Creation
The Lumbee Regional Development Association (LRDA), a nonprofit organization, was initially responsible for maintaining Lumbee tribal membership rolls and providing social services to the members. After an attempt by the LRDA to gain full federal recognition for the Lumbee people as a Native American tribe in 1991 failed, some Lumbees began to criticize the LRDA as an inadequate representative for the group. The LRDA had a board of self-appointed directors and no constitution, which critics felt made it ill-equipped to genuinely represent the interest of Lumbees. They also felt that its limited jurisdiction meant it could not satisfy the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs' recognition criterion for groups with a "continuous political authority." To address these concerns, in 1993, a group of Lumbee community leaders formed a constitutional assembly, the Lumbee Tribe of Cheraw Indians (LTCI), and gathered delegates from historically-Indian church congregations in the area to draft a constitution for a tribal government.
Through dozens of meetings held throughout the year, the LTCI produced a draft constitution with separate branches of government which it wished to submit to the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a governing document if the Lumbee people earned recognition. The constitution provided for a government that could provide social services to Lumbees and represent their interests to other governments. To ascertain whether the document had the support of the Lumbee community, the LTCI hosted a referendum on it during the 1994 Lumbee Homecoming, with all tribal members over 18 years of age eligible to vote. The document was approved 8,010—223, a vote total including more than 20 percent of tribal members. Voters also elected Dalton Brooks to serve as the tribal chairman under the constitutional framework.
Following the referendum, a dispute over the governance of the Lumbee tribe developed between the LRDA and LTCI. The LTCI sought to secure recognition from the state of North Carolina that it was the elected government of the tribe and was thus the only suitable organization to petition the federal government for recognition, a role played by the LRDA since 1984. The LTCI sued the LRDA for this privileged status in Robeson County Superior Court in 1995. [9] The court ultimately found that neither organization had full claim to serving as the Lumbee people's legitimate governing body since the LRDA had a long-established record of providing social services to the tribe and the LTCI's referendum had garnered significant popular support. It ruled that the LRDA could continue to represent the tribe in petitions for federal recognition until "such time as the Lumbee Tribe selects, by the vote of the Lumbee People, a tribal council or other form of government [...] through its own self-determination."
In 1998, the court created the Lumbee Self-Determination Commission, composed of equal numbers of LRDA and LTCI delegates plus a group of Lumbees not associated with either organization. The commission surveyed tribal members' preferences for the structure of their governing organization. By November 2000, the commission had decided upon a 23-person tribal council representing 17 districts where Lumbees resided, with more councilors allotted to more-populated areas and one additional at-large district. While most of the districts represented areas in southeast North Carolina in and around Robeson County, four of the districts respectively encompassed Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, and Baltimore, Maryland, which had significant Lumbee populations. Elections were held for the council and its chairman, which were then inaugurated in January 2001 in Lumberton. Pembroke mayor Milton Hunt became chairman and selected a former LRDA board member as tribal administrator. Within a year, the council decided to use the name "Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina" and finalized a constitution for its organization, largely based on the 1994 LTCI document. The constitution was ratified by a vote of tribal members in November 2001, 2,237 to 412, with a turnout representing less than 10 percent of the tribe's eligible voters.
Tribal constitution
The preamble of the constitution of the Lumbee Tribe reads: "In accordance with the inherent power of self-governance of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Tribe adopts this Constitution for the purposes of establishing a tribal government structure, preserving for all time the Lumbee way of life and community, promoting the educational, cultural, social, and economic well-being of Lumbee people, and securing freedom and justice for Lumbee people."
Article 1 of the constitution delineates the territorial jurisdiction of the Lumbee Tribe. This was initially declared to be the entire state of North Carolina. But fears of conflict with other recognized tribes' territories in the state (in the event of further petitions for recognition) and the logistical challenges of delivering services over great distances led this article to be modified by 2003 to only encompass Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland, and Scotland counties. At the same time, the four districts and council seats representing areas outside this region were abolished.
Article 2 defines the criteria for tribal membership. Similar to the LRDA's original enrollment requirements, a person must demonstrate their direct descent from a person who was identified as Indian on several documents dating from around 1900, including censuses, tax lists, the petitioners for federal recognition in 1888, an Indian school enrollment list, and church records. The article further requires that members must "historically or presently maintain contact with the tribe."
Departments and services
Veteran Affairs
Veterans Affairs of the Lumbee Tribe offers assistance with educational benefits, community resources, and assistance for homeless veterans. They can also help with concerns such as how to get into the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, how to get prescription medications from the Veterans Affairs pharmacy, and how to arrange transportation to the VA Medical Center for appointments. It is not affiliated with, supported, nor endorsed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Elder Services
The mission of The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Elder Services is to assist Elders in maintaining an independent, healthy, and productive life by providing opportunities for services through a network of various community resources.
Youth Services
Youth Services provides the children of the Lumbee Tribe with a healthy, positive environment. The Lumbee Tribe is committed to protect and support the tribal youth through their growth into becoming contributing members of the community. Programs offered include:
- Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Boys and Girl Club (located at multiple locations within Robeson County)
- Cultural Enrichment Classes
- Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Program
- Homicide and Motor Vehicle Death Program
Teen Impact/Volunteerism and Community Service
Teen Impact is a tribal-based community service club for teenage members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. The Volunteer Program of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina assists and mentors the teens who donate service hours to a community cause of their choice.
Department of Energy
The Tribal Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) provides a one-time payment to assist eligible American Indian families pay their heating costs. The application process is held annually in the first two weeks of November.
Housing
The mission of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Housing Program is to provide opportunities for affordable, safe, and sanitary housing options for Lumbee Indian families in the service areas of Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson, and Scotland Counties. Programs offered under the Lumbee housing program include:
- Housing/Rehabilitation Program
- Section 184 Loan Guarantee Program
- Down Payment Assistance Program
- Home-ownership Program
- New Construction Program
- Transitional Housing Program
- 37-Stock Program
- Emergency/Rental Assistance Program
- Mortgage Assistance Program
- Housing RFP's
Lumbee Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation Services
This program provides vocational rehabilitation to any Lumbee Indian with a disability living in the Lumbee Tribal area. The objective of the program is to prepare for, obtain, or retain gainful employment. Their goal is to improve the quality of life for Lumbee Indians with disabilities. [24]
Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources
In November 2022, the tribe opened a Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources to promote Lumbee farmers and local food sovereignty. [25]
Robeson County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of North Carolina and is its largest county by land area. Its county seat and largest community is Lumberton. The county was formed in 1787 from part of Bladen County and named in honor of Thomas Robeson, a colonel who had led Patriot forces in the area during the Revolutionary War. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 116,530. It is a majority-minority county; its residents are approximately 38 percent Native American, 22 percent white, 22 percent black, and 10 percent Hispanic. It is included in the Fayetteville-Lumberton-Pinehurst, NC Combined Statistical Area. The state-recognized Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is headquartered in Pembroke.
Pembroke is a town in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. It is about 90 miles inland and northwest from the Atlantic Coast. The population was 2,823 at the 2020 census. The town is the seat of the state-recognized Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, as well as the home of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.
Prospect is a census-designated place (CDP) in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 690 at the 2000 census. Located due northeast of Pembroke, Prospect is a traditionally Methodist community, with its church members largely becoming representatives for the entirety of the American Indian-Methodist community. Prospect is noted for one of its native sons, Adolph Dial, whose contributions to American Indian Studies have led to an heightened awareness of the local Lumbee Tribe and Native Americans throughout the Southeastern United States.
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke is a public university in Pembroke, North Carolina. UNC Pembroke is a master's level degree-granting university and part of the University of North Carolina system. Its history is intertwined with that of the Lumbee nation.
The Lumbee are a Native American community primarily centered in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland, and Scotland counties in North Carolina. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina numbering approximately 55,000 enrolled members.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), is a federally recognized Indian tribe based in western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the small group of 800–1,000 Cherokees who remained in the Eastern United States after the U.S. military, under the Indian Removal Act, moved the other 15,000 Cherokees to west of the Mississippi River in the late 1830s, to Indian Territory. Those Cherokees remaining in the east were to give up tribal Cherokee citizenship and to assimilate. They became U.S. citizens.
State-recognized tribes in the United States are organizations that identify as Native American tribes or heritage groups that do not meet the criteria for federally recognized Indian tribes but have been recognized by a process established under assorted state government laws for varying purposes or by governor's executive orders. State recognition does not dictate whether or not they are recognized as Native American tribes by continually existing tribal nations.
The Battle of Hayes Pond, also known as the Battle of Maxton Field or the Maxton Riot, was an armed confrontation between members of a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) organization and Lumbee people at a Klan rally near Maxton, North Carolina, on the night of January 18, 1958. The clash resulted in the disruption of the rally and a significant amount of media coverage praising the Lumbees and condemning the Klansmen.
The Cherokee Nation, formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. As of 2024, over 466,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
The Waccamaw Siouan Indians are one of eight state-recognized tribes in North Carolina. Also known as the Waccamaw Siouan Indian Tribe, they are not federally recognized. They are headquartered in Bolton, North Carolina, in Columbus County, and also have members in Bladen County in southeastern North Carolina.
The Croatan were a small Native American ethnic group living in the coastal areas of what is now North Carolina. They might have been a branch of the larger Roanoke people or allied with them.
Julian Thomas Pierce was an American lawyer and Lumbee activist. Born in Hoke County, North Carolina, he became the first person in his family to go to college and worked for several years as a chemist at shipyards in Virginia before obtaining his Juris Doctor degree. Following two years of work for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he moved to Robeson County, North Carolina to direct a legal aid organization and in that capacity co-authored a petition to the federal government asking for the extension of federal recognition to the Lumbee tribe. In 1988 he resigned from his job to pursue a candidacy for a new Superior Court judgeship. Running against the local district attorney and over the objections of the county sheriff, he was found murdered in his home several weeks before the primary election. While his murder was officially determined to be the result of an interpersonal dispute, the circumstances of his death remain unclear, with his friends and family having advanced suspicions that he was assassinated for political reasons.
Native American recognition in the United States, for tribes, usually means being recognized by the United States federal government as a community of Indigenous people that has been in continual existence since prior to European contact, and which has a sovereign, government-to-government relationship with the Federal government of the United States. In the United States, the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government. This recognition comes with various rights and responsibilities. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership. They may form their own government, enforce laws, tax, license and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money.
The Lumbee Regional Development Association (LRDA) is a nonprofit corporation, chartered by the State of North Carolina in 1968, organized to analyze and develop solutions for the health, educational, economic, and general welfare problems of rural and urban Indians in and around Robeson County. Its effective domain includes, but is not limited to, the Counties of Robeson, Hoke, Scotland, and Bladen, i.e., North Carolina’s Planning Region N. Federally funded programs are currently administered by the Lumbee citizens of these neighboring counties, from the LRDA offices in Pembroke, North Carolina. LRDA currently serves over 20,600 people each year. In July 2009, it had 62 full-time employees.
The Coharie Intra-tribal Council, Inc. is a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina. The headquarters are in Clinton, North Carolina.
Ruth Dial Woods was an American educator and activist. A member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, she was the first woman to serve as the associate superintendent of the Robeson County Public Schools and to receive an at-large appointment to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. After teaching in the public school system of Robeson County for 27 years, she joined the faculty at Fayetteville State University. In addition to her work as an educator, Woods was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's liberation movement, and the American Indian Movement. She has served as a community development consultant for the United States Department of Labor and as a consultant for the Lumbee Tribal Council for administration of tribal programs. The recipient of numerous awards and honors for her work in human rights and education, in 2011, she was inducted into the North Carolina Women's Hall of Fame.
On February 1, 1988, two armed Tuscarora men, Eddie Hatcher and Timothy Jacobs, took hostages in the offices of The Robesonian newspaper in Lumberton, Robeson County, North Carolina. At the time, Robeson experienced a significant level of drug trafficking and increasing public distrust of the county sheriff's office, especially from the area's significant Native American population. Hatcher believed he had evidence of corruption in the local justice system and, fearing for his life, enlisted the aid of Jacobs to try to raise awareness about his concerns. The two held the staff of the county daily newspaper hostage for 10 hours before extracting an agreement from North Carolina Governor James G. Martin to investigate corruption allegations in Robeson.
The Waccamaw Indian People, formerly the Chicora-Waccamaw Indian People, is a state-recognized tribe and 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Conway, South Carolina. The organization was awarded the status of a state-recognized tribe by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs on February 17, 2005 and holds the distinction of being the first state-recognized tribe within South Carolina. The Waccamaw Indian People are not federally recognized as a Native American tribe and are one of two organizations that allege to be descended from the historic Waccamaw, the other being the Waccamaw Siouan Indians, who have been a state-recognized tribe in North Carolina since 1971. The Tribal Council of the Waccamaw Siouan Indians has issued a public proclamation stating that the two tribes share no relationship or association, and that the North Carolina Waccamaw do not recognize the Waccamaw Indian People as an Indian tribe or tribal entity.
The Old Main is a historic building on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in Pembroke, North Carolina. Completed in 1923, it was the first brick building on the university's campus, then known as the Cherokee Indian Normal School of Robeson County. The building originally hosted classrooms, auditorium space, and administrative offices. After administrative officials moved to a new building in 1949, the structure acquired the "Old Main" name. Since it was used for other community events, it gained additional importance to the primarily Native American student body at the school. Old Main was slated for destruction in 1972, but this decision was overturned after protests by community members. A fire, likely the result of arson, gutted the building in 1973. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and fully restored and reopened in 1979. It presently hosts several university departments and student media outlets.
Jarrod Lowery is an American politician who is serving as a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from the 47th district. He was elected to the seat in the 2022 election against Democratic opponent Charles Townsend He is also a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. He has been part of Pat McCrory's senior staff, as a Regional Outreach Liaison. In 2017, he became Regional Director for North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.
