LUMBEE

Throughout American history, from colonial times to the present, one of the largest concentrations of Native Americans in the United States has been located in Robeson County and the surrounding counties of southeastern North Carolina. The exact Indian ancestry of these people never has been established. It is possible that the Lumbee have ancestors from tribes of all three major Indian language families of the region, including ALGONQUIANS, Iroquoians, and Siouans. The view held by most modern scholars is that the majority of Lumbee are descended from the Cheraw, a Siouan people living in what is now northwestern South Carolina at the time of contact with Spanish explorers. The fact that the Lumbee, following interaction with English and Scottish settlers who came to the region in the late 1700s, lost their native language and many of their traditional customs sometime in the 18th century has made it impossible to determine exact ancestry.

For much of their history, the Lumbee have sought tribal recognition, trying to change the attitude of those who referred to them in general terms, such as “people of the color.” In 1885, the North Carolina general assembly gave them the name “Croatan Indians,” because at that time the prevalent theory was that they were primarily descended from a combination of coastal Algonquians and Raleigh’s Lost Colonists from the 1587 British settlement on Roanoke Island (see ROANOKE). In 1911, the North Carolina legislature assigned to them the unwieldy name “Robeson County Indians.” In 1913, the legislature used the name “Cherokee Indians of Robeson County,” which was historically inaccurate since few CHEROKEE have been known to settle among them. But then in 1953, the general assembly accepted a name the Indians themselves had chosen—the Lumbee (pronounced LUM-bee)—after the Lumber River running through their territory. And in 1956, the federal government followed suit, giving them recognition as the Lumbee Indians. Yet it did not grant them special tribal status, which would have guaranteed federal services. Finally in 1993—94, Congress voted to recognize the Lumbee. In 2001, the Lumbee elected their first tribal council.

Before the Civil War, the Lumbee were ill-treated by many southern whites as were other Native Americans and African Americans. During the Civil War years, Lumbee men were forced to work on Confederate fortifications under terrible conditions—with minimal sleep, prolonged exposure to the elements, and little food. Some Lumbee hid out to avoid this forced labor; others managed to escape. The Home Guard troops tracked them down, terrorizing the entire Lumbee community in the process. In 1864, a teenager named Henry Berry Lowrie (also spelled Lowerie), on the execution of his father and brother—they had been accused of aiding Union soldiers—began a campaign of resistance against this cruel treatment. He led a band of young men in raids on rich plantations and distributed the stolen food to poor Indians, blacks, and whites alike.

The Home Guard came after Lowrie and his fighters, but the insurgents escaped into the swamplands they knew so well. Lowrie’s men kept up their resistance even after the Civil War, now eluding federal troops. Lowrie was tricked into capture on three occasions but managed to escape each time. He became a mythical figure among the Lumbee, some of whom claimed he could not be killed by bullets. Lowrie also stood up to the Ku Klux Klan, the racist group that preached white supremacy, protecting his people from the Klan’s violence. In 1871, 18 militiamen ambushed Lowrie from a bank of the Lumber River as he paddled by in a canoe. He jumped into the water and, rather than trying to escape, he used the boat as a shield as he returned fire with his rifle. Slowly advancing toward the militiamen, he singlehand-edly routed them. Yet the following year, Lowrie disappeared. His death was never proven and, as late as the 1930s, some among the Lumbee claimed he was still alive.

Lowrie seemed to be present in spirit almost a century after his disappearance, in 1958, when hundreds of tribal members, angered by the racism of Ku Klux Klansmen, marched on a rally held by the group and drove them out of Robeson County once and for all.

The town of Pembroke in Robeson County, North Carolina, presently is a center of Lumbee activity. Tribal members have held such political offices as mayor, chief of police, and city councilman. Many Lumbee also reside in Hoke and Scotland Counties. Pembroke State University, originally founded as a four-year state-supported school for Lumbee (formerly Pembroke State College for Indians), is now part of the University of North Carolina system and has students of all backgrounds.