Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

This detailed article focuses on the public school education of Lumbees in Baltimore (particularly Patterson High School, on Kane Street and only three miles from the Baltimore American Indian Center). Patterson High School has 2,000 students, 60 of them American Indian. The 1999 survey of Indians in Baltimore conducted for the Baltimore American Indian Center showed a high dropout rate; the same was reflected in Futch's interviews. In order to determine the attitudes and outlook of school-age Lumbees in Baltimore, Futch talked with Keith Colston, Lumbee and Tuscarora, who is cultural director for the Baltimore American Indian Center; Lumbee students who worked as volunteers from the Indian Center at its concession stand at Baltimore Orioles games; and Jeannette Walker, who came to Baltimore from Robeson County at age 15 and will teach a Native American studies course for the Baltimore public schools. The impressions of young people that emerged were that many of them aren't interested in moving back to Robeson County; many are capable of staying in school and graduating, but aren't self-motivated and need family members or teachers to push them; and many have professional aspirations.