississippi and one of the largest in the country, the Lumbees
have survived in their original homelands, maintaining a distinct identity as Indians in a biracial South.
In this passionately written, sweeping work of history, historian Malinda Maynor Lowery
narrates the Lumbees' extraordinary story as never before. The Lumbees' journey as a people sheds
new light on America's defining moments, from the first encounters with Europeans to the present day.
How and why did the Lumbees both fight to establish the United States and resist the encroachments
of its government? How have they not just survived, but thrived–through the Civil War, Jim Crow, the
civil rights movement, and the war on drugs–to ultimately establish their own constitutional
government in twenty-first century America? Their fight for full federal acknowledgment continues to
this day, while the Lumbee people's struggle for justice and self-determination continues to transform
our view of the American experience. Readers of this book will never again view Native American or
U.S. history the same way.
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Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee) is an associate professor of history and director of the Center for
the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her
bachelor's degree in history and literature from Harvard, a masters in documentary film production
from Stanford, as well as a PhD in history from UNC-Chapel Hill. Maynor Lowery is also the author
of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South.

UNC Press  Hardcover  September 2018 328 pages  978-1469646374