Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

As background for the Commissioner’s consideration of enrolling Robeson County Indians under the Indian Reorganization Act, McNickle provides a chronological account of their repeated requests, since 1888, for educational aid and federal recognition. He mentions that McPherson’s report relied heavily for historical data on Hamilton McMillan, “whose findings at best are of doubtful value.” If Swanton’s conclusions on the origins of county Indians are accepted instead of the Lost Colony theory, then “the quantity of Indian blood is probably greater than we have been assuming heretofore.” McNickle agrees with A. W. McLean that Indians have always been separated from others in the Robeson County area.