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

Misty Morning 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" 

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?

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.

All art arises from nature as do humans. I love this piece and its placement in the garden. The texture of the sculpture and the garden are so alike. Kudos to whomever placed the sculpture in this spot.

What are the emotions of the figure? Is it elation, satisfaction, a sense of oneness? A sense of oneness with both the beauty and brutality of life? As there is no light without darkness there is no beauty with ugliness. There is no good without bad. In the garden of good and evil the artist arises to share a vision, to share what is seen, what is felt. The artist is the eyes of the world.

I love not only the creativity of these two pieces of art but celebrate the composition, the placing of these two pieces in such a way so that someone like me could see the art. Art begins with seeing. At least visual art does. Seeing the art that is around us, in the ever changing living canvas. Art is like a filter in which to see the world.

Even the same work of art can appear quite new and different when seen from another perspective, from another position.

Thanks so much to the sculptors and to the curators who arranged these works so they could be appreciated.

The Mother of CreationWelcome to the sculpture garden of Mother Nature where art and nature are one,

Shall we enter through the portal into another dimension?

EntranceStep through the portal to expand the horizons of your mind.

Who knows where we go?

Stay tuned - more to come daily.

Swirls of green, it is in your breezes that I would walk, hearing the hoots of owls echoed through the cypress and oaks clinging to the banks curving along side the river snaking its way through sandy soils. oh, yes, swirls of green dancing in the gentle breezes, reflecting shimmering streaks of silver and shadows against the shallow sandbars, bands of color embracing me in the rhapsody of light and sounds and smells, it is in your breezes that I wander across creation, finding the forgotten me wherever I go.

Photography is the art of seeing the art all around that is worth seeing. Photography is seeing art anywhere on the giant living canvas which embraces us all. I am the canvas's tool, the canvas's eye, the camera, to glimpse and share the living canvas of art throughout life. I am the eyes of the world, the eyes which sees art, composition, exquisite play of light and dark shadows, the eyes which join with the camera to share the art that I see. Photography is living art, seeing art, sharing art of the living canvas.

I can still hear the zen teacher Phillip Kapleau speaking words of encouragement as he walked through the meditation hall: "Be like a cat, totally relaxed yet totally aware and ready to pounce."

To really see one has to be relaxed, free of distracting thoughts and emotions. One has to be relaxed and yet aware so that the fleeting moment can be seen and written in light. Photography means writing in light and when the setting sun is writing in light across the canvass of the sky one has to be ready to pounce, to act.

Seeing also requires one to allow people and nature to feel free to be seen as they are. People look their best in portraits when they are relaxed and feeling free to show who they really are.

So welcome to my seeing, to my exploring the world anew as if I was a child set loose in the boundless fields of creation, free to explore and play. If you would like, please let us take a walk together, or get together, and write in light for the world to see you as you want to be seen.