Lumbee Legacy: Welcome to the Crossroads of America
Welcome to the Crossroads of America, where the future meets the past and the swamps of southeastern North Carolina and northeastern South Carolina hold the blood and history of America's first civil war, the Revolutionary War in the Colonial south. This land is where neighbor fought neighbor, patriot against Tory, traitor against loyalist, and where the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, the father of guerilla warfare, raided and harassed British General Cornwallis, ultimately leading to his defeat at Yorktown.
According to documented Lumbee oral tradition, Lumbee Indians served as guides and fought alongside the Swamp Fox against the British. The Lumbee were also masters of guerilla warfare, making them the grandfather of American guerilla warfare.
Welcome to the land where ancient trading routes crossed, leading from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico or from the mountains down to the sea. It is where refugees from Indian tribes, who were traditionally enemies, joined forces and took in runaway slaves and whites. It is the land where the descendant of French religious refugees, Francis Marion, also found sanctuary.
The Lumbee, a distinct Native American ethnic group of southeastern North Carolina, numbering around 60,000, are primarily located in Robeson County, NC. The Lumbee tribe is the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River with 53,800 enrolled members, making them the ninth-largest tribe in the United States [2].
As Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes in her book Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and adapted to segregation [1]. The Lumbee's history includes successful guerilla warfare against the Confederacy and the production of a teenage Robin Hood, Henry Berry Lowrie, who in his day was maybe better known nationally than Jesse James [1].
Welcome to Lumbee Legacy, a project that seeks to honor and preserve the rich history of the Lumbee people. Let us explore the legacy of this tribe and learn about their struggles and triumphs throughout history. The Lumbee have left an indelible mark on the land they call home, and their contributions to American history cannot be overlooked. Join us as we celebrate the Lumbee and their legacy at the Crossroads of America.
- #LumbeeLegacy
- #CrossroadsofAmerica
- #NativeAmericanHistory
- #FrancisMarion
- #GuerillaWarfare
- #RevolutionaryWar
- #HenryBerryLowrie
- #RobesonCounty
- #SoutheasternNC
#Lumbee #Lumbeetribe #Richardmathis #Mathisphotography
Into the Mandala
Into the living mandala, wherever I go, I am the center, the middle of the wheel, around all of it spinning and each one I see, everywhere I see is also the center, you are the center, I am the center, there is no center and the center is everywhere.
Going out in the morning, breaking free from the warm embrace of my loving blankets, wonder awaits in the mist, a leaf twirling down, a magical dancer dressed in gold and burgundy pirouetting round and round down to the ground found by this one who is like Adam with a camera set loose in the garden of wonder
May my photos be joyous songs singing the praises of wonder, of awe, of "oh, wow" for there is no higher praise in the garden of wonder than "oh, wow, OMG"
The Garden of Composition
Art is the interaction of many forces. This image is the result of the creativity of the sculptor. Of the landscape artist(s) who laid out the garden. Who formed the curves of the paths. Positioned the fences. Chose the plants. It is the result of every attempt ever made to visually represent what was seen so others could see it. From tracing lines in the sand to painting on the walls of caves to Monet to 3D special effects, all art, good and bad, is connected. So is the technology. Whether it is learning to use a stick to draw in the sand or that hairs can make brushes and bushes and other things can make pigments for paints or that camera obscuras can magically capture images all the way up to an old man with a head full of art slides who is equipped with a Nikon camera and a Sigma arts lens out playing art in the garden of composition. Sometimes I feel like a puppet being moved around until I am in the exactly right spot to see the incredible beauty of how forces come together.
Walking in the rain with Monet in the garden
Cold and wet, rain all day long, overcast and dark, what a lovely day to be in the garden. Creativity for me is a solitary pursuit. I seldom go out to take photos in nature with someone tagging along. I want to be alone with the living muse. A cold and rainy garden provides the perfect setting.
Although I am alone, I am not alone. Every piece of artwork I have ever seen walks with me. Monet, let me look through your eyes. Come walk with me. Your garden is not just in France it's everywhere you walk, where you see.
All visual art begins with seeing. If you cannot see art when you look then you cannot create art. You might be very skilled technically but unless you can see art, your photographs may be very good but they will not be art.
Some years back I helped juror an art show. Two photographs didn't make it. One was badly out of focus, very blurred. The other was very well focused but had no focus. Is it in focus, and what is the focus are two basic elements for me when it comes to photography. You can take an excellent picture of a banana duct-taped to the wall. What's the point? Is it art?
Which brings me back to the old joke of when the devil first saw Eden. "Yes, it is beautiful. But is it art?"
I am art creating art. Do I create the art or does art create me to create art? What say you, Plato, of the eternal forms dancing and shifting here like the shadows on the wall of a cave? Am I the art or the artist? Am I both?
Guardian of the Garden - Beauty of the Beast
There is no beauty without there being ugliness. There can be no good without there being bad with which to compare it. The more one opens to the beauty of the world, the more one sees the incredible ugliness. Life can be so wonderful. Life can be so senselessly brutal. Not only life but as people are the same. We can be so wonderful to each other that it is heavenly. We can be so cruel that is a living hell. The guardian of the way scares away the timid. For to know great truth, one must see the evil along with the good. One hears the songs of bliss and joy, as well as the cries and wails of the world. Welcome to the veil of tears, the garden of creation itself.