Reinterpreting a Native American Identity

Examining the Lumbee through the Peoplehood Model

Eric Hannel

Reinterpreting a Native American Identity discusses the ongoing and morphing politics
behind the federal government’s denial of full Lumbee tribal recognition. At the core of
the Lumbee struggle for federal recognition are issues of cultural authenticity, racism, misrecognition, and assimilation grounded in a longer history of colonialism. Beyond merely describing why denial has continually occurred, this booktakes an American Indian Studies approach through the use of the Peoplehood Model developed by Tom Holm et al as a way of arguing for a better and more consistent recognition process grounded in Indigenous methodology and worldview. The Peoplehood Model is juxtaposed with the Western Colonial Model, the process that describes efforts to assimilate another culture. This bookcenters on the four aspects of Peoplehood—language, sacred history, territory/place, and ceremonial cycle—and shows how these interrelated concepts inform the Lumbee identity and worldview vis-à-vis the federal government’s longstanding refusal to fully recognize the tribe. The government’s arguments, derived from the Western Colonial Model, are countered and challenged by Lumbee-centered knowledge and history regarding identity within a syncretistic system of survival as an Indigenous group.

This study illustrates that the tribe’s indigenous language has not been fully lost to assimilation, as the federal government argues, but that Lumbee English is marked by linguistic adaptation, which retains a Native American worldview in use and meaning. It further demonstrates that the Lumbee have maintained a sacred history and revere their homeland as the “promised land,” contrary to the position periodically espoused by the federal government. Lastly, this book argues that the system used to restrict Native American religion harkens back to Roman Law, adopted through the writings of Thomas Aquinas, later synthesized by Dominican theologian Franciscus de Victoria and eventually elevated to papal hierocratic ideology adopted by many colonizing countries. While Lumbee religion is Christian-centric, it is also intertwined with Indigenous spiritual and healing practices which are not subsumed by Christianity but are placed as equally valid within a spiritual system.

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-2211-3 • Hardback • October 2015 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

978-1-4985-2212-0 • eBook • October 2015 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Public Policy / Cultural Policy, Political Science / Human Rights, Political Science / Political Freedom, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Native American Studies

Reinterpreting a Native American Identity

Examining the Lumbee through the Peoplehood Model

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Reinterpreting a Native American Identity discusses the ongoing and morphing politics
behind the federal government’s denial of full Lumbee tribal recognition. At the core of
the Lumbee struggle for federal recognition are issues of cultural authenticity, racism, misrecognition, and assimilation grounded in a longer history of colonialism. Beyond merely describing why denial has continually occurred, this booktakes an American Indian Studies approach through the use of the Peoplehood Model developed by Tom Holm et al as a way of arguing for a better and more consistent recognition process grounded in Indigenous methodology and worldview. The Peoplehood Model is juxtaposed with the Western Colonial Model, the process that describes efforts to assimilate another culture. This bookcenters on the four aspects of Peoplehood—language, sacred history, territory/place, and ceremonial cycle—and shows how these interrelated concepts inform the Lumbee identity and worldview vis-à-vis the federal government’s longstanding refusal to fully recognize the tribe. The government’s arguments, derived from the Western Colonial Model, are countered and challenged by Lumbee-centered knowledge and history regarding identity within a syncretistic system of survival as an Indigenous group.

This study illustrates that the tribe’s indigenous language has not been fully lost to assimilation, as the federal government argues, but that Lumbee English is marked by linguistic adaptation, which retains a Native American worldview in use and meaning. It further demonstrates that the Lumbee have maintained a sacred history and revere their homeland as the “promised land,” contrary to the position periodically espoused by the federal government. Lastly, this book argues that the system used to restrict Native American religion harkens back to Roman Law, adopted through the writings of Thomas Aquinas, later synthesized by Dominican theologian Franciscus de Victoria and eventually elevated to papal hierocratic ideology adopted by many colonizing countries. While Lumbee religion is Christian-centric, it is also intertwined with Indigenous spiritual and healing practices which are not subsumed by Christianity but are placed as equally valid within a spiritual system.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 168 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-4985-2211-3 • Hardback • October 2015 • $114.00 • (£88.00)

978-1-4985-2212-0 • eBook • October 2015 • $108.00 • (£83.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Public Policy / Cultural Policy, Political Science / Human Rights, Political Science / Political Freedom, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural, Social Science / Ethnic Studies / Native American Studies

Author

Eric Hannel is an independent scholar.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
List of Tables
List of Acronyms

Introduction: Understanding the Contours of Democracy, Methodology and Structure

Chapter One
Social Structures, Historical Background, Regime Typology, and Economic Landscape of Bhutan

Chapter Two
A Perspective on the Wind of Political Dissents, Democratic Struggles and Mobilizing Resistance to Authoritarian Royal Regime

Chapter Three
State Repression, Social Control and Civil Resistance

Chapter Four
The Mirages of Royal Semi Authoritarian Jigmecracy without Democratization

Chapter Five
The Politics behind the Curtain of Royal Democracy

Chapter Six
Rhetoric of Monarchical Liberalization: Cautionary Notes on Democratic Prospects

Chapter Seven
Balancing Defense of Higher Universal Values and Interests: The Shift of India’s Approach to Democracy Promotion

Chapter Eight
Restructuring New Democratic Architecture from Wheels of Monarchy and Conservative Elites to Webs of Bhutanese Citizens

Conclusion

Bibliography

Glossary of Bhutanese Expressions

Index

Reviews

Hannel has crafted a useful account of the Lumbee people of North Carolina that will aid in debunking a number of preexisting myths and stereotypes about this Native nation.
— David E. Wilkins

This book will, hopefully, shift contemporary debates about identity away from settler-colonial metrics that have been adopted by some of our Indigenous relatives. It is sure to make readers re-think what they assume to be correct about many issues ranging from federal recognition, sacred sites, language revitalization, and even spirituality.
— Michael Lerma, Northern Arizona University