Giveaway Winner!

The giveaway winner is…commentator #13:

Karen from Faith, Family, & Fibromyalgia and had quite a juicy random tidbit about herself:

One random tidbit that no one in the bloggy world knows. I dated an American Muslim for 11 years.

And the answer to #24 (which was what is my non-Caucasian ethnicity) is…well, first let’s go over everyone’s guesses. That’s always fun.

I’ve had people ask if I’m Mexican, part Chinese, Hawaiian, Samoan, half African-American, and probably some more I can’t remember.

You all guessed I was Persian, Guatemalan, Japanese, Lebanese, or Greek.

Well…still no one has correctly guessed my “other half”! Maybe I’ll just keep it a secret. Just kidding.

Here’s a clue:

I am 50% Native American (or American Indian depending on which seems more politically correct to you—neither bother me).

I’m from the Lumbee tribe of Lumberton, North Carolina in Robeson County. I know you’ve never heard of it…it seems no one has. But it is one of the top ten largest tribes in the US (at least in the early 1990s).

Random facts about the Lumbee that you always wanted to know, but never did:

• If you open up a phone book in Lumberton my maiden name (Oxendine) runs like Smith. Which I always thought was cool, because no one could EVER pronounce or spell Oxendine right. And it’s really not that hard. The plural of ox and dine. How hard is that?
• University of North Carolina at Pembroke was originally an Indian school.
• We are a tribe recognized by North Carolina, but the federal government has yet to fully recognize us. Why? We don’t have a surviving language. We have mixed-blood. We’re a mix of other tribes, African-Americans who were runaway slaves, and the lost colony.
• The Lost Colony. This is probably the coolest tidbit. Sir Walter Raleigh set out to establish a colony on the outer banks of North Carolina (though he himself never went). Eventually a settlement was settled there and the Governor returned to explain some hostile situations to the crown and ask for help. When he returned three years later, the colony had disappeared.  The only clue was “Croatan” a tribe who which mine is descended from. The story goes that the lost colony was absorbed into our tribe. All of this really is story and conjecture, but there are some conducting DNA research among tribes in the area and artifacts. It’ll be interesting to see what they find.
• Our tribe has ran the KKK out of Robeson County numerous times, even upsetting their rallies. (You can’t help but smile at that.)
• The Lumbee don’t have a reservation and refuse to build casinos if they did.
• We had our own Robin Hood: Henry Berry Lowrie.
• Even though the Lumbee weren’t forced west on the Trail of Tears they were still subject to violence, harassment, and segregation. My grandma tells stories of going to the movie theater and having to sit in a separate balcony from the whites and African-Americans. She even refused to give up her seat on a bus once (and this was before Rosa Parks).
• The Lumbee can be pretty superstitious. I have a great-aunt who truly believes her dead husband inhabits her house.

And that, my friends, is probably more information on the Lumbee than you’ve ever known or wanted to know.

So thanks for sitting around my fire and smoking the proverbial peace pipe with me!

Tagged as: family, giveaway, pictures