A Lifetime of Devotion: The T. J. Blumer Collection on the Catawba Nation, 1756–Present

I love my work, I really love my work. They [the Catawba Indians] gave me more than I gave them. They gave me a lot; they gave me their hearts. I felt very lucky that they would bother with this white man.… I came down here to give them my last breath, but they do not need it.

— Thomas Blumer, Catawba Indian historian

Sitting across from Mr. Tom, as many from this southeastern part of Turtle Island address the now-retired editor for the European Law Division of the Library of Congress and collector of North American and Central American Indian literature and pottery, I am surprised when he, the donor of 109 linear feet of Catawba Indian-related papers, field notes, correspondence, photographs, U.S./Catawba Indian government documents, diaries, interviews, and a 1one-thousand-plus-piece American Indian pottery collection to the University of South Carolina–Lancaster, tells me he "grew up in a world with no books in the home, none whatsoever.… [M]y parents were nonreaders."¹ The T. J. Blumer Collection on the Catawba Nation, 1756–Present, originates from a man who, at age five, began his education — and utter infatuation — concerning American Indians when his mother took him to Jones Beach, New York, where he saw his first tepee. Explains Tom, "I was hot to get over there." It was while he walked about these tents that he met princess Rosebud: "She was a Sioux Indian, and she was a professional Indian. She was there telling stories about Indians.… [She] was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. She had a tremendous affect on me." That one half hour the young Tom kept his mother from beach bathing would change his life forever; this childhood experience planted a seed that would later grow into a deep love and service for the Catawba Indian people, ultimately resulting in his namesake collection.

Over the years Tom Blumer's fascination only grew stronger. Although a young Tom would "drive [his mother] crazy, running around the kitchen with a pot and spoon banging," attempting to imitate the people he wanted so much to become like, he already knew the serious value of the real drum his sister June gave him that depicted a Native American on one side: "I think my children destroyed it. I had it for years and years and years — I think they ruined it. I used to sit under that card table with that drum and beat on it and sang, and I was an Indian for a half hour; I have never really gotten over that."

He recalls June taking him to the library each week, bringing home "ten or fifteen books. I learned to read before I went to school." But the only books that meant anything to Tom were three books, all describing Native Americans: "One was a little thing … on Indian culture. One was on the Laplanders who are not far removed with decoration; and, the third book was Little Red Feather.… I used to sit and look at that book for hours on end.… I spent hours dreaming and looking."

The fixation stayed with Tom throughout his life. From the time he purchased his earliest pieces, including a Mohawk basket from Messina, New York, and a Caddo fox mask from Anadarko, Oklahoma, both of which remain in his personal collection today, Tom has grown into a connoisseur of Catawba pottery and a knowledgeable and communicative mainstay with and for the Catawba nation. It was not until Tom had taught in Virginia during the late 1960s — where he had spent much of his time with the Pamunkey Indians — that he decided to move to South Carolina to earn his PhD in English from the University of South Carolina. While conducting his graduate research at the university library one day, he discovered information on the Catawba nation. That day in the library, Tom recalls feeling hot again, not from excitement as with the tepees at Jones Beach but due to the temperature: "[T]his was...