Political History

Federal Recognition

"My father and mother are Indians, my father's father and mother's mother were Indians and their parents and grandparents were Indians. What else could I be?" -- Adolph L. Dial

The Southeast in 1885

The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 sought to determine to what extent non-federally recognized tribes were "Indian" and create guidelines that would allow them, should they gain that recognition, to receive federal monies. The Bureau of Indian Affairs investigated the claims of numerous eastern tribes in an effort to determine their eligibility under the legislation. Carl Seltzer, an anthropologist hired by the Bureau, was sent to investigate the Indians of Robeson County. A physical anthropologist was also sent to determine the racial ancestry and degree of "Indian blood" of Robeson's Indians. Both anthropologists used "scientifically based" means to determine the authenticity of physical features and blood type to ascertain if any of those tested would qualify as having half or more "Indian blood." An example of the scientific means used to assess "Indianness" was the "pencil test." A pencil was slipped into a subject's hair. If the pencil stayed after mild to vigorous shaking of the head, the subject's hair was deemed too tight or "non-Indian." If the pencil fell, it was understood to have fallen out of real Indian hair. Out of 209 Lumbee individuals tested, 22 were categorized by Seltzer as "Indians" (Seltzer 1936). In one particular instance of two full siblings, sharing the same parents, one was deemed to be Indian and the other non-Indian (Blu 1980:72).

By 1956, Robeson County Indians once again underwent a name change, this time asserting ourselves as "Lumbees." Almost coinciding with this change, the U.S. Congress conditionally recognized Lumbees as an Indian tribe. In "a glaring example of a meaningless congressionally bestowed federal acknowledgment" (Quinn 1992: 44-45), Congress stipulated that:

[N]othing in this act shall make [the Lumbee] eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians (U.S. Congress 1956).

While the Lumbee Act of 1956 conceded that the Lumbee were indeed "Indians," it would only acknowledge that we, as Indians, "enjoy[ed] the rights, privileges, and immunities . . . [of] citizens of North Carolina and the United States." In fact, the Lumbee had been denied services to the amount of $100 million per year (Dial 1993: 23).

During the 1970s, federal recognition once again became a contested issue. Anthropologists were hired to investigate, only in this instance, they were hired by the Lumbee tribe itself. After a painstaking, decade-long effort, the Lumbee pieced together a petition for federal recognition as an Indian tribe (Locklear 1981). The following are some of the requirements all petitioning tribes are expected to meet under 25 C.F.R. § 83 (1982):

1. A statement of facts establishing that the petitioner has been identified from historical times until the present on a substantially continuous basis, as "American Indian," or "aboriginal." Fluctuations of tribal activity during various years cannot justify failing to satisfy any of the following criteria.
2. Evidence that a substantial portion of the petitioning group inhabits a specific area or lives in a community viewed as American Indian and distinct from other populations in the area and that its members are descendents of an Indian tribe which historically inhabited a specific area.
3. A statement of facts which establishes that the petitioner has maintained tribal political influence or other authority over its members as an autonomous entity throughout history until the present.
4. A copy of the group's current governing document or, in the absence of a written document, a statement describing in full the membership criteria and the procedures through which the group currently governs its affairs and its members.
5. A list of all known current members of the group and a copy of each available former list of members based on the tribe's own defined criteria.
6. The membership of the petitioning group is composed principally of persons who are not members of any other North American tribe.
7. The petitioner is not, nor are its members, the subject of congressional legislation which has expressly terminated or forbidden the Federal relationship (American Indian Policy Review Commission 1976).

The government's concept of "tribe" as it applies to American Indians results in an "unavoidable and irresolvable" tension between Indians and non-Indians. This concept is legally manifested in the state and federal process of "acknowledgment" or "recognition." (Locklear 1981; McCulloch and Wilkins 1995: 361; Quinn 1992: 37; Sider 1993: 214). The burden of proof rests with the petitioning tribe. Thus, the acknowledgment process is a reactive one: by implication, the petitioning tribe is placed in an unenviable position of having to argue against a presumption of non-Indianness. The monies necessary to hire researchers, archeologists, anthropologists, genealogists, and finally, lawyers can and do run into millions of dollars, and the process is also extremely time-consuming. Finally, acknowledgment is decided not by any judicial standard of proof, but is assessed by a committee selected for the process (Anderson 1978; Locklear 1981).

Almost one decade later, Lumbees were no nearer to gaining the rights and benefits of federally acknowledged Indianness. In response to the Lumbee petition, the BIA determined that the Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and America did not in fact exist. The BIA further stated that the Lumbee had failed to satisfy all of the seven mandatory conditions as set forth in 25 C.F.R. § 83 (1982), and given the geographical dispersion of the Lumbee population and general lack of socio-political cohesion, Lumbees did not constitute a tribe.

However, the BIA's determination of Lumbee lack of cohesion, both geographically and socio-politically, is erroneous. Lumbees comprise roughly one-third of the total population of Robeson County, and Pembroke is almost 90 percent Lumbee. Since 1946, all of this town's mayors have been Lumbees and almost as continuously, the entirety of its governing body has been run by Lumbees (Dial and Eliades 1996: 94). Throughout Robeson County, land has been held continuously by the same Lumbee families since a time that predates the founding of the county. Moreover, research by noted anthropologists and sociologists such as Karen Blu, Jack Campisi, William S. Sturtevant, and Gerald Sider all confirm that which Lumbees have always known and practiced: cohesion and continuity of community is a reevaluative, oftentimes contested act of creativity and agency

based in an orientation toward life, a sense of the past, 'a state of mind.' It is a way of doing and being that is 'Indian,' not what is done or the blood quantum of the doer. (Blu 1980: xii)

In an effort to present a readily recognizable form of socio-political cohesion to the BIA and the federal government, as well as fulfilling one of the seven requirements of 25 C.F.R. § 83, we ratified our first constitution in 1994. The Lumbee Constitution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 8040-223. The constitution outlined measures providing for the formation of a tribal council, as well as executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Shortly after ratification, the Lumbee Tribal Council was voted into power (Milbank 1994: AI).

The Southeast in 1953

After two decades of concerted effort, the Lumbee tribe of Cheraw Indians is still only conditionally acknowledged by the federal government as an Indian tribe. The federal government continues to refuse the numerous services federally recognized Indian tribes receive. In turn, Lumbee resistance to conditional recognition continues. We reject any limitations to our recognition as an Indian tribe.