Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

In his letter to the editor from Raleigh, dated January 26, Fred A. Olds reports on visits of a few days each with the Croatans (now called Lumbees) in May of the previous year and the Cherokees of North Carolina in August. He describes the fishing areas and methods of each tribe. The Lumbee primarily fish in the Lumber River, which Olds explains is more properly called Lumbee. Olds mentions also the extensive swamps and the forests of cypress and juniper that border the river. The Lumbee fish, either from boats or from the bank, with long poles and long lines. They use worms or roaches for bait. They fish for black bass as well as for blue bream, which he says weighs one to two pounds, is a fine sport fish, and is delicious to eat. The following quotation gives Olds's comparison of Croatan fishing and hunting to Cherokee: "The Cherokees have exterminated the game in their high mountain country, and therein are widely different from the Croatans, for in the section inhabited by the latter there are as yet many deer, wild turkeys and squirrels, while as already stated there are no end of fish. The Croatans show more up-to-date methods in preserving their game than do the Cherokees. The Croatans generally use shotguns for killing game, though rifles, old and new pattern, are very frequent. Strange to say, these Croatans have always used the cross-bow, being the only Indians so far as known that ever used this weapon. They got this of course from the English side of their race, and it is a survival of the days of Queen Elizabeth. Of course they used the long-bow, too, but this has gone out for many a year, while cross-bows are yet made, though now these are not used for killing game, but merely for purposes of amusement, though some of them are extremely well made and duplicate the lines of the once so deadly English weapon."