The Natives Are Restless

INDIANS The Natives Are Restless

The 30,000 Indians who live in Robeson County, N.C. are a tough but fairly peace-loving lot. They are called the Lumbees, and some claim to be descendants of the centuries-old Croatans.* They are professional people, political leaders, small businessmen, small farmers, sharecroppers; like most Indians, they prefer to keep to themselves while maintaining fairly good relations with the 40,000 whites and 25,000 Negroes in the area. But last week in Robeson County, there sounded ancient Indian anger. The Lumbees were out against the Ku Klux Klan, an organization of sons of immigrants who have long cried their devotion to 100% Americanism, white division.

Zero Hour. The Lumbees were restless because the Klan had burned two crosses as warnings to Indians to keep their place. (Backward Robeson County has three-way segregation in schools.) Despite the gentle protests of their elders, and of community officials around the county, many of the Lumbees calmly began to polish squirrel rifles and knives. Rumors ran that ammunition and other arms were selling at a fast clip in neighborhood shops. When the Klan sent around handbills announcing a rally in a field near Maxton, the Indians fixed their zero hour.

In the field that night, 75 Klansmen, one robed in white sheets, some armed with shotguns, gathered round the public-address system set up by Klan leaders. Above the crowd, hung a single bare electric bulb. Off to one side assembled fascinated observers and newsmen. Across the road stood about 350 young Lumbees.

Lights Out. First the Indians hooted a few jeers. The Klan ignored them. Then slowly the Lumbees fanned out and moved across the road. A tall Indian youth walked closer, raised his rifle, calmly drew a bead on the light bulb, and baml--out it went. Suddenly the band galloped toward the huddled Klansmen, yelling old war cries, firing into the dark night and at auto tires. Most of the Klansmen dropped their guns and made for their cars in fright. The Indians kept coming (one proudly wore a traditional feathered headdress marked SOUVENIR OF CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C.), burst upon the public-address system, tore it apart, grabbed the emblazoned Klan banner.

Yelling, shouting and shooting at nothing in particular, the Indians struck their cheerful terror until a plain-clothes deputy tossed a tear-gas bomb into the mob; then braves and Klansmen alike scattered. Soon state troopers sped into the field and disarmed them all. Happily the Lumbees jogged home, certain that the race-baiting bunch of newcomers to American soil would not mess around much more with Americans of a different brand.

*When Sir Walter Raleigh's Roanoke Island colony mysteriously disappeared some time between 1587 and 1590, the message CROATOAN was found carved on a tree. The"lost colony," some experts believe, joined the Croatan Indians. Among them: Virginia Dare.

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