Historian Malinda Maynor Lowery grew up hearing two distinct histories. One was American history taught in the classroom, and the other was the history of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, taught around the dinner table.
In reflecting on those disparate lessons, she realized Lumbees and non-Lumbee Americans tell the same fundamental story: their respective histories are centered on the fight for independence and for self-determination.
In her new book “The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle” (UNC Press/ 2018), Lowery combines memories of her own Lumbee ancestors with stories about key periods in Lumbee history.
Host Frank Stasio speaks with Lowery, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the director of theCenter for the Study of the American South, about teaching history to her daughter and the Lumbee tribe’s continued fight for federal recognition.