At the turn of the 20th century, Greenville was a small agricultural community located along the banks of the Tar River in eastern North Carolina. Most of the 2,600 residents were connected to the state’s agricultural economy, growing cotton, tobacco, corn, and other crop staples. By the year 2000, however, Greenville had become an economically diverse city of more than 60,000. The explosion in the bright leaf tobacco industry, the establishment of a public university, the recruitment of new manufacturing interests, and the creation of a regional medical complex contributed to this growth. Greenville witnessed the effects of dramatic technological innovation, a devastating depression, two world wars, a civil rights revolution, and economic globalization. Greenville in the 20th Century explores the community’s growth as the seat of Pitt County through historic images that span a century.

Greenville in the 20th Century (Images of America)

Arts & Photography

Oakley, Christopher Arris

Reynolds, Matthew

Sauter, Dale

Photography & Video

Arcadia Publishing

Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina, 1885-2004 (Indians of the Southeast)

Keeping the Circle presents an overview of the modern history and identity of the Native peoples in twentieth-century North Carolina, including the Lumbees, the Tuscaroras, the Waccamaw Sioux, the Occaneechis, the Meherrins, the Haliwa-Saponis, and the Coharies. From the late 1800s until the 1930s, Native peoples in the eastern part of the state lived and farmed in small isolated communities. Although relatively insulated, they were acculturated, and few fit the traditional stereotype of an Indian. They spoke English, practiced Christianity, and in general lived and worked like other North Carolinians. Nonetheless, Indians in the state maintained a strong sense of “Indianness.” The political, social, and economic changes effected by the New Deal and World War II forced Native Americans in eastern North Carolina to alter their definition of Indianness. The paths for gaining recognition of their Native identity in recent decades have varied: for some, identity has been achieved and expressed on a local stage; for others, sense of self is linked inextricably to national issues and concerns. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, Christopher Arris Oakley traces the strategic response of these Native groups in North Carolina to postwar society and draws broader conclusions about Native American identity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.

History

Americas

University Of Nebraska Press

Keeping the Circle presents an overview of the modern history and identity of the Native peoples in twentieth-century North Carolina, including the Lumbees, the Tuscaroras, the Waccamaw Sioux, the Occaneechis, the Meherrins, the Haliwa-Saponis, and the Coharies. From the late 1800s until the 1930s, Native peoples in the eastern part of the state lived and farmed in small isolated communities. Although relatively insulated, they were acculturated, and few fit the traditional stereotype of an Indian. They spoke English, practiced Christianity, and in general lived and worked like other North Carolinians. Nonetheless, Indians in the state maintained a strong sense of “Indianness.” The political, social, and economic changes effected by the New Deal and World War II forced Native Americans in eastern North Carolina to alter their definition of Indianness. The paths for gaining recognition of their Native identity in recent decades have varied: for some, identity has been achieved and expressed on a local stage; for others, sense of self is linked inextricably to national issues and concerns. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, Christopher Arris Oakley traces the strategic response of these Native groups in North Carolina to postwar society and draws broader conclusions about Native American identity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.

At the turn of the 20th century, Greenville was a small agricultural community located along the banks of the Tar River in eastern North Carolina. Most of the 2,600 residents were connected to the state's agricultural economy, growing cotton, tobacco, corn, and other crop staples. By the year 2000, however, Greenville had become an economically diverse city of more than 60,000. The explosion in the bright leaf tobacco industry, the establishment of a public university, the recruitment of new manufacturing interests, and the creation of a regional medical complex contributed to this growth. Greenville witnessed the effects of dramatic technological innovation, a devastating depression, two world wars, a civil rights revolution, and economic globalization. Greenville in the 20th Century explores the community's growth as the seat of Pitt County through historic images that span a century.

Greenville in the 20th Century

Reynolds, Times Lecturer in English Oxford University and Fellow Matthew

Arcadia Publishing Library Editions

The Eastern Band’s economic decisions of the 1900s did not occur in a vacuum. In fact, these decisions reflected regional changes and the broader development of the post-Civil War American South. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians formally incorporated under North Carolina law in the 1880s, and their economic policies evolved as the country experienced Jim Crow segregation, the Great Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement. During the twentieth century, members of the Eastern Band embraced an economic strategy partially based on tourism. In the late 1900s, they pursued policies that facilitated the rise of casino gaming.
Divided into five chapters, Christopher Arris Oakley’s New South Indians traces the economic development of the Eastern Band throughout the twentieth century to better contextualize the Cherokee Tribal Council’s 1990s decision to incorporate gaming into the nation’s economic strategy. In building his contextual framework, Oakley discusses the interdependent relationships forged by Cherokee Tribal Council members with various public and private entities in order to protect their land, manage their resources, and advance the well-being of their nation’s economy and community.
New South Indians also situates the story within the history of the American South. Thus, the saga of the Eastern Band’s struggle for economic autonomy and financial stability throughout the stormy twentieth century can be seen as an integral part of the historical account of western North Carolina.
A multifaceted glimpse into a vital aspect of contemporary southern history, New South Indians is sure to appeal to a wide variety of readers, from those captivated by Native American culture and the history of the modern South to those interested in economic history.
CHRISTOPHER ARRIS OAKLEY is an associate professor in the Department of History at East Carolina University. He is the author of Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina, 1885–2004, and he is coauthor, with Theda Perdue, of Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina.

New South Indians: Tribal Economics and the Eastern Band of Cherokee in the Twentieth Century

Business & Money

Economics

Univ Tennessee Press

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Books by Oakley, Christopher Arris