Charles Trimble: Hero's passing calls attention to Lumbees

Opinion

Monday, May 31, 2010

My good friend Tom Oxendine has died. A member of the Lumbee Nation, Tom was born in 1922 in Pembroke, Robeson County, North Carolina. At the outset of WWII, he entered the U.S. Navy, and in 1942 became the first American Indian commissioned as a naval aviator.

According to an obituary, he completed flight training at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville, Florida. He was assigned as a scout observation pilot aboard the USS Mobile, When on July 26, 1944, he landed his seaplane in the midst of Japanese gunfire, in adverse weather, to rescue a downed fellow airman. For this he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. During his navy career, he test-piloted carrier-type aircraft and was combat flight instructor for the supersonic F8U Crusader. He also served in Korea and Vietnam and was director of plans for the Navy’s Office of Information in the Pentagon.

After he retired in 1970, following a 30-year in the Navy, he became Chief of Public Information at the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs under Commissioner Louis Bruce.

I didn’t trust Tom Oxendine when I first met him. It was in 1971, and we were just starting up the American Indian Press Association. We met in Washington, DC, to put the final touches on the organization, including the constitution and by-laws, and making application for an IRS tax exemption. Most of the original six who first met to form the organization were there, as well as perhaps six more who joined the effort later, including Richard LaCourse, who would become head of our AIPA Washington News Bureau. Tom Oxendine, representing the BIA, befriended us and was most helpful in getting us meeting space at the National Press Club building. We expected nothing from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, since we wanted to be free of any obligation to them. Tom came under suspicion immediately, for we couldn’t imagine being welcomed to DC by a BIA bureaucrat, and being treated so nicely by him.

But over the years since then, I learned that Mr. Oxendine was one person I could say was a true gentleman. He was gracious, most courteous, and generous with his time and resources. But most of all, he was honest and straightforward. What you saw was what you got. What he promised was always delivered. There was not a whit of deviousness in him. He was respected throughout Indian Country.

Tom never said much about the Lumbee’s persistent struggle for Federal recognition as a Native American tribe. He was proud to be a Lumbee, but never claimed any leadership role or title in their struggle for their very worthy cause. Most certainly, he was loyal to his heritage and dedicated to their cause, but it was not his style to be loud about it. I felt how bad it was that he did not live to see the Promised Land, the Lumbee dream – recognition as a tribe by the Federal Government, and more importantly, recognized by their brother and sister tribes.

Another Indian leader of Lumbee heritage is Helen Schierbeck. Several months ago Helen nearly died of a severe stroke, and concerned Native people all across the country communicated via Internet, praying for her, and dreading any news of her passing. Prayers were answered, and she lives on, albeit hospitalized, still immobilized by the stroke. In the days of her crisis, I had hoped that she would live to see the day that Lumbee would be recognized. She still may see it – that is if we in the federally-recognized community of tribes do what our consciences may be telling us we should be doing; and that is supporting the Lumbee effort.

Many months ago, I wrote a column in support of the Lumbee quest for recognition, I believe in that even more strongly now with the passing of Lumbee leaders who spent much of their lives in the noble cause of Indian America, working hard to protect and defend the sovereignty, self-government, and benefits of tribal status – a status that continues to be denied them.

They have earned what much of Indian Country takes for granted. It’s time for our leaders and organizations to accompany the Lumbees to the BIA and to Capitol Hill, and say to the bureaucrats and politicians, “We accept them as brothers and sisters; what is your problem?”

Charles “Chuck” Trimble, Oglala Lakota, was principal founder of the American Indian Press Association in 1970, and served as Executive Director of the National Congress of American Indians from 1972-78. He may be reached at cchuktrim@aol.com. His website is iktomisweb.com.