Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

Because county Indians requested educational assistance under the Indian Reorganization Act, McNickle spent a week in Robeson County. He states, “That they are Indians can not be doubted.” He notes that it “speaks strongly of the racial identity which these Indians have never lost cognizance of that they refused to associate with the Negroes in church and in school.” Quotes Swanton [entry 535]. McNickle is very sympathetic and in favor of recognition, noting that “they keep within themselves an unfailing recognition of their link with the past.” Recommends, as proof of Indian blood, that a commission be appointed to “sit continuously and hear applicants and witnesses under oath.”