View source for Lumbee

{{Short description|Native American tribe in North Carolina}}
{{pp-protected|small=yes}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=December 2013}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2018}}
{{Lead too short|date=September 2023}}
}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Lumbee
| total            = More than 60,000
| total_year       = 2025
| total_source     = <ref>{{cite news |last1=Bennett |first1=Geoff |last2=Midura |first2=Kyle |title=North Carolina's Lumbee Tribe gets Trump's endorsement for federal recognition |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/north-carolinas-lumbee-tribe-gets-trumps-endorsement-for-federal-recognition |access-date=February 12, 2025 |work=[[PBS News]] |date=24 January 2025 |language=en-us |format=Interview with John Lowery}}</ref>
| regions          = [[United States]]<br />([[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], [[Virginia]], [[Maryland]], [[Michigan]], [[Tennessee]])
| region1          = North Carolina
| pop1             = 
| region2          = [[Virginia]]
| pop2             = 
| region3          = South Carolina
| pop3             = 
| langs            = Main: [[English language|English]],<br />[[American Indian English]]
| religions        = [[Christianity]]
| related          = [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]], [[Hatteras Indians]], [[Cheraw]], [[African Americans]], [[English Americans]], [[Scottish Americans]], [[Scotch-Irish Americans]]
}}

The '''Lumbee''', also known as '''People of the Dark Water''',<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article299521419.html|title=NC Lumbee are closer to federal recognition. Our health depends on it|last1=Bell|first1=Ronny|last2=Boucher|first2=Nathan|work=[[News and Observer]]|date=February 3, 2025|access-date=February 18, 2025}}</ref> are a [[mixed-race]], state-recognized Native American tribe primarily located in [[Robeson County, North Carolina]], who [[Native American identity in the United States|claim]] to be descended from numerous [[Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands]] who once inhabited the region.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Warren |first=Debby |date=2019-10-29 |title=Convolutions of Race and Identity: The Lumbee Struggle for Sovereignty |url=https://nonprofitquarterly.org/convolutions-of-race-and-identity-the-lumbee-struggle-for-sovereignty/ |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Non Profit News {{!}} Nonprofit Quarterly |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Anonymous |date=2022-05-12 |title=Black/Indian relations: an overview of the scholarship |url=https://dsi.appstate.edu/projects/lumbee/jone001 |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Digital Scholarship and Initiatives |language=en}}</ref>

The Lumbee have been shown to have connections with other [[Tri-Racial Isolate|tri-racial isolate groups]], such as the [[Melungeon]]s, using historical documents.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anonymous |date=2022-05-12 |title=Looking at legends: Lumbee and Melungeon: applied genealogy and the origins of tri-racial isolate settlements. |url=https://dsi.appstate.edu/projects/lumbee/1043 |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=Digital Scholarship and Initiatives |language=en}}</ref>

The Lumbee take their name from the [[Lumber River]], which winds through [[Robeson County]]. [[Pembroke, North Carolina]], in Robeson County, is their economic, cultural, and political center. According to the [[2000 United States census]] report, 89% of the population of the town of Pembroke identified as Lumbee; 40% of Robeson County's population identified as Lumbee. The Lumbee Tribe was recognized by North Carolina in 1885. In 1956, the U.S. Congress passed the Lumbee Act, which recognized the Lumbees as being American Indians but denied them the benefits of a [[federally recognized tribe]].<ref>{{cite web |last= Fleming |first= R. Lee|date= July 12, 2006|title= Testimony of R. Lee Fleming, Director Office of Federal Acknowledgment United States Department of the Interior before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on s. 660|url=https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ocla/Fleming%20Fed%20Acknowledgment%20S.660%20%20Lumbee%20FINAL%207.12.06.pdf#page=2 |website= Bureau of Indian Affairs |access-date=27 May 2025 |page=2}}</ref>

In 2025, President [[Donald Trump]] signed an [[executive order]] to advance the tribe's recognition.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Directs Administration to Advance Lumbee Tribe Recognition |url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-directs-administration-to-advance-lumbee-tribe-recognition/ |website=The White House |date=23 January 2025}}</ref>

==History==
Archaeological evidence reveals that the area now known as Robeson County (central to modern Lumbee territory) has been continuously occupied by Native people for at least 14,000 years. Every named era found elsewhere in pre-European-contact North Carolina is also present in the archaeological record of Robeson County (artifacts from Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures).{{sfn|Knick|1988}}{{sfn|Knick|1993}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Emanuel |first=Ryan E. |title=On the swamp: fighting for Indigenous environmental justice |date=2024 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-7831-3 |location=Chapel Hill}}</ref> All modern vicinities of Lumbee occupation contain numerous archaeological sites as recent as the Late Woodland period (mid-1700s), and oral traditions about the history of some Lumbee families extend back as far in Robeson County as the mid-1700s.<ref>''The Lumbee In Context: Toward An Understanding''. Native American Resource Center Publications; 2000</ref>

=== 18th century ===
The earliest European document referring to Indian communities in the area of the [[Lumber River]] is a map prepared in 1725 by John Herbert, the English commissioner of Indian trade for the Wineau Factory on the [[Black River (North Carolina)|Black River]]. Herbert identified the four [[Siouan languages|Siouan]]-speaking communities as the [[Cheraw|Saraw]], [[Pedee people|Pee Dee]], Scavano, and [[Waccamaw|Wacoma]]. Modern-day Lumbees claim connection to those settlements, but none of the four tribes is located within the boundaries of present-day Robeson County.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

A 1772 proclamation by the [[governor of North Carolina]], [[Arthur Dobbs]] — derived from a report by his agent, Colonel [[Griffith Rutherford]], head of a Bladen County militia — listed the names of inhabitants who took part in a "Mob [[:wikt:riotously|Raitously]] Assembled together,"<ref>{{cite book|date=2009-12-31|author=S. Pony Hill|title=Strangers in Their Own Land: South Carolina's State Indian Tribes|publisher=Backintyme|isbn=9780939479344|page=31|quote=... Archibald McKissack, Bladen County Justice of the Peace, to the governor of North Carolina titled, "A list of the rogues: a list of the mob raitously assembled together in Bladen County, October 13th 1773.”}}</ref> apparently defying the efforts of colonial officials to collect taxes. The proclamation declared the "Above list of Rogus{{sic}} is all living upon the Kings Land without title." A later colonial military survey described "50 families a mixt crew, a lawless People possess the Lands without Patent or paying quit Rents."<ref name="ReferenceA">''Colonial Records: North Carolina 1890''; 768 and ''North Carolina 1887''; 161, respectively</ref>{{original research inline|date=February 2025}}

[[Hamilton McMillan]] wrote that Lumbee ancestor James Lowrie had received sizable land grants early in the century, and, by 1738, possessed combined estates of more than 2,000 acres (810&nbsp;ha). [[Adolph Dial]] and David Eliades claimed that another Lumbee ancestor, John Brooks, held the title to over 1,000 acres (400&nbsp;ha) in 1735 and that Robert Lowrie gained possession of almost 700 acres (280&nbsp;ha).{{sfn|Dial|Eliades|1996|p=28–29}}

A state [[archivist]] noted in the late 20th century that no land grants were issued during these years in North Carolina. The first documented land grants made to individuals claimed to be Lumbee ancestors did not take place until the 1750s, more than a decade later.{{sfn|Hoffman|1982}}{{page needed|date=February 2025}} None of the various petitions for federal recognition by the Lumbee people relied on the McMillan, Dial, or Eliades claims.<ref>Thomas</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2025}}

Land records show that in the second half of the 18th century, persons since identified as ancestral Lumbees began to take titles to land near Drowning Creek (Lumber River) and prominent swamps such as Ashpole, Long, and Back. According to James Campisi, an [[anthropologist]] retained by the Lumbee tribe to aid their petition for federal recognition, the area "is located in the heart of the so-called old field of the [[Cheraw]] documented in land records between 1737 and 1739."<ref>Campisi, Dr. Jack. [http://www.indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Campisi071206.pdf "Testimony before the Committee on Indian Affairs United States Senate."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107021431/http://www.indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Campisi071206.pdf |date=2010-01-07 }} ''Legislative hearing on S. 660. 12 July 2006. p. 3 3 (retrieved 8 November 2009)''</ref> In 1771, a convicted felon, by the name of Winsler Driggers, captured "near Drowning Creek, in the Charraw settlement," was reported as hanged under the [[Negro Act of 1740|Negro Act]].<ref>''South Carolina Gazette''. October 3, 1771</ref>{{original research inline|date=February 2025}} That mention, along with no evidence that a new settlement was established or the old settlement was abandoned, is not sufficient to confirm that the settlement on Drowning Creek in 1754 was a Cheraw settlement.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Pension records for veterans of the [[American Revolutionary War]] in Robeson County listed men with surnames later associated with Lumbee families, such as Samuel Bell, Jacob Locklear, John Brooks, Berry Hunt, Thomas Jacobs, Thomas Cummings, and Michael Revels.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} In 1790, other men with surnames since associated with Lumbee-identified descendants, such as Barnes, Braveboy (or Brayboy), Bullard, Chavers (Chavis), Cumbo, Hammonds, Lowrie (Lowry/Lowery), Oxendine, Strickland, and Wilkins, were listed as inhabitants of the Fayetteville District; they were all "Free Persons of Color" in the first federal census.<ref name="U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1790">U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1790</ref>{{original research inline|date=February 2025}}

===Antebellum===
Following [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion]] of 1831, the state legislature passed amendments to its original 1776 constitution, abolishing [[suffrage]] for free people of color. This was one of a series of laws passed by North Carolina whites from 1826 to the 1850s which the historian [[John Hope Franklin]] characterized as the "Free Negro Code", creating restrictions on that class. Free people of color were stripped of various [[civil and political rights]] which they had enjoyed for almost two generations. They could no longer vote or serve on juries, bear arms without a license from the state, or serve in the state militia.<ref name="Heinegg">[http://www.freeafricanamericans.com Paul Heinegg, ''Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware''], 1995-2005, accessed 9 Mar 2008</ref> As these were obligations traditionally associated with citizenship, they were made second-class citizens.

In 1853, the [[North Carolina Supreme Court]] upheld the constitutionality of the state's restrictions to prevent free people of color from bearing arms without a license. Noel Locklear, identified as a free man of color in ''State v. Locklear'', was convicted of being in illegal possession of firearms.{{sfn|Dial|Eliades|1996|p=45}}{{sfn|Evans|1971|p=108}}{{sfn|Hauptman|1996|p=77}} In 1857, William Chavers from Robeson County was arrested and charged as a free person of color for carrying a shotgun without a license. Chavers, like Locklear, was convicted. Chavers promptly appealed, arguing that the law restricted only "free Negroes," not "persons of color from Indian blood." The appeals court reversed the lower court, finding that "free persons of color may be, then, for all we can see, persons colored by Indian blood".<ref>''State v. Chavers,'' 50 N.C. (5 Jones) 11 (1857).</ref>

===Civil War===
A [[yellow fever]] epidemic in 1862–1863 killed many [[Slavery|slaves]] working on the construction of [[Fort Fisher]] near [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], then considered to be the "[[Gibraltar]] of the South". As the state's slave owners resisted sending more slaves to Fort Fisher, the Confederate Home Guard intensified efforts to conscript able-bodied free persons of color as laborers. There does not appear to be documentation of conscription among the free people of color in Robeson County.{{sfn|Evans|1971|p=3-18}}{{sfn|Dial|Eliades|1996|p=46–47}}{{sfn|Hauptman|1996|p=78-80}}

Despite the widespread sympathies among the Indian community for the plight of the participants in this guerilla warfare, nearly 150 Lumbee ancestors voluntarily enlisted in the Confederate Infantry, including the nephew-in-law of Henry Berry Lowry described below.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lowery |first1=Malinda Maynor |title=Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: race, identity, and the making of a nation |date=2010 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill |isbn=9780807833681 |page=286}}</ref>

====Lowry War====
{{Main|Lowry War}}
Early in the Civil War, North Carolina turned to forced labor to construct its defenses. Several Lowrie cousins had been conscripted as laborers to help build [[Fort Fisher]], near Wilmington. [[Henry Berry Lowrie]] and several of his relatives took to the swamps where Indians resorted to "lying out" (that is, hiding out in remote areas) to avoid being rounded up by the Home Guard and forced to work as impressed laborers.<ref>Townsend, George Alfred (1872). ''The Swamp Outlaws: or, The North Carolina Bandits; Being a Complete History of the Modern Rob Roys and Robin Hoods'', New York: Robert M. DeWitt</ref>

The Lowrie gang, as it became known, resorted to crime and conducting personal feuds, committing robberies and murders against white Robeson County residents and skirmishing with the Confederate Home Guard. They grew bolder as the war turned against the Confederacy. In December 1864, the Lowrie gang killed James P. Barnes after he had drafted workers, including the Lowries, for work on local defenses. Barnes had earlier accused Henry's father, Allen Lowrie, of stealing hogs. Next, the gang killed James Brantley Harris, a Confederate conscription officer who had killed a Lowrie relative.{{sfn|Hauptman|1996|p=81}}

After the Civil War, the Lowrie gang continued their insurgency, committing robberies and murders. The authorities' raids and attempts to capture gang members became known as the [[Lowry War]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lumbee.org/hbl.html |title=Henry Berry Lowrie |publisher=Lumbee Regional Development Association |access-date=October 28, 2011 |archive-date=October 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002025647/http://www.lumbee.org/hbl.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ncmuseumofhistory.org">{{cite web|last=Currie |first=Jefferson |url=http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/indian/lowry.htm |title=Henry Berry Lowry Lives Forever |publisher=North Carolina Museum of History |access-date=October 28, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929192631/http://ncmuseumofhistory.org/workshops/indian/lowry.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2011 }}</ref> Lowrie's gang continued its activities into the Reconstruction Era. Republican governor [[William Woods Holden]] declared Lowrie and his men outlaws in 1869, and offered a $12,000 reward for their capture: dead or alive. Lowrie responded with more revenge killings. Eluding capture, the Lowrie gang persisted after Reconstruction ended and conservative white Democrats gained control of North Carolina government, imposing [[Racial segregation|segregation]] and [[white supremacy]].{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In February 1872, shortly after a raid in which he robbed the local sheriff's safe of more than $28,000, Henry Berry Lowrie disappeared. It is claimed he accidentally shot himself while cleaning his double-barrel shotgun.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/LUMBEE/2007-11/1194648046 |title=LUMBEE-L Archives: Henry Berry Lowry and the Physician who pronounced him dead |publisher=RootsWeb |date=November 9, 2007 |access-date=October 28, 2011}}</ref> As with many folk heroes, the death of Lowrie was disputed. He was reportedly seen at a funeral several years later.<ref name="ncmuseumofhistory.org" />

===State recognition as Indians===
During Reconstruction, the legislature established public education for the first time, providing for white and black schools. All children of color were assigned to black schools, which were dominated by the children of freedmen (freed slaves). The Indian people of Robeson County had always been free and did not socially associate or interact with Blacks. They refused to send their children to school with the free Blacks and demanded for separate Indian schools. In the 1880s, as the Democratic Party was struggling against the [[Fusionism in North Carolina|biracial Populist movement which combined]] the strength of poor whites ([[People's Party (United States)|Populist]] and Democrats) and blacks (mostly Republicans), [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] state representative [[Hamilton McMillan]] proposed to have the state recognize these Indian people of Robeson County as the "Croatan Indians" and to create a separate system of Croatan Indian schools. By the end of the 19th century, the "Indians of Robeson County" (as they then identified) established schools in eleven of their principal settlements.<ref>Ross, pp.115-116; 124-125.</ref>

Following the [[Reconstruction Era]], white-dominated legislatures across the South imposed codified racial segregation into law. In North Carolina, the law effectively recognized only whites and free persons of color regardless of race; therefore people of mixed or Native ancestry had no other option than to attend black schools established for and in which most students were the children of [[Freedman#United States|freedmen]]. In 1887, [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] state representative [[Hamilton McMillan]] supported an effort to charter separate schools for Indians.{{sfn|Street|2022|p=125}}

====An Indian school system====
[[File:Three Lumbee c. 1909.jpg|thumb|Three "Croatans" of Robeson County, c. 1909]]
In 1887, the Indians of Robeson County petitioned the state legislature to establish a [[normal school]] to train Indian teachers for the county's Indian schools. With state permission, they raised the requisite funds, along with some state assistance, which proved inadequate. Several tribal leaders donated money and privately held land for schools.<ref>Ross, pp. 115-116; 124-125</ref> Robeson County's Indian Normal School eventually developed as Pembroke State University and subsequently as the [[University of North Carolina at Pembroke]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1899, North Carolina Congressman [[John D. Bellamy]] introduced the first bill in Congress to appropriate federal funds to educate the Indian children of Robeson County.<ref name=":0" /> They introduced another bill a decade later,<ref>H.R.19036, 61st Congress, 2nd Session</ref> and yet another in 1911.<ref>S.3258, 62nd Congress, 1st Session</ref> The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, T.&nbsp;J. Morgan, responded to Congress and the Croatan Indians, writing that, "so long as the immediate wards of the Government [Indians on reservations] are so insufficiently provided for, I do not see how I can consistently render any assistance to the Croatans or any other civilized tribes." [sic, civilized tribes were defined in contrast to Indians on reservations, who were wards of the government.]{{sfn|Dial|Eliades|1996|p=93}}

By the first decade of the 20th century, a North Carolina Representative introduced a federal bill to establish "a normal school for the Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina," to be paid for by the federal government. Charles F. Pierce, U.S. Supervisor of Indian Schools in the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]], opposed the legislation since, "[a]t the present time it is the avowed policy of the government to require states having an Indian population to assume the burden and responsibility for their education, so far as is possible."<ref>Jefferson, NC: McFarland (1994), pages 179-186</ref>

====Ku Klux Klan conflict====
[[File:White men and Robeson County indians (Lumbee Indians) in fight-armed skirmish (State's Exhibit No.6). Photo taken by Bill Shaw, Fayetteville Observer newspaper photographer. Photo used as state's (8224422682).jpg|thumb|Lumbees fighting Klansmen at the Battle of Hayes Pond]]
{{Main|Battle of Hayes Pond}}
During the 1950s, the Lumbee made nationwide news when they came into conflict with the [[Ku Klux Klan|Knights of the Ku Klux Klan]], a white supremacist terrorist organization, then headed by [[Grand Wizard|Grand Dragon]] [[James W. "Catfish" Cole]]. Cole began a campaign of harassment against the Lumbee, claiming they were "[[mongrel]]s and [[half-breed]]s" whose "race mixing" threatened to upset the established order of the [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated]] [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] South. After giving a series of speeches denouncing the "loose morals" of Lumbee women, Cole burned a cross in the front yard of a Lumbee woman in [[St. Pauls, North Carolina]], as a "warning" against "race mixing".<ref name="Life">{{cite magazine| magazine= [[Life (magazine)|Life]] |title=Bad medicine for the Klan: North Carolina Indians break up Kluxers' anti-Indian meeting |date=January 27, 1958 |pages=26–28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5VUEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Bad+medicine+for+the+Klan%3A+North+Carolina+Indians+break+up+Kluxers%E2%80%99+anti-Indian+meeting&pg=PA26 |access-date=February 11, 2025}}</ref> Emboldened, Cole called for a Klan rally on January 18, 1958, near the town of [[Maxton, North Carolina|Maxton]]. The Lumbee, led by veterans of the Second World War, decided to disrupt the rally.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The "[[Battle of Hayes Pond]]", also known as "the Klan Rout", made national news. Cole had predicted more than 5,000 Klansmen would show up for the rally, but fewer than 100 and possibly as few as three dozen attended. Approximately 500 Lumbee, armed with guns and sticks, gathered in a nearby swamp, and when they realized they possessed an overwhelming numerical advantage, attacked the Klansmen. The Lumbee encircled the Klansmen, opening fire and wounding four Klansmen in the first volley, none seriously. The remaining Klansmen panicked and fled. Cole was found in the swamps, arrested and tried for inciting a riot. The Lumbee celebrated the victory by burning Klan regalia and dancing around the open flames.<ref name="Life"/>

The Battle of Hayes Pond, which marked the end of Klan activity in Robeson County, is celebrated as a Lumbee holiday.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

===Early efforts to gain federal recognition===
The people achieved state recognition as "Croatan Indians" in 1885.<ref name=":0" /> They first petitioned the federal government for recognition in 1888, but were rejected due to the Bureau of Indian Affairs' lack of funding.{{sfn|Wolfram|Reaser|2014|p=222}} In 1911, at the request of the tribe, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation changing their name to "Indians of Robeson County."{{sfn|Street|2022|p=124}} In 1913, future North Carolina Governor [[Angus Wilton McLean|Angus McLean]] supported renaming the tribe to "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County" despite objections from some Lumbee people.{{sfn|Street|2022|pp=124-125}} The tribe had previously petitioned for federal recognition as "Cherokee" Indians, but it was denied.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

From 1913 to 1932, North Carolina legislators introduced bills in Congress to change the name of the people to Cherokee and gain federal recognition, but did not succeed.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1915, the report of Special Indian Agent O.M. McPherson of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, was sent to the North Carolina legislature. He primarily reported on the Cherokee in the state. He noted that the Indians of Robeson County had developed an extensive system of schools and a political organization. He thought that, as state-recognized Indians, they were eligible to attend federal Indian schools. But, as they were highly assimilated, spoke English, and already worked in the common state culture, he doubted that the federal Indian schools could meet their needs. Congress did not provide any additional funding to support education for Indians in North Carolina.<ref>McPherson</ref>

In 1924, the Cherokee Indians of North Carolina petitioned for federal recognition as "Siouan Indians"; their request was rejected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} That same year, representative [[Homer L. Lyon]] introduced legislation to federally recognize the Lumbee as the "Cherokee Indians of Robeson and Adjoining Counties," but the bill failed after opposition from Commissioner of Indian Affairs [[Charles H. Burke]]. In 1932, senator [[Josiah W. Bailey]] introduced a bill to recognize the Lumbee as Cherokee, but it failed after opposition from the [[Cherokee Nation]] and the [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]].{{sfn|Street|2022|p=130}}

====Federally commissioned reports====
In 1912, legislation was introduced to the US Senate to establish a school for the Indians of Robeson County. When the bill was sent to committee, it requested information from the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]]. The Indian Office sent Charles F. Pierce, the Supervisor of Indian Schools, to Robeson County to conduct a study of the tribe. Pierce reported that the state and county were providing funds to educate the 1,976 school-age Indian children. He also stated in his report that "one would readily class a large majority [of the Lumbee] as being at least three-fourths Indian.<ref name= Tamura>{{cite book| title= The History of Discrimination in U.S. Education: Marginality, Agency, and Power| editor-first= E. |editor-last= Tamura| edition= Illustrated| publisher= Springer| year= 2008| isbn= 9780230611030}}</ref>

On April 28, 1914, the Senate called for an investigation into the status and conditions of the Indians of Robeson and adjoining counties. The Indian Office sent Special Indian Agent O.M. McPherson to the county to obtain information regarding the educational system of the tribe. In his report, submitted to the Senate on January 4, 1915, he wrote:

<blockquote>While these Indians are essentially an agricultural people, I believe them to be as capable of learning the mechanical trades as the average white youth. The foregoing facts suggest the character of the educational institution that should be established for them, in case Congress sees fit to make the necessary appropriation, namely the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical school, in which domestic science shall also be taught.<ref name= "history--culture">{{cite web| url= https://www.lumbeetribe.com/history--culture | website= LumbeeTribe.com| title= History & Culture: Recognition| publisher= Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina| access-date= October 21, 2016}}</ref></blockquote>

Anthropologist [[John R. Swanton]]  reported on possible origins of the Indians of Robeson County in his work on Southeast Indians. He wrote:

<blockquote>The evidence available thus seems to indicate that the Indians of Robeson County who have been called Croatan and Cherokee are descended mainly from certain Siouan tribes of which the most prominent were the Cheraw and Keyauwee, but they probably included as well remnants of the Eno, and Shakori, and very likely some of the coastal groups such as the Waccamaw and Cape Fears. It is not improbable that a few families or small groups of Algonquian or Iroquoian may have cast their lot with this body of people, but contributions from such sources are relatively insignificant. Although there is some reason to think that the Keyauwee tribe actually contributed more blood to the Robeson County Indians than any other, the name is not widely known, whereas that of the Cheraw has been familiar to historians, geographers and ethnologists in one form or another since the time of De Soto and has a firm position in the cartography of the region. The Cheraws, too, seem to have taken a leading part in opposing the colonists during and immediately after the Yamasee uprising. Therefore, if the name of any tribe is to be used in connection with this body of six or eight thousand people, that of the Cheraw would, in my opinion, be most appropriate.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}</blockquote>

In 1935, Indian Agent Fred Baker was sent to Robeson County in response to a proposed resettlement project for the Cherokee Indians of Robeson County. At the time, the people were attempting to organize as a tribe under the [[Indian Reorganization Act]] of 1934, which largely applied to Indians on reservations to encourage their self-government.

Baker reported:

<blockquote>I find that the sense of racial solidarity is growing stronger and that the members of this tribe are cooperating more and more with each other with the object in view of promoting the mutual benefit of all the members. It is clear to my mind that sooner of later government action will have to be taken in the name of justice and humanity to aid them.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}</blockquote>

D'Arcy McNickle, from the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]], came to Robeson County in 1936 to collect affidavits and other data from people registering as Indian under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. McNickle stated, "there are reasons for believing that until comparatively recently some remnant of language still persisted among these people."<ref>{{cite web| title= Senate Hearing 109-610: Lumbee Recognition Act, S. 660| url= https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-109shrg28696/html/CHRG-109shrg28696.htm| website= GPO.gov| publisher= Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate | date= July 12, 2006| place= Washington, D.C.| access-date= October 21, 2016}}</ref>

In the 1960s, [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] ethnologists William Sturtevant and Samuel Stanley described the Lumbee as "larger than any other Indian group in the United States except the Navajo", and estimated their population as 31,380 Lumbee (from North and South Carolina) in 1960.<ref name= "history--culture" />

====Indian New Deal====
The federal [[Indian Reorganization Act]] in 1934 was chiefly directed at [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes on [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. It encouraged them to re-establish self-government, which had been diminished since the founding of reservations and the supervision by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

At this time, the Indians of Robeson County renewed their petition for federal recognition as a tribe. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) sent [[John R. Swanton]], an anthropologist from the [[Bureau of American Ethnology]], and the Indian Agent Fred Baker to evaluate the claim of the Indians of Robeson County to historical continuity as an identified Indian community. In 1934, the future Lumbee revived their claim to Cherokee identity, joining the National Congress of American Indians under the name, "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County."{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Swanton speculated that the group were more likely descended in part from Cheraw and other eastern Siouan tribes, as these were the predominant Native American peoples historically in that area. The Indians of Robeson County split in terms of how they identified as Native Americans: one group supported the Cheraw theory of ancestry. The other faction believed they were descended from the Cherokee, although the tribe had historically occupied territory in the mountains and western part of the state rather than the area of Robeson County. North Carolina's politicians abandoned support for the federal recognition effort until the tribal factions agreed on their identity.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

In 1952, under the leadership of D.F. Lowrie, the tribe voted to adopt the name "Lumbee."{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} The North Carolina legislature recognized the tribe's name change to the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina" in 1953.{{sfn|Street|2022|pp=126-127}} The tribe petitioned again for federal recognition.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

====Lumbee Act====
In 1955, congressman [[F. Ertel Carlyle]] introduced The Lumbee Act to recognize the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina." It was passed into by Congress as H.R. 4656 ({{USStatute|84|570|70|254}}) in 1956 and signed by President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].{{sfn|Street|2022|pp=130-131}} The Senate inserted a compromise that withheld full recognition as a [[federally recognized tribe]] and prevented the tribe from being federally recognized or receiving federal benefits designated for tribal governments.{{sfn|Street|2022|p=131}} The Lumbee Act designated the Indians of Robeson, [[Hoke County, North Carolina|Hoke]], [[Scotland County, North Carolina|Scotland]], and [[Cumberland County, North Carolina|Cumberland]] counties as the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina."{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

It provided further, "Nothing in this Act shall make such Indians eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians.'"{{sfn|Street|2022|p=131}} It also forbids a government-to-government relationship between the federal government and the Lumbee as well as forbidding them from applying through the BARS, the Bureau of Indian Affairs administrative process to gain recognition. This restriction as to eligibility for services was a condition which tribal representatives agreed to at the time in order to achieve status as a recognized tribe and have the Lumbee name recognized. The Lumbee had essentially assimilated into early colonial life prior to the formation of the United States. They lived as individuals, as did any other colonial and U.S. citizens. Lumbee spokesmen repeatedly testified at these hearings that they were not seeking federal financial benefits; they said they only wanted a name designation as Lumbee people.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

===Petitioning for full federal recognition===
In 1987, the Lumbee petitioned the [[United States Department of the Interior]] for full federal recognition. This is a prerequisite to receive the financial benefits accorded federally recognized Native American tribes. The latter have generally been those tribes who had signed treaties with the federal government and had reservations established, and a history of a tribal relationship with the federal government.{{efn|The petition's authors were [[Julian Pierce]], Cynthia Hunt-Locklear, Wes White, Jack Campisi and [[Arlinda Locklear]].}} The petition was denied in 1989 because of the Lumbee Act.<ref name=":0" />

[[File:DOLE, MCINTYRE TESTIFY AT LUMBEE HEARING.jpg|thumb|Senator [[Elizabeth Dole]] and Representative [[Mike McIntyre]] testifying at a congressional hearing on federal Lumbee recognition, 2003]]
The Lumbee resumed [[lobbying]] Congress, testifying in 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1993 in efforts to gain full federal recognition by congressional action.<ref name= draft>{{Cite web|url=http://www.indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Hicks071206.pdf|title=DRAFT<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=2008-05-07|archive-date=2008-05-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529124629/http://www.indian.senate.gov/public/_files/Hicks071206.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> All of these attempts failed in the face of opposition by the Department of Interior, the recognized [[Cherokee]] tribes (including North Carolina's [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]]), some of the North Carolina Congressional delegation, and some representatives from other states with federally recognized tribes. Some of the North Carolina delegation separately recommended an amendment to the 1956 Act that would enable the Lumbee to apply to the Department of Interior under the regular administrative process for recognition.<ref name="draft"/> In 2004 and 2006 the tribe made renewed bids for full recognition, to include financial benefits.<ref name="daily tarheel"/>

In 2007, US Senator [[Elizabeth Dole]] from North Carolina introduced the Lumbee Recognition Bill. It was not enacted.<ref name="daily tarheel">{{cite news|title=A steadfast few |work=[[The Daily Tar Heel]] |date=2008-11-25 |url=http://www.dailytarheel.com/news/state_national/a_steadfast_few |archive-url=https://archive.today/20090408215121/http://www.dailytarheel.com/news/state_national/a_steadfast_few |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-04-08 |access-date=2008-11-26 }}</ref> Lumbee Tribal Chairman [[Jimmy Goins]] appeared before the [[United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs]] in September 2007 to lobby for federal recognition of the tribe.<ref>{{cite news|first=Michael |last=Futch |title=Former Lumbee Tribal Chairman Jimmy Goins killed in car accident |url=https://www.wral.com/former-lumbee-tribal-chairman-jimmy-goins-killed-in-car-accident/14696835/ |publisher= [[WRAL-TV]] |date=2015-06-07 |access-date=2015-07-04}}</ref>

In January 2009, US Representative [[Mike McIntyre]] introduced legislation (H.R. 31) to grant the Lumbee full federal recognition.<ref name="McIntyre Introduces Lumbee Recognition Bill">{{cite web| title = McIntyre Introduces Lumbee Recognition Bill| url = http://www.house.gov/list/press/nc07_mcintyre/lumbee.shtml| access-date = 2009-03-27| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090328024825/http://www.house.gov/list/press/nc07_mcintyre/lumbee.shtml| archive-date = 2009-03-28}}</ref> The bill gained support of more than 180 co-sponsors,<ref name="H.R. 31 - To provide for the recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and for other purposes">{{cite web| title = H.R. 31 - To provide for the recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, and for other purposes| url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.00031:| access-date = 2009-03-27| archive-date = 2012-12-15| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121215083433/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.00031:| url-status = dead}}</ref> including both North Carolina US Senators, [[Richard Burr]] and [[Kay Hagan]].<ref name="Hagan pledges support for Lumbee recognition">{{cite web | title = Hagan pledges support for Lumbee recognition| place= Lumberton, North Carolina| work= The Robensonian| url = http://robesonian.com/bookmark/2159817| url-status= dead|first= Bob |last= Shiles| date= March 27, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090409005219/http://robesonian.com/bookmark/2159817| archive-date= April 9, 2009| access-date= October 21, 2016}}</ref> In June 2009, the United States House of Representatives voted 240 to 179 for federal recognition for the Lumbee tribe, acknowledging that they are descendants of the historic Cheraw tribe. The bill went to the United States Senate.<ref name="Lumbee bill passes House vote.">{{cite news| url= http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=328303 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171204222909/http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=328303 | url-status= dead | archive-date= December 4, 2017 |title= Lumbee bill passes House vote| work= [[The Fayetteville Observer]]| date= June 3, 2009 |access-date= June 3, 2009}}</ref> In October 2009, the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved a bill for federal recognition of the Lumbee that also included a no-gaming clause.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091023/POLITICS/91023008 |title= Lumbee recognition clears hurdle| work= [[Asheville Citizen-Times]]| date= October 23, 2009 |access-date= October 28, 2009}}</ref> The Senate adjourned for 2010 without taking action on the bill.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/12/25/881196/time-runs-out-for-lumbee-tribal.html| title= Time runs out for Lumbee tribal recognition bill in Senate| work= [[The News & Observer]]| agency= [[Associated Press]]| date= 2010-12-25| access-date= 2010-12-25| url-status= dead| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121001055811/http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/12/25/881196/time-runs-out-for-lumbee-tribal.html| archive-date= 2012-10-01}}</ref>

In 2021, Senator [[Brian Schatz]] of Hawaii sought a hearing on Lumbee federal recognition.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Agoyo |first1=Acee |title=Key Senate leader seeks hearing on Lumbee Tribe federal recognition |url=https://www.indianz.com/News/2021/05/12/key-senate-leader-seeks-hearing-on-lumbee-tribe-federal-recognition/?hss_channel=fbp-1575858736016260 |website=indianz.com |date=12 May 2021 |access-date=31 May 2021}}</ref> In April 2021, US Representative [[G. K. Butterfield]] introduced legislation to grant the Lumbee full federal recognition (H.R. 2758). The bill passed the House of Representatives in November 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Butterfield|first=G. K.|date=2021-11-01|title=H.R.2758 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Lumbee Recognition Act|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2758|access-date=2021-11-02|website=www.congress.gov}}</ref> The Senate never acted. Another attempt at federal recognition passed the House but not the Senate. On December 17, 2024 [[Bruce Westerman]] of Arkansas introduced a bill sponsored by [[David Rouzer]] of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]]. The House approved 311-96, but the Senate would not be able to take action if Congress adjourned as planned.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article297247029.html|title=House approves federal recognition of NC's Lumbee tribe, with little time left to pass it|last=Battaglia|first=Danielle|work=News and Observer|date=December 17, 2024}}</ref>

====2020 presidential election====
During the [[2020 United States presidential election]] campaign, then-candidate [[Joe Biden]] announced, on October 8, 2020, his support for federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe by pledging his backing to the Lumbee Recognition Act.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article246311535.html |title= Biden Backs Lumbee Tribe's Push for Federal Recognition| work= [[News & Observer]]| date= October 8, 2020}}</ref> On October 21, 2020, President [[Donald Trump]] announced his support for federal recognition of the tribe via the same legislation.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/2020/10/21/president-trump-supports-federal-recognition-lumbee-tribe/5996731002/ |title= President Trump backs recognition bill for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina| work= [[Fayetteville Observer]]| date= October 21, 2020}}</ref> The following weekend, Trump held a rally in Robeson County to shore up support among Native Americans.<ref>"Trump Fights to Keep North Carolina Red", 
New York Times, November 5, 2020 [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/04/us/elections/north-carolina-election-results-county.html Trump Fights to Keep North Carolina Red]</ref> During the rally, Trump stated that "[The] Lumbee Nation is forgotten no more!"<ref>{{cite web |title=Trump adds support to Lumbee Tribe federal recognition bill |url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-bills-north-carolina-0985d74c0d2a4a9b055d44718dec9314 |website=AP NEWS |access-date=18 January 2021 |date=22 October 2020}}</ref> Trump's rally was significant in that it was the first official visit to Robeson County by a sitting US President in history.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.robesonian.com/news/139189/trump-support-for-lumbee-recognition-a-big-part-of-talk-about-rally |title= Trump support for Lumbee recognition a big part of talk about rally| work= [[The Robesonian]]| date= October 2020}}</ref>

Historically most of Robeson County had trended Democratic, voting for Barack Obama by an 18 point margin in 2012. However, Donald Trump carried the county narrowly in 2016, winning by a 5 point margin over [[Hillary Clinton]]. In 2020, his margin of victory increased dramatically to an 18 point victory over Biden.<ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article114427363.html |title= 7 rural NC counties flip 'bloodshot red' for Trump| work= [[News & Observer]]| date= November 12, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url= https://www.robesonian.com/news/139430/election-shows-robeson-county-has-shifted-red-politically |title= Election shows Robeson County has shifted red politically| work= [[The Robesonian]]| date= November 4, 2020}}</ref> Many attribute this swing in Trump's favor to his visit and explicit support for recognition of the tribe by the federal government.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Flores |first1=Carlos |title=Lumbees show appreciation after President Trump supports Lumbee recognition act |url=https://wpde.com/news/local/lumbees-show-appreciation-after-president-trump-supports-lumbee-recognition-act |website=WPDE |access-date=18 January 2021 |date=24 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kruse |first1=Michael |title=How Trump Won One of America's Most Diverse Counties — By a Lot |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/10/robeson-county-rural-rainbow-coalition-north-carolina-trump-republicans-443978 |website=POLITICO |date=10 December 2020 |access-date=18 January 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

==Theories of origins==
===Lost Colony of Roanoke===
In 1888, [[Hamilton McMillan]] proposed the Native inhabitants of Robeson County were descendants of England's "[[Roanoke Colony|Lost Colony of Roanoke]]", who intermarried with what he described as the "Croatan Indians."{{sfn|McMillan|1888}}{{page needed|date=February 2025}} The Roanoke colony disappeared during a difficult winter, but the colonists reportedly left the word "Croatan" carved into a tree, hence the name MacMillan gave to the proto Lumbee.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

MacMillan's theory may have been part of a cynical effort to woo Lumbee voters to the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] by creating a [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregated]] Indian school system separate from the school system for [[African Americans]].<ref name="Steelman">{{Cite web |last=Steelman |first=Ben |title="The Lumbee Indians" -- black, white and shades of red |url=https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/entertainment/books/2018/10/20/the-lumbee-indians-paints-picture-of-diverse-people/9503203007/ |date=October 20, 2018 |access-date=December 30, 2024 |website=[[Wilmington Star-News]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

By the early 1900s, Robeson County whites used "Cro" as a racial epithet to describe their "Indian" neighbors. The Lost Colony theory of origins fell out of favor in the early twentieth century.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} "Croatan" was dropped from their name and they became known as the "Indians of Robeson County" in 1911.{{sfn|Street|2022|p=124}}

Lumbee historian [[Adolph Dial]] continued to advocate for the lost colony theory until his death in the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-08-18-8703030008-story.html|title=VIRGINIA DARE'S 400TH YEAR OF MYSTERY|first=Milton|last=Nieuwsma|website=chicagotribune.com|date=18 August 1987 }}</ref><ref name="Steelman" /> Lumbee historian Malinda Mayor Lowery "is highly skeptical" of the theory.<ref name="Steelman" />

===Cherokee descent===
The proto Lumbee first began identifying as Cherokee Indians in 1915, when they changed their name to the "Cherokee Indians of Robeson County." Four years earlier, they had changed their name from the "Croatan Indians" to the generic "Indians of Robeson County." But the Cherokee occupied territory much further to the west and in the mountains during the colonial era.

In his unpublished 1934 master's thesis, graduate student Clifton Oxendine theorized that the Lumbee descended from [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian]]-speaking [[Cherokee]]. Citing "oral traditions," Oxendine suggested that the Lumbee were the descendants of Cherokee warriors who fought with the British under Colonel [[John Barnwell (colonist)|John Barnwell]] of South Carolina in the Tuscarora campaign of 1711–1713. He said the Cherokee settled in the swamps of Robeson County when the campaign ended, along with some Tuscarora captives.<ref>Oxendine, p. 4</ref>

The Oxendine theory of Cherokee origin has been uniformly rejected by mainstream scholars. First, no Cherokee warriors are listed in the record of Barnwell's company.<ref>Rights, pp. 54-55</ref> Second, the Lumbee do not speak Cherokee or any other Indian language. Third, Oxendine's claims of oral traditions are completely unsubstantiated; no such oral traditions survive or are documented by any other scholar.

The Lumbee have abandoned this theory in their documentation supporting their effort to obtain federal tribal recognition. The federally recognized [[Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians]] categorically rejects any connection to the Lumbee, dismissing the Oxendine claims as "absurd" and disputing even that the Lumbee qualify as Native American.<ref>{{cite web |last1=MCDONALD |first1=THOMASI |title=North Carolina Tribes Clash on Recognizing Lumbees |url=https://www.indianz.com/News/2021/05/12/key-senate-leader-seeks-hearing-on-lumbee-tribe-federal-recognition/?hss_channel=fbp-1575858736016260 |website=INDY Week |date=12 May 2021 |access-date=31 May 2021}}</ref>

===Cheraw descent===
Indian agent McPherson theorized that they may be related to the defunct [[Cheraw]], a band of Siouan-speaking Indians that had been reduced by war and disease to 50 or 60 individuals by 1768.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The 1915 ''McPherson Report'' said in reference to the Cheraw (quoting the ''Handbook of American Indians'', 1906):

<blockquote>Their numbers in 1715, according to Rivers, was 510, but this estimate probably included the Keyauwee. Being still subject to attack by the [[Iroquois]], they finally—between 1726 and 1739—became incorporated with the [[Catawba people|Catawba]] ... They are mentioned as with the Catawba but speaking their own distinct dialect as late as 1743 (Adair). The last notice of them in 1768, when their remnant, reduced by war and disease to 50 or 60, were still living with the Catawba.<ref>''Handbook of American Indians'' (1906)</ref></blockquote>

The [[Catawba people|Catawba]] are a federally recognized tribe. The McPherson Report does not explain how or when the remaining four or five dozen Cheraw identified in 1768 separated from the Catawba and became the ancestors of the Lumbee.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

===Siouan descent===
After repeated rejections under the Croatan, Cherokee and Cheraw labels, the proto Lumbee petitioned the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1924 for recognition as "Siouan" Indians. This refers to [[Siouan language]]-speaking groups, not the [[Sioux]], an [[Indigenous people of the Great Plains]]. This petition was rejected largely on the grounds that Siouan is a language family, not a tribe. Moreover, there was no record of the Lumbee or their ancestors having ever spoken a Siouan or any other Indian language.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

===Keyauwee descent===
In 1933, John Swanton wrote that the Siouan-speaking Keyauwee and Cheraw of the [[Piedmont (United States)|Carolina Piedmont]] were the most likely Indian ancestors of the people known from 1885 to 1912 as Croatan Indians and later as the Indians of Robeson County.<ref name=chavis>Chavis, Dean. [http://www.redheart213.com/thelumbeestorybydeanchavis.html "The Lumbee Story"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523052824/http://www.redheart213.com/thelumbeestorybydeanchavis.html |date=2010-05-23 }}, Red Hearts website (retrieved 8 Nov 2009)</ref> He suggested that surviving descendants of the [[Waccamaw]] and the Woccon likely lived in the central coastal region of North Carolina. In the 21st century, these tribes are extinct as groups, except for a small band of Waccamaw that live on Lake Waccamaw and have been recognized by the state.<ref name=chavis/>

Swanton traced the migration of Southeast tribes.<ref name="Rights, p. 59">Rights, p. 59</ref> In addition to the Keyauwee, Cheraw, Bear River, Waccamaw, and Woccon already mentioned, he noted that the [[Eno people|Eno]] and [[Waxhaw people|Waxhaw]] migrated from Piedmont South Carolina northeast to the north-central part of North Carolina, then back south again to a point on the [[Pee Dee River]] just south of the border of the two Carolinas.

By the 1770s, remnant Indians from the once distinct tribal communities of the Cheraw, Keyauwee, Hatteras, Waxhaw, Sugaree, Eno and Shakori gathered along the Lumbee River, near the border that now divides North and South Carolina.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} Some of these Indians moved further southward to join with the few surviving Catawba, but the majority settled near the pines, web of wetlands, and river that bear the name of the Lumbee. Over time in a process of [[ethnogenesis]], they identified as a common people.{{sfn|Blu|1980|p=36}}

===Multiple tribes theory===
Lumbee historian Malinda Mayor Lowery proposed that the Lumbee people were most likely descended from the members of several other tribes who settled in the swamplands around [[Robeson County]]. Lowery argues that [[Cheraw]], [[Saponi]], [[Hatteras Indians|Hatteras]], [[Tuscarora people|Tuscarora]] and [[Cape Fear Indians]] settled in the area during the 18th and 19th centuries and adopted English as a [[lingua franca]]. Over time the various refugees merged into the Lumbee.<ref name="Steelman" />

=== Authenticity and doubts of origins ===
Due to their lack of evidence of Native American ancestry and other conventional Indigenous cultural markers such as a unique language, Lumbee people are often confronted with doubts concerning the validity of their claims to Indigenous status.{{sfn|Wolfram|Reaser|2014|pp=221–223}} Some white and black residents of Robeson County have expressed doubts about their origins, asserting that the Lumbee are descendants of white and black people who do not want to be viewed as black due to [[Discrimination based on skin tone#United States|discrimination based on skin tone]].{{sfn|Wolfram|Reaser|2014|p=221}} Some federally recognized tribes have endorsed the extension of recognition to the Lumbee, while others have opposed it, accusing the Lumbee of making [[pretendian|fraudulent claims to Indigenous ancestry]].<ref>{{cite news| last = NoiseCat| first = Julian Brave| title = Who's Your People?| newspaper = The Assembly| date = October 4, 2022| url = https://www.theassemblync.com/culture/lumbee-tribe-federal-recognition/| access-date = December 3, 2022}}</ref>

Several tribes from the Western United States also promulgate the belief that the Lumbee are a mixed, mostly African-descent group. Some Lumbee report that they do not show any Native American ancestry on commercial [[genealogical DNA test]]s. Historian Malinda Maynor Lowery, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, criticized the usefulness of such tests, stating that the testing companies lack base samples of the Lumbee's Indigenous ancestors' [[DNA]] with which the results can be compared.<ref name= rab>{{cite news| last= Rab| first= Lisa | title= What Makes Someone Native American?| newspaper = The Washington Post| date = August 20, 2018| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2018/08/20/feature/what-makes-someone-native-american-one-tribes-long-struggle-for-full-recognition/| access-date = December 3, 2022|quote=In theory, DNA tests to determine a person’s overall Native American heritage could solve some of these quandaries, but both TallBear and Lowery say such tests are irrelevant to most tribes. When Lumbees contact her, alarmed that biological tests don’t reveal their native DNA, Lowery reminds them that the companies doing the testing don’t have base samples of their ancestors’ DNA. “People are allowed to be African American in this society and not have 100 percent African DNA,” Lowery says. “Are the Lumbee being held to a different standard?”}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Malinda Maynor Lowery |url=http://history.emory.edu/home/people/faculty/lowery-malinda-maynor.html |website=history.emory.edu |access-date=3 December 2022}}</ref> Some Lumbee report that the doubts about their status have caused emotional and psychological harm in their community.<ref>{{cite news|last=Warren |first=Debby |title=Convolutions of Race and Identity: The Lumbee Struggle for Sovereignty |newspaper=Nonprofit Quarterly |date=October 29, 2019 |url=https://nonprofitquarterly.org/convolutions-of-race-and-identity-the-lumbee-struggle-for-sovereignty/| access-date = December 6, 2022}}</ref>

==Culture and traditions==
[[File:10th Annual Lumbee Powwow Lumberton.jpg|thumb|Lumbees at a pow wow in Lumberton, 2015]]

=== Surnames ===
Locklear, Oxendine, Lowry, Hunt, Chavis, Brayboy, Freeman and Bullard are common Lumbee surnames.{{sfn|Wolfram|Reaser|2014|p=220}}

===Language===
{{Infobox language
| name             = Lumbee
| familycolor      = american
| fam1             = [[Siouan languages|Siouan]]?
| acceptance       = spurious
| iso3             = none
| iso3comment      = ({{code|lmz}} deprecated in 2020 due to [[Spurious_languages|spurious]])
| glotto           = lumb1237
| extinct          = ?
| ethnicity        = Lumbee
| states           = [[United States]]
| region           = [[North Carolina]]
| fam2             = [[Catawban languages|Catawban]]?
| fam3             = [[Cheraw]]?
}}

Lumbee people speak both mainstream varieties of English and a vernacular form, Lumbee English.{{sfn|Wolfram et al|2002|pp=1–2}} The latter is not a [[Native American language]], but rather a form of [[American Indian English]]. In 2020, the [[ISO 639-3]] [[language code]] ''lmz'' was retired from use, as it was determined that no separate Lumbee language has ever existed. Linguists have speculated that the ancestors of the Lumbees had been [[History of North Carolina#The Native Peoples of North Carolina|Native peoples]] who had originally spoken the [[Cheraw]] dialect of the [[Catawban languages|Eastern Siouan language]] prior to [[language shift|adopting English]] sometime before the early 18th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/sites/iso639-3/files/change_requests/2019/2019-025.pdf |access-date=14 September 2025 |website=www.iso639-3.sil.org}}</ref><ref>[https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/ling-487-spring2012-dch52/files/2012/04/schilling-estes-constructing-ethnicity1.pdf Schilling Estesm Constructing Ethnicity] {{Dead link|date=September 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233485199|title=Dialect Identity in a Tri-Ethnic Context: The Case of Lumbee American Indian English|website=ResearchGate}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=The Lumbee Indians of North Carolina |url=https://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/lumbee/timeline/ |website=pbs.org |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=February 12, 2025 |date=2005}}</ref> Lumbee ancestors encountered English-speaking European settlers and adopted their language much earlier than other Native American groups.{{sfn|Wolfram et al|2002|p=8}} The Lumbee Act of 1956 specifically mentioned the dialect as a defining attribute of the people.{{sfn|Wolfram|Reaser|2014|p=223}}

By 1730, English settlers were surprised at the presence of a large English-speaking Native American tribe. The Lumbees’ lack of a traditional language led to extra difficulty in gaining federal recognition.<ref name=":0" />

Lumbee dialectal English descends from the English spoken by the British English, [[Highland Scots]], and [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]]. Probably due to this heritage, it shares similarities with the [[High Tider]] accent found in the [[Outer Banks]], namely in use of the {{IPA|/ɒɪ/}} sound where other English speakers use {{IPA|/aɪ/}}, the use of the word ''{{linktext|mommuck}}'' ('to mess up'), and the grammatical use of ''weren't'' (e.g. "she weren't here"). Lumbee dialect also makes use of several unique words and phrases: ''chauld'' ('embarrassed'); ''on the swamp'' ('in the neighborhood'); ''{{linktext|juvember}}'' ([[sling shot]]); and ''bog'' (a serving of chicken and rice). Grammatically, Lumbee dialect employs the word ''bes'' as a verb form (e.g. "it bes really crowded").<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/lumbee/ | title = Lumbee Dialect| last = Wolfram| first = Walt| date = 2005| publisher = [[Public Broadcasting Service]]| access-date = October 12, 2021}}</ref>

There is a variation in the use of these elements among Lumbee people; some frequently use most of the vernacular's unique characteristics, while others use few of them but easily understand their meaning.{{sfn|Wolfram et al|2002|p=13}} The vernacular has also evolved over time, with older speakers frequently using the {{IPA|/ɒɪ/}} sound and ''a''-prefixing verbs, while the grammatical use of ''weren't'' has been retained and strengthened in use among younger speakers.{{sfn|Wolfram et al|2002|p=14}}

===Lumbee Homecoming===
[[File:Lumbee Homecoming 2016 vendors.png|thumb|Vendors at the 2016 Lumbee Homecoming]]
Lumbee Homecoming is a celebration held annually in Pembroke since 1968. Homecoming is important in bringing together members of families, many from great distances, for a weeklong celebration of Lumbee culture. Festivities include a parade, a [[pow wow]], pageants, and other cultural events. 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the homecoming and saw crowds of over 20,000 spectators,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.fayobserver.com/news/20180707/lumbee-homecoming-celebrates-50th-year|title=Lumbee Homecoming Celebrates 50th year|access-date=July 10, 2018|newspaper=The Fayetteville Observer|date=July 7, 2018}}</ref> including the [[Governor of North Carolina]], [[Roy Cooper]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.robesonian.com/top-stories/112817/lumbee-homecoming-enters-final-day-on-a-high-note|title=Lumbee Homecoming enters final day on a high note|access-date=July 10, 2018|newspaper=The Robesonian|date=July 6, 2018}}</ref>

===Communities===
Lumbee communities were linked together by their extensive kinship ties, church affiliations, their sense of themselves as Indians, and their control of their educational system, all of which served as a mechanism for defining tribal membership and maintaining tribal boundaries. Communities are basically self-governing. One form of self-governance in the early 20th century was exhibited by a fraternal organization known as the Red Men's Lodge. By 1914, lodges existed in Prospect, Magnolia, Pembroke, Saddletree, Oxendine, and Union Chapel. Lodge members maintained social order, carried out ceremonies, marched in parades, and conducted funerals. The 1987 Lumbee Petition states that, "[w]ith so many prominent leaders it is easy to understand how the lodges could maintain order and, at the same time, protect the tribal members from organized violence from whites in the area".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lumbeetribe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=132&Itemid=97 |title=Communities |access-date=2013-04-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130615063856/http://www.lumbeetribe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=132&Itemid=97 |archive-date=2013-06-15 }}, Lumbee Tribe website</ref>

===Lumbee patchwork===
In the late 19th century, Maggie Lowry Locklear (Lumbee), daughter of [[Henry Berry Lowry]], created a unique patchwork quilt inspired by the [[longleaf pine]]. Her quilt is in the collection of the [[Museum of the Southeast American Indian]] at the [[University of North Carolina at Pembroke]].<ref name="quilts">{{cite web |last1=Labry |first1=Suzanne |title=Lumbee Pinecone Patchwork |url=https://www.quilts.com/suzys_fancy/lumbee-pinecone-patchwork/ |website=Quilts, Inc. |access-date=25 August 2022}}</ref>

In 1993, Hayes Alan Locklear (Lumbee) designed a dress, which was sewn by Kat Littleturtle (Lumbee) for Miss Lumbee Natascha Wagoner, who was chosen as the 8th [[Miss Indian America|Miss Indian USA]]. The dress featured a pinecone patchwork pattern inspired by Maggie Lowry Locklear's quilt. Since then, Lumbee women have adopted this pinecone patchwork dress style as the signature Lumbee dress.<ref name=quilts/>

=== Cuisine ===
[[File:Collard sandwiches.png|thumb|Collard sandwiches served at a Lumbee Homecoming]]
Traditional Lumbee cuisine heavily intersects with [[Cuisine of the Southern United States|Southern cuisine]]. [[Chicken and dumplings|Chicken and pastry]] is a mainstay of Lumbee food,<ref>{{cite news| last = Tkacik| first = Christina| title = A taste of home for Baltimore's Lumbee tribe members| newspaper = The Baltimore Sun| date = November 15, 2016| url = https://www.baltimoresun.com/food-drink/bs-fo-lumbee-cooking-20161115-story.html| access-date = December 1, 2022}}</ref> as is [[cornbread]].<ref>{{cite news| title = Lumbee Living : A new cookbook crystallizes a culture through its food.| newspaper = Our State| date = December 2011|url = https://www.ourstate.com/lumbee-living/| access-date = December 1, 2022}}</ref> The collard sandwich—consisting of fried cornbread, collard greens, and [[fatback]]—is a popular dish among the Lumbee in Robeson County. It is sometimes served with [[Chow-chow (food)|chow-chow]].<ref>{{cite news| last = Shestack| first = Elizabeth| title = The Collard Sandwich is a Robeson County Delicacy| newspaper = Our State| date = March 2015| url = https://www.ourstate.com/collard-sandwich/| access-date = November 20, 2022}}</ref>

===Religion===
Today the Lumbee primarily practice Protestantism, and attending church is an important social activity. Churches have Sunday schools, youth organizations, senior citizens' programs, Bible study programs, and choir practices. Gospel songs are popular. Ministers are highly respected. When a sizeable number of Lumbee people move to a city, they tend to settle in a particular section or neighborhood and establish a church. This took place in Lumbee communities in Baltimore, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Charlotte, and Claxton, Georgia.<ref name=stilling>Stilling, Glenn Ellen Starr. [http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/Miscellaneous/lumv.html "North Carolina's Lumbee Indians in Literature, Art, and Music"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603193654/http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/Miscellaneous/lumv.html |date=2013-06-03 }}, ''Lumbee Indians.'' Retrieved 1 July 2013</ref>

A study has documented Lumbee [[Methodism]] back to 1787. Lumbees created two church conferences of Indian congregations&nbsp;— the Burnt Swamp [[Baptists|Baptist]] Association, founded around 1880, and the [[Lumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church|Lumbee River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Association]] in 1900. In 1984 Bruce Barton documented 104 Lumbee churches.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}} Prospect Community Church, with 1,008 members in 2017, has purportedly the largest congregation of Native Americans in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.umdata.org/ChurchProfile.aspx?ChurchID=459847|title=Church Profile|website=www.umdata.org}}</ref>

== Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina ==
{{Main|Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina}}
The [[Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina]] is one of eight state-recognized Native American tribes in North Carolina.<ref>[http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/colls/themes/november.html "Native American Heritage."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515012444/http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/colls/themes/november.html |date=2012-05-15 }} ''State Library of North Carolina.'' Retrieved 8 Nov 2009.</ref> They participate at the state level in many ways, including in the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. They also participate in such national organizations as the [[National Congress of American Indians]] and the [[National Indian Education Association]].

According to its constitution, adopted in 2000, the Lumbee tribal government is organized into three branches: the tribal chairperson (executive), the 21-member Tribal Council (legislative), and Supreme Court (judicial). The tribal chairperson and the Tribal Council are elected to three-year terms.

The current administration includes:<ref>{{cite web |title=NC Tribal Communities |url=https://ncadmin.nc.gov/public/american-indians/nc-tribal-communities |website=NC Department of Administration |access-date=25 August 2022}}</ref>
* Chairman: John Lowery
* Administrator: Tammy Maynor
* Administration assistant to the chairman: Camera Brewer
* Enrollment director: Reena Locklear.

== Unrecognized organizations ==
Some [[unrecognized tribes|unrecognized organizations]] identify as being Lumbee. One, the United Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and America, based in Exeter, California, petitioned for federal recognition in 1980.<ref>{{cite web |title=Petitioner #070: United Lumbee Nation of NC and America, CA |url=https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/070_utdlum_CA/070_loi.pdf |website=US Department of Indian Affairs |access-date=24 August 2022}}</ref> The final determination was that the group "does not exist as an Indian tribe" and that they did not descend from any Lumbee community.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fritz |first1=John W. |title=Final Determination That the United Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and American, Inc., Does Not Exist as an Indian Tribes |journal=Federal Register |date=19 April 1985 |volume=50 |issue=85 |page=18746 |url=https://www.bia.gov/sites/default/files/dup/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/070_utdlum_CA/070_fd_fr.pdf}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Lumbees|List of notable Lumbee]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

== Works cited ==
<!--- Only include works referenced in the article --->
===Books===
*{{cite book |last1=Blu |first1=Karen I. |title=The Lumbee problem: the making of an American Indian people |date=1980 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-22525-0 |ol=4409557M |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL4409557M/The_Lumbee_problem |access-date=February 11, 2025}}
*{{cite book |authorlink1=Adolph Dial |last1=Dial |first1=Adolph L. |last2=Eliades |first2=David K. |title=The only land I know: a history of the Lumbee Indians |date=1996 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8156-0360-3 |edition=1st |ol=796069M |url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL796069M/The_only_land_I_know |access-date=February 12, 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=William McKee |title=To die game; the story of the Lowry band, Indian guerrillas of Reconstruction |date=1971 |publisher=Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press |isbn=978-0-8071-0816-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/todiegamestoryof00evan |access-date=February 12, 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Hauptman |first1=Laurence M. |title=Between two fires : American Indians in the Civil War |date=1996 |publisher=New York ; London : Free Press Paperbacks |isbn=978-0-684-82668-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/betweentwofiresa0000haup_1995/mode/2up |access-date=February 12, 2025}}
*{{cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Margaret M. |title=Colony of North Carolina (1735–1764), Abstracts of Land Patents, Volume I |location=[[Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina]] |publisher=Roanoke News Company |date=1982}}
*Rights, Douglas L. ''The American Indian in North Carolina''. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, 1957.
*Ross, Thomas E. ''American Indians in North Carolina: Geographic Interpretations'', Southern Pines: Karo Hollow Press, 1999. {{ISBN|978-1-891026-01-0}}.
*Sider, Gerald M. ''Living Indian Histories: Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003 (reprint). {{ISBN|978-0-8078-5506-5}}.
*Townsend, George Alfred. [https://archive.org/details/swampoutlawsorno00town ''The Swamp Outlaws, or, The North Carolina Bandits: Being a Complete History of the Modern Rob Roys and Robin Hoods''], New York: Robert M. DeWitt, 1872.
*{{cite book| last1 = Wolfram| first1 = Walt| last2 = Dannenberg| first2 = Clare| last3 = Knick| first3 = Stanley| last4 = Oxendine| first4 = Linda| title = Fine in the World: Lumbee Language in Time and Place| publisher = North Carolina State University| date = 2002| location = Raleigh| isbn = 1-885647-53-0| ref = {{harvid|Wolfram et al|2002}}}}
*{{cite book| last1 = Wolfram| first1 = Walt| last2 = Reaser| first2 = Jeffrey| title = Talkin' Tar Heel : How Our Voices Tell the Story of North Carolina | publisher = The University of North Carolina Press| date = 2014| location = Chapel Hill | isbn = 978-1-4696-1437-3 }}

===Journal articles===
*{{cite journal |last1=Locklear |first1=Lawrence T. |title=Down by the Ol' Lumbee: An Investigation into the Origin and Use of the Word "Lumbee" Prior to 1952 |journal=Native South |date=2010 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=103–117 |doi=10.1353/nso.2010.0004 |s2cid=154923676 |id={{Project MUSE|392514}}}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Street |first1=James Ennis |title=Federal Recognition of Native American Tribes in the United States and the International Right to Self-Determination: Why Congress should Exercise its Constitutional Authority to Federally Recognize the Lumbee Tribe |journal=[[Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law]] |date=2022 |volume=33 |issue=121 |pages=121–149 |url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1596&context=djcil |access-date=February 12, 2025 |format=Comment}}

===Primary sources===
*{{cite book |last=Knick |first=Stanley G. |date=1988 |title=Robeson Trails Archaeological Survey: Reconnaissance in Robeson County |publisher=Native American Resource Center Publications |location=[[University of North Carolina at Pembroke]]}}
*{{cite book |last=Knick |first=Stanley G. |date=1993 |title=Robeson Crossroads Archaeological Survey: Intensive Testing |publisher=Native American Resource Center Publications |location=[[University of North Carolina at Pembroke]]}}
*{{cite book |authorlink=Hamilton McMillan |last1=McMillan |first1=Hamilton |title=Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony. An historical sketch of the attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a colony in Virginia, with the traditions of an Indian tribe in North Carolina. Indicating the fate of the colony of Englishmen left on Roanoke Island in 1587 |date=1888 |publisher=Advance Presses |location=[[Wilson, North Carolina]] |url=https://archive.org/details/sirwalterraleigh00mcmi/mode/2up |access-date=February 12, 2025}}
*McPherson, O.M. [http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/mcpherson/menu.html online text ''Report on Condition and Tribal Rights of the Indians of Robeson and Adjoining Counties of North Carolina''], 63rd Congress, 3rd session, January 5, 1915. Senate Document 677 (This was submitted to the legislature of North Carolina, as they were considering issues related especially to the Cherokee and other tribal groups).
*Oxendine, Clifton. ''A Social and Economic History of the Indians of Robeson County North Carolina'', unpublished M.A. thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1934.
*Thomas, Robert K. "A Report on Research of Lumbee Origins."; Lumbee River Legal Services. The Lumbee petition. Prepared in cooperation with the Lumbee Tribal Enrollment Office. Julian T. Pierce and Cynthia Hunt-Locklear, authors. Jack Campisi and Wesley White, consultants. Pembroke: Lumbee River Legal Services, 1987.
*U.S. Bureau of the Census. ''The First Census of the U.S.: 1790. Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States: North Carolina''. Washington, DC: [[United States Government Publishing Office|Government Printing Office]], 1908.

==Further reading==
<!--- Only include works not referenced in the article --->
*Cameron, Jno. D. "The Croatan Indians of Robeson", North Carolina: The Fayetteville Observer, February 12, 1885
*Eliades, David K., Oxendine, Linda E., and Locklear, Lawrence T. "Hail to UNCP! A 125-Year History of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke". Chapel Hill, NC: Chapel Hill Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-59715-098-9}}.
*Gregg, Alexander (1819-1893). ''History of the Old Cheraws''
*Gorman, C. John "Gorman Papers", State archives, c. 1875 and with the Gorman family, Durham N.C. c. 1917
*Hawks, Francis. ''History of North Carolina''. Vol. I. Fayetteville, NC: E.J. Hale & Son, 1858.
*Houghton, Richard H., III. "The Lumbee: 'Not a Tribe,' ''The Nation''. 257.21 (20 December 1993)
* {{cite journal |last1=Knick |first1=Stanley |title=Because It Is Right |journal=Native South |date=2008 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=80–89 |doi=10.1353/nso.0.0002 |s2cid=153562135 |id={{Project MUSE|368500}} }}
* {{cite book| last = Lawrence |first = Robert C.| title = The State of Robeson| publisher = | date = 1939| location = Lumberton| oclc = 3570522}}
*Lawson, John. ''A New Voyage to Carolina''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1967. {{ISBN|978-0-8078-4126-6}}.
*Miller, Mark Edwin. ‘’Claiming Tribal Identity: The Five Tribes and the Politics of Tribal Recognition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
*Milling, Chapman J. ''Red Carolinians''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940.
*Norment, Mary C. ''The Lowrie History, As Acted in Part by Henry Berry Lowrie, the Great North Carolina Bandit''. Weldon, NC: Harrell's Printing House, 1895.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Lumbee}}
*{{Official website|http://www.lumbeetribe.com/}}
*Native American Resource Center, UNC Pembroke [https://www.uncp.edu/nativemuseum/ The Museum of the Southeast American Indian]
*[http://www.tuscaroranation.com/ Tuscarora Nation One Fire Council], Official Website
*[https://www.thecenterforlumbeestudies.org The Center for Lumbee Studies]
*[https://www.native-languages.org/lumbee.htm "Lumbee Language and the Lumbee Indian Culture"], Native Languages
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080831013044/http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/ "The Lumbee Indians": An annotated bibliography]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061116175826/http://www.strikeatthewind.com/index.html ''Strike at the Wind'' Outdoor Drama]

{{Native American Tribes in North Carolina}}{{State-recognized tribes}}{{authority control}}

[[Category:Lumbee| ]]
[[Category:Multiracial ethnic groups in the United States]]
[[Category:Native American tribes in North Carolina]]
[[Category:Robeson County, North Carolina]]