Report - Book Report/Review Example

Book Report Malinda Maynor Lowery’s Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation provides a crucial platform for understanding the history of North Carolinas Lumbee Indians, which has remained a contentious topic for a long period of time. Being a Lumbee herself, the author explores the Lumbee between Reconstruction period and the 1950s. Lowery explores the Western ideologies of race that emerged among the Lumbee to their disadvantage. According to the author, varying racial definitions that conquered the divided South region aggravated predicament of identity, nurturing native functionalism among the Lumbee.

The author asserts that the Lumbee responded to the pressure of identity by creating a fresh stratum of identity, which shielded them from both internal and external identity pressure. Lowery is candid to her audience by accepting that her first move was to confront her identity despite the fact that it could instigate animosities among the Lumbee concerning her political analysis of the region. As such, the author makes a perfect use of auto-ethnography, which elicits how colonial culture has shaped the way in which the Lumbee see the world around them.

Lowery clearly presents the idea that the Lumbee challenged the U.S. colonialist hegemony through their exhibition of many-sided identities and distinct political independence, which is often contrary to the tenets of Jim Crow system of race.Lowery delves further to the 19th century “Croatan Indians” where she explores the first attempts of the Lumbee to impose their authority over their affairs in 1885 via American educational system (21). The author proceeds put the native Indians of mixed-identity against their counterparts who collaborated with the whites in the South, thus demonstrating the idea that the Lumbee were rocked with divisions more than they were united courtesy of the benefits that came with supporting the white leadership (60).

However, the author introduces the readers to the “Siouans”, a 20th century middle class stratum of the Lumbee who were determined to lead the Indian population in the South to liberty devoid of absolute white control, which included a tussle between the “Croatans” and “Siouans” (75). Lowery reveals the Croatans collaboration with the whites and the Siouans assistance from Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) for congressional acknowledgment, which was the main objective of both camps. Despite the fact that both the Croatans and Siouans pursued similar interest for the benefit of the Lumbee society, the two faction of the society later caught themselves embroiled in identity duel concerning which side could offer Indians with more autonomy in the South.

Lowery’s book has strong credibility that wins the readers’ belief in the information presented with no qualm. The author engages with a range of primary sources, both spoken and written, which deeply informs her opinions and conclusions about the Lumbee. Lowery also employs conventional government records, tribal rolls, marriage records among other native sources to develop her book. The author’s engagement with ancient and modern Lumbee people provides her with first hand information free from distortion.

The author’s extensive inclusion of historical literature adds to her credibility. However, the possibility of misinformation can never be ruled out in interviews. Further, she is imperfect in her conclusions about the Lumbee because she fails to exhaust the Lumbee perspective as outlined in the book’s prologue. Nonetheless, Lowery’s book is a crucial platform for understanding the Lumbee’s identity tussles from ancient times to the present world.Work CitedLowery, Malinda Maynor. Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Print.