Pembroke, North Carolina

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Pembroke (pronounced PEM-broke by natives) is a town in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 2,399, at the 2000 census.89% of which is Native American. The town is the tribal seat of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina.

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[edit] Geography

Location of Pembroke, North Carolina

Pembroke is located at 34°40′55″N, 79°11′45″W (34.681949, -79.195765)GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 6.1 km² (2.3 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

According to the 2000 censusGR2, there were 2,399 people, 961 households, and 611 families residing in the town. The population density was 395.8/km² (1,023.9/mi²). There were 1,043 housing units at an average density of 172.1/km² (445.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was:

There were 961 households out of which 35.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.3% were married couples living together, 32.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.4% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.12.

In the town the population was spread out with 34.8% under the age of 18, 11.5% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 17.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 27 years. For every 100 females there were 75.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 64.9 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $18,355, and the median income for a family was $21,218. Males had a median income of $26,875 versus $21,510 for females. The per capita income for the town was $10,202. About 39.9% of families and 40.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 54.3% of those under age 18 and 34.1% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] History

[edit] Earliest Period

Archaeological excavations now being performed throughout Robeson County reveal a long and rich history of widespread and consistent occupation, especially near the Lumbee, or Lumber River since the end of the last Ice Age. The Lumbee, or Lumber River winds its way through Pembroke. Indeed, precursor settlements to what is now Pembroke sprung up alongside the river's banks, and artifacts found there have been dated to the early Woodland period. This suggests that Native American settlements along the river were part of an extensive trade network with other regions of what is now the Southeast of the United States. After colonial contact, European-made items, such as kaolin tobacco pipes, were traded by the Spanish, French, and the English to Native American peoples of the coast, and found their way within Pembroke's reach long before Europeans established their settlements.

Swamps, streams, and artesian wells provided an excellent supply of water for Native peoples. Fish was plentiful, and the regions lush vegetation included numerous food crops. "Carolina bays," creeks, swamps, pocosins, and longleaf pines continue to mark the distinctive wetland landscape of Pembroke.

In 1725, colonial English surveyors for the Wineau factory mapped a village of Waccamaw Siouan Indians on the Lumber River, a few miles west of present-day Pembroke. In 1754, North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs received a report from his agent, Col. Rutherford, the head of a Bladen County militia, that a "mixed crew" of 50 Indian families were living along Drowning Creek and in the same vicinity of the Siouan Waccamaw settlement. The communication also reported the shooting of a surveyor who entered the area "to view vacant lands." These are the first written accounts of the Native Americans from whom the Lumbee descend.

The Lowry War of 1861 to 1874, considered one of the most important and controversial events in North Carolina history, took place in and around Pembroke. Led by Henry Berry Lowry, a 17-year old Lumbee Indian boy whose father and brother were murdered at the hands of the Confederate Home Guard, a clan of North Carolinian Indian and African-Americans waged a seven year guerilla war against the Confederacy in the areas near Robeson and Pembroke. During the fighting, Lowry and many others, escaped into the surrounding swamps, a tactic that they would use over and over again and which would prove highly successful at helping them avoid capture. As the war dragged on, food became scarce as more outliers (including escaped slaves, Confederate deserters and Union prison escapees) fled to this sanctuary. As such, the rebel band were forced to change tactics and decided to live off the wealthy class of people instead of the poor. The band raided plantations and distributed food to the poor in Pembroke, North Carolina, which was known then as "Scuffletown" or "The Settlement". Toward century's end, the town would be named for railroad official, Pembroke Jones.

[edit] Pembroke Today

Pembroke is the tribal seat of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River, the ninth largest tribal nation, and the largest non-reservation, federally recognized without benefits, state-recognized tribe in the United States. The Lumbee comprise roughly one-half the state of North Carolina's Native American population of 84,000 with a population of 52,614, and live in Robeson, Hoke, Scotland, and Cumberland counties.

[edit] Pembroke Events

  • Lumbee Homecoming - June 23-July 1, 2006
  • Strike at the Wind, July 1-August 26, 2006, every Friday and Saturday.
  • Lumbee Fall Powwow
  • The North Carolina Indian Cultural Center - operates a museum of local Native American arts and crafts in their Long House facility, and the recreation area where the restored Henry Berry Lowrie cabin is also on display. Programs of the North Carolina Indian Cultural Center include the outdoor drama, "Strike at the Wind," pow-wows, seasonal festivals, musical shows, and other educational events.

[edit] Pembroke Notables

  • David Maynor, a Lumbee Indian, is a notable computer security researcher who founded Errata Security in 2006. He is best known for discovering a way to take control of an Apple Macbook over its wireless interface.
  • Chris Chavis, a Lumbee Indian, is a professional wrestler better known as, "Tatanka" and "The War Eagle," and is a member of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
  • Rev. Mike Cummings, a Lumbee Indian, former president of North Carolina's Baptist State Convention, and Director of Missions, Burnt Swamp Baptist Association.
  • Malinda Maynor, a Lumbee Indian, co-produced the documentary, In the Light of Reverence in 2001. In 2006, she became the first of two Native American tenure-track professors at Harvard University, and is currently finishing a book about Lumbee identity and federal recognition in the first half of the twentieth century.
  • Henry Berry Lowrie, a Lumbee Indian from "Scuffletown," who, during the post-Civil War years, appropriated white Revolutionary doctrine to gain rights and freedoms that were being denied to Indians in the Pembroke area, as well as throughout Robeson County. The Lowrie gang received considerable support from the Indian community, and were popular among poor blacks and whites who believed Lowrie and his gang best represented their interests. Lowrie become a Lumbee culture hero, representing those cultural and political boundaries that marked the Indians of Robeson County as a community of self-determining Native American people. Henry Berry Lowrie is the protagonist of the outdoor Lumbee drama, "Strike at the Wind".
  • Indiana Hoosier head coach Kelvin Sampson is a native.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

William McKee Evans, "To Die Game: The Story of the Lowry Band, Indian Guerrillas of Reconstruction", Syracuse University Press, 1995

Adolph L. Dial, David K. Eliades, "The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians", Syracuse University Press, 1996

Karen I. Blu, "The Lumbee Problem: The Making of an American Indian", University of Nebraska Press, 2001

E. Stanly Godbold, Jr. and Mattie U. Russell, "Confederate Colonel And Cherokee Chief: The Life Of William Holland Thomas", University of Tennessee Press, 1990

[edit] External links

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