‘Indian Outlaw’
Country singer Tim McGraw had a hit record a few years back called “Indian Outlaw.” It was a big hit at the time, and to tell the truth, I liked it myself. But the song’s popularity aside, there were not that many outlaws among Native Americans.
In truth, crime among Native Americans was relatively low, due in large part to the sense of responsibility to family and clan that was a foundational principle of Native culture. What outlaws the Native community did produce, however, tended to cut a very wide path.
One of the earliest and most famous Indian outlaws was a man named Henry Berry Lowry from North Carolina. Still a folk hero in some quarters, he is claimed by both the Tuscarora and Lumbee tribes. And while there is some disagreement regarding his outlaw reputation, one thing is certain; at the height of his career he was the most wanted man in the United States and the bounty on his head was far more than Jesse James was ever worth. Henry Lowry today is almost more legend than man, but he did exist, and he was a true “Indian Outlaw.”
They say that had it not been for the war and some policies of the Confederate government, Henry Lowry might have lived out his life in obscurity, but such was not the case. The seeds of Lowry’s fame started with two things: one was the policy of conscript labor and the other was the Confederate Home Guard.
Regardless of whether one is Union or Rebel, the fact is that history has not been kind to the Home Guard or the men who served in it. Men with courage and commitment were serving in the regular army, and as the war dragged on, men who were not in the service faced a rather severe social stigma.
Some folks say that this set of circumstances made the Home Guard a refuge for the sort of cowardly white trash that have provided Yankee newspaper men with a steady stream of material since the war. Some folks also say that the Home Guard in that area of the Carolinas was worse than most, populated by the sort of cowardly men who are always dangerous in large groups. And more especially so when they are armed and have arbitrary power.
As is often the case when a community is stressed, preexisting prejudices and hatreds can turn the community into a tinderbox. In the winter of 1864, this is just what happened on the Lowry farm.
They say it all started over the Home Guard’s habit of conscripting people for labor on forts or roads and then not paying them for their labor.
In December of 1864 and into early ’65 a series of events took place that put Henry Lowry on a path to the land of legend. One was when a neighbor accused Lowry’s father of stealing pigs. Later, in January of ’65, Henry shot and killed a Home Guard officer for being too familiar with the Lowry women. Later Henry Lowry’s father and brother were executed by the Home Guard for the crime of possessing firearms. After this incident, Lowry seems to have had little interest in playing nice.
The reckless nature of some of Lowry’s exploits are the stuff legends are made of, but they should not have unexpected. Henry Lowry did, after all, come from a family which served with courage and distinction in the Continental Army during the revolution.
At any rate, it did not take long for the newspapers to get in on the act. Lowry was far too charismatic for it to be otherwise. As it is today, what the newspapers had to say depended on each one’s political slant. But one newspaper man did ask the question as how this Indian with “a handful of boys” could put to flight a community “... lately used to war and full of accomplished soldiers ... . ” It was a valid question since at his peak, Lowry had maybe six men riding with him.
At one point the local authorities became so embarrassed at their inability to bring Lowry to heel that they rounded up the wives, girlfriends and other female relatives of every man known or suspected of sympathy or loyalty to Lowry and imprisoned them in a stockade. A coward’s move, no doubt. On hearing of this Lowry sent a message to the sheriff that if his women were not released immediately, he would kill every white man in the county. Starting with the sheriff. The women were quickly released.
They never caught Mr. Lowry, the bounty on his head was never collected. No one seems to know for sure what happened to him. There is no grave, no headstone, only stories and legends of Henry Berry Lowry, Indian Outlaw.