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Lumbee Culture

 

 

LUMBEE CULTURE

 

 

 

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Female Lumbee traditional regalia is a Southern style dress worn with pine cone patchwork attached to an apron and a matching shawl. The Pine Cone Patchwork was inspired by a quilt made by Henry Berry Lowry's daughter, and is distinctly Lumbee in design. The patchwork design was initially created for Natasha Wagner, a former Miss Indian USA by Hayes A. Locklear and has since become a staple in area pow wow's.

Lumbee Homecoming is a tradition among the tribe that has been held annually since 1970. Homecoming is especially important in that it brings together members of families, many from great distances, for a weeklong celebration of Lumbee culture. Festivities include a parade, a pow wow, pageants, and other cultural events.

The ethnographer Frank Speck researched the use of gourds by Lumbee in the 1930's, and compared their use with that of other American Indian tribes.

Mary Margaret Steedly wrote her Master's thesis in 1979 on the folk medical system used by a Lumbee healer, Vernon Cooper. She found that Cooper's healing practice combined homeopathy, fundamentalist Christian faith healing, traditional Indian herbal medicine, and some elements of non-Native curing techniques. She also described the system as a unique expression of the tribe's social and cultural setting.

In 1977 and 1978, Edward M. Croom spent 2 years documenting plant remedies among the Lumbee. He interviewed 25 Lumbee elders who learned plant remedies from their family and friends as a normal part of childhood. Croom also compared Lumbee use of medicinal plants to other American Indian cultures and found numerous similarities.

 
 

Lumbee Patchwork

 

Patchwork Quilt