With more than 70,000 enrolled members, the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina is the largest Native American nation east of the Mississippi river. In The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle, historian Malinda Maynor Lowery offers a comprehensive overview of Lumbee history from the sixteenth century to the present. Lowery is an associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also Lumbee. In the introduction, Lowery writes that she is “bound by two sets of ethics that overlap heavily: a Lumbee's obligation demands accountability to the people who have lived history, and a historian's responsibility demands accountability to the widest possible sources” (xvi). Lowery handles both excellently. The title refers to the Lumbee struggle against racism and political oppression to achieve independence, self-determination, and justice in the United States. It is not, Lowery notes, a struggle to maintain identity. This is an important distinction – the Lumbees know and have always known exactly who they are.

Lowery divides the book into seven chronological chapters, though each one has a distinct theme. A short personal interlude introduces and previews each. For example, Lowery begins a chapter on Lumbee independence with an anecdote about their annual homecoming, a multiday community celebration that overlaps with Independence Day in early July. In the first few chapters, Lowery covers major events in Lumbee history, including the first interactions with Europeans, the Lowry War of the nineteenth century, the establishment of Indian-only schools under Jim Crow segregation, and the defeat of the Ku Klux Klan in 1958. These will be familiar to some readers, but Lowery offers new insights into each, framing her narrative as a continuous fight for independence and self-determination, rather than a series of separate unrelated historical episodes.

The last two chapters cover recent history and make especially important contributions. One chapter focusses on the effects of the drug wars of the late twentieth century. Robeson County, which is home to many Lumbees, is located about halfway between Miami and New York and adjacent to Interstate 95, a major north–south transportation route. The infiltration of organized crime and corruption in the local justice system contributed to the rise of a lucrative black-market cocaine economy in the 1980s. Violence quickly followed. Drawing upon her personal connections, Lowery offers a brutally direct assessment of the impact on the Lumbee community. The concluding chapter offers a detailed analysis of Lumbee attempts to earn full federal acknowledgment in the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first. The Lumbees historically faced stiff resistance to recognition from other tribal nations and government officials because of their size and because their history does not fit the traditional narrative that many associate with American Indian history. According to Lowery, the federal acknowledgment process failed to account for how the Lumbees survived and thrived in the biracial South. Moreover, stereotypes of Indian identity and culture complicated the recognition process. “The problem with Lumbee federal recognition,” she contends, “lies not with the Lumbees but with the United States” (232). The Lumbees’ pursuit of full federal acknowledgment has to date been unsuccessful, though they are recognized by the state of North Carolina. But Lowery concludes that this does not mean that they lack sovereignty. Lumbees succeeded in their struggle to build a self-sustaining community in southeastern North Carolina; they even drafted and adopted a formal constitution.

Lowery draws upon a variety of written and oral sources to document Lumbee efforts to build a self-determining nation despite attempts by state and federal officials to marginalize nonwhite populations. These efforts coincided with the establishment, growth, and expansion of the United States, and both Lumbees and non-Indian Americans valued liberty, freedom, and justice. Moreover, she contends that Lumbee history is an important part of the broader American narrative, not simply a separate indigenous history. According to Lowery,

She convincingly makes her case. The Lumbee Indians is thoroughly researched, well written, and clearly argued. The result is the best and most accessible single treatment of Lumbee history yet published, and an important contribution to American, not just indigenous, studies.