F.Y.I. ~~LUMBEES OF NORTH CAROLINA

The Lumbees are a racial group of controversial origin recognized by
the state of North Carolina but not the United States federal
government as a Native American Indian tribe. The name "Lumbee" is
derived from the region near the Lumber River (or Lumbee River) that
winds through Robeson County, North Carolina.

Ancestors of today's Lumbee tribe were recorded in the 1790 census as
"free persons of color", indicating uncertain ethnic origin but
probably an admixture of African, European and perhaps Native American
blood. In 1885, the Lumbee were recognized by the State of North
Carolina as Croatan Indians, based on the now largely rejected theory
that they were descendants of Indians encountered by the Lost Colony of
Roanoke. In the early 20th century, they dropped the name Croatan and
became known simply as the "Indians of Robeson County." In this
post-Croatan period, they variously identified themselves as Cherokee
or Siouan Indians. In the early 1950s, they became known as the
Lumbees, naming themselves for a nearby river instead of identifying
with an historically existing Native American tribe. Since 1888, the
Lumbees have sought full recognition and the accompanying benefits from
the Federal Government as a legitimate Native American tribe.

In 1956, the United States House of Representatives passed House
Resolution 4656, better known as the Lumbee Act, which acknowledged the
Native American origin of the Lumbees but withheld recognition as a
"tribe." In fact, because the language of the Lumbee Act explicitly
denies the Lumbees status as a federally recognized tribe, they are not
eligible to apply for federal recognition through the Bureau of Indian
Affairs.[1][2] In 1992, President George Bush vetoed legislation that
would have extended the Lumbee full federal recognition. President
George W. Bush has likewise threatened to veto legislation introduced
in 2007 that would recognize the Lumbees as a tribe.

Skeptics of the theory that the Lumbees are of Native American origin
believe that they are a tri-racial isolate group predominately
descended from African men, generally slaves, and European women,
generally indentured servants, who lived in early colonial settlements
along coastal Virginia. Relationships ran across the working class.
Because the mothers of these unions were generally white, the children
were considered free people of color.[3] These families migrated
together with other Europeans and perhaps a few Indian stragglers into
the interior of North Carolina, now known as Robeson County. The
ancestral Lumbees began identifying as Indians in 1885.


Origins and legends

Robeson County, North Carolina, where the Lumbee are concentrated
today, appears to have been unpopulated by Native Americans as of 1753
when a surveying party sent by North Carolina Governor Matthew Rowan
found Drowning Creek (now Lumber River) a "frontier to the Indians",
and stated that there are "no Indians in the county."

A colonial proclamation in 1773 listed the names of Robeson County
inhabitants who took part in a "Mob Railously Assembled together,"
apparently defying the efforts of colonial officials to collect taxes.
The proclamation declared that "[t]he Above list of Rogus," which
included many characteristically Lumbee names, "is all Free Negors and
Mullatus living upon the Kings Land." A colonial military survey
described "50 families a mixt crew a lawless People possess the Lands
without Patent or paying quit Rents." [4]

In the first federal census of 1790, the ancestors of the Lumbee were
enumerated as Free Persons of Color, a category used principally for
freed African slaves or products of their mixed race unions.[5] In 1800
and 1810 they were counted in "all other free persons". Although this
category generally referred to free people of color, the United States
Census did not have an "American Indian" category until 1870, as Native
Americans were not to have been counted in the federal census but
rather enumerated separately in tribal censuses. Racial designation in
early censuses were usually by observation of the census taker.

In 1835, alarmed by the Nat Turner rebellion, a move was made to
disfranchise free Negroes, defined to include the ancestral Lumbee as
free persons of color, withdrawing rights granted them by the state's
1776 constitution. During the debate, Judge Gaston of Craven stated
that the majority of free persons of color in North Carolina during the
colonial period were the descendants of white women and were "therefore
entitled to all the rights of free men." Rejecting the judge's
argument, the convention voted for disfranchisement and ended more than
two decades of political participation by the ancestral Lumbee and
other free men of color. It also exposed the ancestral Lumbee and their
descendants to economic and political discrimination.[6]

Reference to the origins of the present-day Lumbee population was made
in 1840 in a petition by 36 white Robeson County residents, complaining
that Robeson County had been "cursed" by the presence of what they
described as being a "free colored" population that migrated originally
from the districts near the Roanoke and Neuse Rivers.[7]

The first recorded instance of any reference to the Lumbee being Indian
dates from 1867. During a multiple murder investigation by Lieutenant
Birney of the Freedmen's Bureau, two suspected men wrote a letter that
stated the Lowry gang had descended from Tuscarora Indians: "They are
said to be descended from the Tuscarora Indians. They have always
claimed to be Indian & disdained the idea that they are in any way
connected with the African race." The Freedman's Bureau had
jurisdiction over newly emancipated slaves, not Indians.[8]

In 1872 George Alfred Townsend published "The Swamp Outlaws" about the
famed Lowrie Gang. Townsend described Henry Berry Lowrie, the leader of
the gang, as being of mixed Tuscarora, mulatto, and white blood: "The
color of his skin is of a whitish yellow sort, with an admixture of
copper—such a skin as, for the nature of its components, is in color
indescribable, there being no negro blood in it except that of a far
remote generation of mulatto, and the Indian still apparent." Townsend
also stated in reference to Pop Oxendine that "Like the rest, he had
the Tuscarora Indian blood in him...If I should describe the man by the
words nearest my idea I should call him a negro-Indian gypsy."[9][10]
Townsend's statements were reiterated three years later in both the
memoirs of General Jno C. Gorman and in Mary Normant's "The Lowrie
History."[11]

In 1885, Hamilton McMillan, a North Carolina state representative who
represented Robeson County, theorized that the Lumbees were descendants
of England's "Lost Colony" who intermarried with the Hatteras, an
Algonquian people.[12] Other authors subsequently repeated McMillan's
speculation as fact. However, no extant evidence exists for "Lost
Colony" origins and it has largely been discarded. Of the many
characteristically Lumbee names, none are shared with members of
England's failed colony.

In Robeson County, the ancestral Lumbees were not officially classified
as Indian until 1885, when McMillan introduced legislation declaring
them such. Prior to 1885, surviving records described Lumbee ancestors
as colored, free colored, other free, mullato, mustie, mustees, or mixt
blood. Despite the lack of direct genealogical proof,[13] in the early
decades of the 20th century, various Department of Interior
representatives[14] described the Lumbees as having Native American
origin, variously assigning them to one tribe or another.

Skeptics of McMillan's theories argue that the North Carolina
politician may have been motivated by a desire to court the votes of
the Lumbee, who obtained the right to vote along with emancipated Negro
slaves during Reconstruction. [15] Reclassification of his colored
Robeson County constituents as Indians gave them a social status above
the newly emancipated slaves.

In 1936, Carl Seltzer, a physical anthropologist engaged by the federal
Department of the Interior, conducted an anthropometric study of
several hundred Indian individuals in Robeson County. He determined
that twenty-two were of at least half-Indian blood descent.[16] In
1972, Dr. William S. Pollitzer published a combined anthropometric and
serologic study of the Lumbee population. He estimated that the Lumbees
have 47% African ancestry, 40% white, and 13% Indian.[17] Most
contemporary scholars no longer consider such studies valid for
determining racial or ethnic identities.[18]

In the late 20th century, genealogists Paul Heinegg and Dr. Virginia E.
DeMarce performed extensive research in primary source documents, such
as deeds, land records, wills and court records to develop detailed
genealogies of free people of color in the Chesapeake Bay area during
the colonial years and later. They have been able to trace the
migration of numerous primary Lumbee ancestral families from the
Tidewater region of Virginia into northeastern North Carolina and then
down into present-day Robeson County, North Carolina. They found that
80% of those identified as free people of color (or other) in the
Federal censuses in North Carolina from 1790-1810 were descended from
African Americans free in Virginia during the colonial period. Most of
those free African-American families in Virginia were descended from
unions between white women (servant or free) and African men (servant,
slave or free), reflecting the fluid nature of relationships among the
working classes. From documenting family histories through original
documents, Heinegg and DeMarce have traced most Lumbee ancestors and
have been able to construct genealogies that show the migration of
specific families and individuals from Virginia to North Carolina.
[19][20][21]

[edit] 18th century

In 1754, a surveying party reported that Bladen County (which at that
time contained what today is Robeson County) was "a frontier to the
Indians." Bladen County abutted Anson County which at that time
extended west into Cherokee territory. The same report also claimed
that no Indians lived in Bladen County. Land patents and deeds filed
with the colonial administrations of Virginia, North and South Carolina
during this period reveal that Lumbee ancestors were migrating into
southern North Carolina along the typical routes of colonial migration
and obtaining land deeds in the same manner as any other migrants.

In the first federal census of 1790, the ancestors of the Lumbee were
enumerated as Free Persons of Color.[3] In 1800 and 1810 they were
counted in "all other free persons".

In 1885, Hamilton McMillan wrote that Lumbee ancestor James Lowrie
received sizeable land grants early in the century and by 1738
possessed combined estates of more than two thousand acres (8 km²).
Dial and Eliades claimed that John Brooks established title to over one
thousand acres (4 km²) in 1735, and Robert Lowrie gained possession of
almost seven hundred acres (2.8 km²).[22] However, according to a state
archivist, no land grants were issued during these years in North
Carolina, and the first land grants to documented Lumbee ancestors did
not occur until more than a decade later.[23] The Lumbee petition for
federal recognition backed away from McMillan's claims.[24]

Land records show that beginning in the second half of the 18th
century, ancestral Lumbees took titles to land described in relation to
Drowning Creek and prominent swamps such as Ashpole, Long, and Back
Swamp. The Lumbee settlement with the longest continuous documentation
from the mid-eighteenth century onward is Long Swamp, or present-day
Prospect, North Carolina. Prospect is located within Pembroke and Smith
townships. According to James Campisi, the anthropologist hired by the
Lumbee tribe, this area "is located in the heart of the so-called old
field of the Cheraw documented in land records between 1737 and 1739."
However, this appears to be pure conjecture on Campisi's part, since
the Lumbee Siouan petition prepared by Lumbee River Legal Services in
the 1980s clearly shows that the Cheraw old fields, which were sold to
a Thomas Grooms in the year 1739, were actually located in South
Carolina not far from the current day town of Cheraw, more than sixty
miles (100 km) from Pembroke.

Pension records for veterans of the American Revolutionary War listed
men with Lumbee surnames such as Samuel Bell, Jacob Locklear, John
Brooks, Berry Hunt, Thomas Jacobs, Thomas Cummings, and Michael Revels.
And in 1790, ancestral Lumbees such as Cumbo, "Revils" (Revels),
Hammonds, Bullard, "Lockileer" (Locklear), Lowrie, Barnes, Hunt,
"Chavers" (Chavis), Strickland, Wilkins, Oxendine, Brooks, Jacobs,
Bell, and Brayboy were listed as inhabitants of the Fayetteville
District, and enumerated as "Free Persons of Color" in the first
federal census.[25][26] Through documenting and tracing family
histories, Heinegg has found that 80% of those people in North Carolina
counted as "all other free persons" in the 1790-1810 federal census
were descendants of African Americans free in Virginia during the
colonial period.[27]

[edit] Antebellum

The year 1835 proved to be critical for Lumbee ancestors in North
Carolina. The state passed amendments to its original 1776 constitution
that abolished suffrage for "free people of color." Free people of
color were stripped of various political and civil rights which they
had enjoyed for almost two generations and thus could no longer vote,
bear arms without a license, serve on juries, or serve in the state
militia.

Anthropologist Gerald Sider recorded accounts of "tied mule" incidents
in which a white farmer tied his mule to the post of a neighboring
Indian's land or let his cattle graze on the Indian's land. The white
farmer then filed a complaint for theft with the local authorities who
promptly arrested the Native farmer. "Tied mule" incidents were
resolved with the Indian's agreeing to pay a fine, or in lieu of a
fine, by giving up a portion of his land or agreeing to a term of labor
service with the "wronged" white farmer. Sider did not document such
incidents; instead he recounted stories which he had been told in the
late 1960s. Robeson County land records do show an appreciable loss of
Indian title to land during the 19th century, but mostly because of
failure to pay taxes and other more common reasons. No tied mule
incident has yet been discovered in Robeson County records.[28][29][30]

In 1853, the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality
of the state's restrictions on free people of color's bearing arms
without a license with the conviction of Noel Locklear in State v.
Locklear for the illegal possession of firearms.[31][32][33] But in
1857, William Chavers, another Lumbee ancestor from Robeson County, was
arrested and charged as a "free person of color" for carrying a
shotgun. Chavers, like Locklear, was convicted. Chavers promptly
appealed, arguing that the law restricted only "free Negroes," not
"persons of color." 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, or persons descended from Negro ancestors
beyond the fourth degree." Two years later, in another case involving a
Lumbee ancestor from Robeson County, the North Carolina Court of
Appeals held that forcing an individual to display himself before a
jury was the same as forcing him to provide evidence against himself.
Most of the charges were brought by other members of the proto-Lumbee
community, who used the racist laws to settle petty disputes amongst
themselves. Overall however, the ambiguity of the legal and political
status of Robeson County's free people of color only increased in the
years leading up to and during the Civil War.

[edit] Civil War

As the war progressed and the Confederacy began to experience
increasing labor shortages, the Confederate South began to rely on
conscription labor. A yellow fever epidemic in 1862-63 killed many
slaves working on the construction of Fort Fisher near Wilmington,
North Carolina, then considered to be the "Gibraltar of the South."
North Carolina's slave owners resisted sending more enslaved African
Americans to Fort Fisher. Robeson County, along with most eastern North
Carolina counties, began to conscript young free men of color. A few
were shot for attempting to evade conscription, and others attempted to
escape from work at Fort Fisher. Others succumbed to starvation,
disease and despair. Documentation of conscription among the Lumbee is
difficult to locate and the practice may have been limited to a few
specific areas of the county.[34][35][36]

Several dozen Lumbee ancestors served in regular units in the
Confederate army; many of these later drew Confederate pensions for
their service. Others tried to avoid coerced labor by hiding in the
swamps. While hiding in the swamps, some men from Robeson County
operated as guerrillas for the Union Army, sabotaging the efforts of
the Confederacy, and sought retribution against their Confederate
neighbors.

[edit] Lowrie Gang War

Perhaps the most famous Lumbee ancestor is Henry Berry Lowrie, who
organized an outlaw group. Most of the gang members were related,
including two of Henry Lowrie's brothers, six cousins (two of whom were
also his brothers-in-law), the brother-in-law of two of his cousins, in
addition to a few others who were not related through kinship. The
Lowrie gang included formerly free men of color and also freed slaves
and whites.

The gang committed two murders during the Civil War and were suspected
in several thefts and robberies. After an interrogation and informal
trial, Robeson County's Home Guard killed Henry Berry Lowrie's father
and brother as Union General Sherman's army entered Robeson
County.[37][38] Shortly thereafter, Henry Berry Lowrie and his band
stole a large stockpile of rifles intended for use by the local militia
from the Lumberton courthouse.
Lumbee Jamie Oxendine and U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur during the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Lumbee Jamie Oxendine and U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur during the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Lowrie's gang avenged the deaths of his father and brother by killing
several of the men responsible, one of whom was the sheriff of the
county. The band stole two safes (one of which belonged to the
sheriff), plundered the plantation storage bins and smokehouses of
local elites, and gave the spoils to the poor in Robeson County who had
suffered at the hands of local elites.

In 1868, Lowrie and his band were outlawed. The reward for his capture
climbed to $12,000, second only to that offered for Jefferson
Davis.[39] Robeson's elites and the governor of North Carolina
requested the aid of Federal troops and federal detectives in the
attempt to apprehend North Carolina's most famous outlaw. These efforts
proved useless. Lowrie enjoyed wide support, and he and members of his
band were seen at public events. Reports of the Lowrie band's
derring-do received national coverage; their exploits were featured in
the New York Times and in Harper's Magazine. Lowrie's last-known feat
occurred on February 16, 1872, when he and his band stole $20,000 worth
of goods from a Lumberton store. They also managed to take the store's
safe, which contained approximately $22,000 in cash.[40][41]

Most observers believe that Henry Berry Lowrie accidentally killed
himself while cleaning his gun. Some members of the community, however,
claimed to have seen Lowrie in various town locales long after news of
his death was broadcast. The true cause of his death remains
controversial. All the members of the Lowrie band, save one, suffered
violent deaths. One cousin and member of the gang, Henderson Oxendine,
was publicly executed by the state of North Carolina.

The war that Lowrie gang waged against the Democrats in Robeson County
had far-reaching consequences: the mulatto community developed a sense
of itself as unique, possessed with a unique identity and history,
while Henry Berry Lowrie became a culture hero to the Lumbee people.[42]

[edit] Education and state recognition

In 1868 the legislature elected under Reconstruction created a new
constitution, which established a public education system in North
Carolina. The following year, the state legislature approved a measure
that provided separate schools for whites and blacks. Many Lumbee
ancestors complied with the legislation and sent their children to
Freedmen's Bureau schools. Other traditionally free people of color
refused to enroll their children in schools for freed slaves. In
Robeson County, this impasse ended when, in 1885, North Carolina
formally recognized the historically free people of color in Robeson
County as "Croatan Indians." That same year, the North Carolina General
Assembly approved legislation that authorized a public school system
for Indians.

Within the year, each Croatan Indian settlement in the county
established a school "blood committee" that determined students' racial
eligibility. In 1887, tribal members petitioned the state legislature
to request establishment of a normal school to train Indian teachers
for the county's tribal schools. North Carolina granted permission, and
tribal members raised the requisite funds, along with some state
assistance that proved inadequate. Several tribal leaders donated money
and privately held land to the tribe on which to build their schools.
In 1899, North Carolina representatives introduced the first bill in
Congress to appropriate funds to educate the Indian children of Robeson
County. Another bill was introduced a decade later,[43] and yet another
in 1911.[44] In 1913, the House of Representatives Committee on Indian
Affairs held a hearing on S.3258 in which the Senate sponsor of the
bill reviewed the history of the Lumbee and concluded that they had
"maintained their race integrity and their tribal characteristics."

Robeson County's Indian normal school evolved into Pembroke State
University and later still, the University of North Carolina at
Pembroke. By century's end, the Indians of Robeson County established
schools in eleven of their principal settlements.[45]

[edit] Attempts to gain federal recognition

When the Croatan Indians petitioned Congress for educational
assistance, their request was sent to the House Committee on Indian
Affairs. It took two years for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, T.J.
Morgan, to respond to the Croatan Indians of Robeson County, telling
them that, "so long as the immediate wards of the Government are so
insufficiently provided for, I do not see how I can consistently render
any assistance to the Croatans or any other civilized tribes." The
government's rejection of assistance to the ancestors of the Lumbee was
based solely on economic considerations. For Commissioner T.J. Morgan,
services would have been readily extended to "civilized" tribes like
the Croatan were it not for the Commission's insufficiency of
funds.[citation needed]

By the first decade of the twentieth century, congressional legislation
was introduced to change the Croatan name and to establish "a school
for the Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina." Charles F. Pierce,
Supervisor of Indian Schools, investigated the tribe's congressional
petition, reporting favorably that "a large majority [were] at least
three-fourths Indian" as well as law abiding, industrious, and "crazy
on the subject of education." Pierce also believed that federal
educational assistance would be beneficial but opposed any such
legislation since, in his words, "[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." A later committee report of 1932 explicitly
acknowledged that the federal bill of 1913 was intended to extend
federal recognition on the same terms as the amended state law.
Moreover, while the bill passed the Senate but not the House, the
chairman of the House committee also abrogated any assumption of direct
educational responsibility to the Indians of Robeson County by the
federal government. He believed they were already eligible to attend
Indian boarding schools. Thus, the federal government was meeting its
responsibility to the Indians of Robeson County through Indian boarding
schools such as Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The next year, Special Indian Agent, O.M. McPherson, who investigated
the tribe under the auspices of the United States Senate, found that
the Indians of Robeson County had already developed an extensive system
of schools and a complex political organization to represent their
interests. While he, like Pierce before him, noted that Robeson's
Indians were eligible to attend federal Indian schools, he also doubted
that these schools could meet their needs. Despite McPherson's
recommendations, Congress decided not to act on the matter.[46]

[edit] Indian New Deal

With passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, the Indians of
Robeson County redoubled their efforts for access to better education
and federal recognition. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) sent the
eminent anthropologist from the Bureau of American Ethnology, John R.
Swanton, and Indian Agent Fred Baker to determine the origins and
authenticity of the Indians of Robeson County. Swanton speculated that
Robeson's Indians were of Cheraw and other eastern Siouan tribal
descent.

At this point, the Lumbee population split into two groups. One group
supported the Cheraw theory of ancestry. The other faction believed
that they were descended from the Cherokee tribe. North Carolina's
white politicians abandoned the recognition effort until the two
factions agreed on an identity.

[edit] Lumbee Act

The Lumbee Act, also known as House Resolution 4656, which recognized
the Lumbee as having Native American origins but withheld recognition
as a "tribe," was passed by the U.S. Senate on May 21, 1956, by the
United States House of Representatives on May 24, 1956, and signed by
President Dwight David Eisenhower on June 7, 1956. The Lumbee Act
designated the Indians of Robeson, Hoke, Scotland, and Cumberland
counties as the "Lumbee Indians of North Carolina." HR 4656 also
stipulated that "[n]othing in this Act shall make such Indians eligible
for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of
their status as Indians."

[edit] Ku Klux Klan conflict

During the 1950s, the Ku Klux Klan sought to wage a campaign of terror
in the American South to suppress growing activism of the Civil Rights
Movement. The Klan primarily targeted African Americans. In 1957, after
adoption of the Lumbee Act, Klan Wizard James W. "Catfish" Cole of
South Carolina began a campaign of harassment against the newly
christened "Lumbees," claiming they were "mongrels" and "half-breeds"
who had overstepped their place in the segregated Jim Crow South. A
group of Klansmen burned a cross on the lawn of a "loose" Lumbee woman
in the town of St. Pauls, North Carolina because she was dating a white
man. For two weeks, the Ku Klux Klan continued to attack the Lumbee
community by burning crosses while Cole planned a massive Klan rally to
be held on January 18, 1958, near the town of Maxton, North Carolina.
Cole predicted that 5,000 rallying Klansmen would remind the Lumbee of
"their place." Cole's rhetorical attacks against the Lumbee and the
plan to hold a Klan rally within the Lumbee homeland provoked so much
anger that the Lumbee decided to confront the Klan.

Celebrated today in Robeson County as the "Battle of Hayes Pond," or
"the Klan Rout," the resulting confrontation made national news. Over
500 armed Lumbees overwhelmed and scattered 50 Klansmen (not the
planned 5,000). Before Cole had a chance to begin the Klan rally, the
Lumbee suddenly appeared, fanned out across the highway, encircled the
Klansmen, and opened fire. Four Klansmen were wounded in the first
volley – none seriously – while the remaining Klansmen panicked and
fled. Cole reportedly escaped through a nearby swamp but was later
apprehended, charged, and convicted for inciting to riot. He served a
sentence of two years. The Lumbee celebrated the victory by burning the
Klan regalia and dancing around the flames, making Indian whooping
noises.[47]

[edit] Petitioning for Federal recognition

In 1987, the Lumbees petitioned the U.S. Department of the Interior for
Federal recognition, seeking full access to Federal benefits reserved
for Native Americans.[48] The petition was denied because of language
in the Lumbee Act of 1956. The group then introduced a Recognition bill
which also failed because of opposition from the Department of
Interior, as well as opposition from recognized tribes. The Lumbees do
receive funds from some Federal programs; however they do not have full
access to the funds granted to other recognized Native American tribes.
The Lumbees continue to seek Federal recognition.

[edit] Tuscarora hypothesis

A significant minority of the Robeson County people today claim descent
from the Tuscarora tribe. In the early 18th century, the Tuscarora
tribe lived in what is today northeastern North Carolina. After the
Tuscarora tribe lost a major war to colonial forces in 1713, the
Tuscaroras began an emigration north to New York, where they joined the
Iroquois League. By 1802, the northern Tuscarora leaders determined
that the emigration was complete. While some of their relatives had
stayed behind, those people had intermarried with other races and
ethnicities and were no longer tribal members. The position of the
Federally recognized Tuscarora Nation since then has been that no
tribal Tuscaroras remain in North Carolina, although the nation has
acknowledged that some people of Tuscarora descent still live in the
state.

Some facts suggest there may be Tuscarora descendants among the Robeson
County population. First, the migration trail of some of the Robeson
families passed through counties in which the Tuscaroras had lived.
This makes intermarriage with Tuscarora stragglers a possibility.
Second, while the Henry Berry Lowrie gang was operating during the
Reconstruction period following the Civil War, several observers
labeled the Lowrie family as being of partial Tuscarora descent. One
local observer extended this label to additional unnamed families.

By the 1920s, some Robeson Indians who would later be recognized under
the Indian Reorganization Act had made contact with individual members
of the Mohawk tribe. This is politically related to the Tuscarora
tribe. A rural faction of the Robeson Indians began to express a
Tuscarora identity. This faction split off from the Lumbee political
entity, and strongly objected to the Lumbee name and to the Cheraw
theory of ancestry. Various Tuscarora groups have formed, but the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has declined to evaluate their petitions
for Federal recognition. BIA contends that the Lumbee Act precludes
their processing any additional petition from local Indian groups,
regardless of their tribal claims.[citation needed]

By the early 1970s, the last eight living individuals identified in the
1930s by the United States as "half or more Indian" began to try to
complete formation of the nucleus of a "recognized tribe". This is when
the BIA cited the Lumbee Act as reason to deny their request. The
group, known as the "22", filed a Federal lawsuit. After two years, and
an initial dismissal by the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., the
"22" won in the Court of Appeals, what is now known as Maynor v.
Morton. Since then, the government has again taken its "pre"-Maynor
stance and refused to review any Tuscarora petitions from North
Carolina groups