Administrative/Biographical Note
Photo credit Jill Fannon Prevas
In the mid-twentieth century, thousands of Lumbee migrated to Baltimore, Maryland
from their rural tribal homeland in North Carolina, seeking jobs and a better quality
of life. Many of them settled in an area on the east side of the city that bridges
the neighborhoods of Upper Fells Point and Washington Hill, establishing what would
become a vibrant, intertribal, urban American Indian community. They affectionately
referred to it as their “reservation” in its heyday. Throughout the late twentieth
century, most American Indian people moved away from this area due to a complex set
of factors including civil unrest, upward mobility, Urban Renewal, and gentrification.
The area continues to transform. Baltimore’s former “reservation” has been the subject
of Ashley Minner Jones’ ongoing research, done in collaboration with elders of the
community and their descendants over many years. Dr. Ashley Minner Jones is a community-based
visual artist and folklorist from Baltimore, Maryland, and an enrolled citizen of
the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She earned an MFA in Community Arts from the Maryland
Institute College of Art and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland
College Park. From 2019—2021, Ashley worked as Professor of the Practice and folklorist
in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County,
where she also served as the inaugural director of the minor in Public Humanities.
Ashley worked as Assistant Curator for History and Scholarship at the Smithsonian
National Museum of the American Indian from 2021—2024, prior to returning to independent
practice full-time. Minner Jones is Lumbee on her mother’s side and their family’s
history in Baltimore dates back to the late nineteenth century. She is a distant relative
of Dr. Governor Worth Locklear, an 1893 graduate of the Baltimore University School
of Medicine (Locklear married Minner Jones’ great, great aunt Adaline Lowry). Minner
Jones’ great grandfather, Orlen Strong Sampson, was living in the neighborhood that
would become “the reservation” when he died in 1948. Minner Jones’ grandfather, James
A. Sampson Sr., moved his family, including Minner Jones’ mother, Frieda (Sampson)
Minner, to Baltimore in 1963. Minner Jones was born in Baltimore in 1983 and has worked
in service to the American Indian community in a variety of roles over the course
of her lifetime to date. The Ashley Minner Collection is governed by a shared stewardship
agreement between UMBC Special Collections and the American Indian community of Baltimore
as represented by the Baltimore American Indian Center. It is called “The Ashley Minner
Collection” instead of “The Ashley Minner Papers” because Minner Jones’ research does
not comprise all of the holdings. Fellow members of Baltimore’s American Indian community
may contribute materials to the collection, advise on care for materials in the collection,
and elect to restrict access to materials within the collection as they see fit.
Bibliography
Ashley Minner Jones. Accessed September 18, 2024.
http://ashleyminnerjones.com/.
The Baltimore Reservation Project. Accessed September 18, 2024.
http://baltimorereservation.com/.
Baltimore American Indian Center. Accessed September 18, 2024.
http://baltimoreamericanindiancenter.org/.
The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Accessed September 18, 2024.
https://www.lumbeetribe.com/.
Scope & Content
Arrangement
Currently the collection is organized by the creators- Series 1: Ashley Minner, Series
2: Stanton Lewis, Series 3: Bernice Blue Lowry, Series 4: Joseph Jesse Locklear, and
Series 5: Baltimore American Indian Community Archiving Event. Series 1: Ashley Minner
(Digital) contains 9 folders containing 372 jpegs and 7 pngs, organized by albums.
The albums titles are Blue Book, Brown Book, Green Book, Lumbee Albums, Maroon Book,
Red Album, White Album, Fixture Album, and Sean's Photos of the Reservation. This
series also contains a physical pamphlet entitled "East Baltimore’s Historic American
Indian 'Reservation' Illustrated Guide." Series 2: Stanton Lewis and Dorothy Chavis
contains the 2005 oral history interview transcript of Stanton Lewis and Dorothy Chavis
by Miki Kim. Series 3: Bernice Blue Lowry contains digitized documents including Indian
claims commission letter, Marriage certificate, United Indians of America letter,
and postcard. Series 4: Joseph Jesse Locklear contains the family history, documents,
and photos of Joseph Jesse Locklear, a Lumbee Native American. Series 5: Baltimore
American Indian Community Archiving Event contains digital video interviews of Jeanette
Jones and Carl Harding taken during the Digitization Day at Baltimore American Indian
Center.
Provenance Information
Provenance and Acquisition Information
Ashley Minner gifted accessions MSS2020-11 and MSS2022-05. Tiffany Chavis gifted MSS2021-15
the oral history of Dorothy Chavis and Stanton Lewis. Erica Roberts MSS2021-10 in
memory of Bernice Blue Lowry. Lilian Locklear Alston gifted MSS2021-12 in memory of
Joseph Jesse Locklear. Bill Shewbridge gifted accession MSS2024-05.
Processing Note
The collection was initialized by Ashley Minner while she was doing her doctorial
research. Additional materials were transferred to the archive by Erica Roberts, Lilian
Locklear Alston, and Tiffany Chavis.
Descriptive Rules Used
Describing Archives: a Content Standard (DACS)
Archives Processing Manual: Description (2015): The processing manual used in Special Collections for all descriptive platforms, including
PastPerfect.
