For the past 137 years, the US government has denied the Lumbee tribe federal recognition.
Jana Locklear, a member of the Lumbee tribe and a fourth-year student majoring in anthropology and international studies, spoke to The Nubian Message about her experiences. Locklear states, “It can be kind of difficult to keep your identity when people are constantly trying to invalidate it… It’s very upsetting that Lumbees and a bunch of other tribes on the East Coast are constantly denied recognition of their identity because of things out of their control.”
The Lumbee tribe has a unique cultural identity. In addition to art, dance, singing, powwows and beadwork, they are particularly known for their food. From collard wraps to thin cornbread collard sandwiches, the popularity of their dishes speaks for itself.
On a deeper level, the Lumbee tribe also differs in comparison to a lot of other Native tribes, as their existence comes after the colonial period took place. In Locklear’s words, “We’re a conglomeration of multiple tribes who were devastated by colonialism, and who moved to try and escape.” The area that these tribes escaped to was the swamplands of Southeastern North Carolina, largely in what is now Robeson County. The Lumbee River and the surrounding swamps became culturally significant to the Lumbee tribe after their escape.
When discussing what it means to be Lumbee, Locklear says, “I think of the word perseverance, being part of a tribe that doesn’t have that recognition.” The lack of federal recognition has never stopped the Lumbee from achieving great things and persevering through discouragement. Locklear details the accomplishments of the Lumbee, including the formation of the first Indigenous-owned bank in the United States, and opening one of the first Universities for Indigenous students, [UNC Pembroke.]
Even with their strong cultural identity, the lack of federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe still impacts the community in a multitude of ways. Locklear explains, “There are so many criteria that Indigenous people have to meet to get state or federal recognition… you’re invalidating so many people and pushing them out, and that’s creating a lot of issues, specifically in [the] modern day.”
A lack of official acknowledgment can create a sense of isolation from the rest of the Indigenous community. From Locklear’s perspective, “Oftentimes it feels like the Lumbee tribe is penalized… as though the Indigenous people who fled from the tribes that were destroyed by colonialism are somehow lesser than the other tribes.”
The denial of federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe is embedded in our political structures. Locklear states, “The Lumbee Tribe first applied for state recognition in 1885 [and] that was just directly to Congress. It passed, and then in 1887, they put in a petition to the federal government. It was denied for a multitude of reasons, and it’s been denied pretty consistently since.” Locklear mentions that petitioning to Congress is no longer a viable method to gain recognition given the strict criteria set by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The largest setback with this set of criteria, in her opinion, is the historical portion, since the tribe was formed after American colonization.
Racial biases are also significant factors that impede the Lumbee tribe from federal recognition. Locklear details, “There’s historical books from the 1700s where we were described as, ‘Indians with blue eyes’… [there’s] this idea that Lumbees are mixed, and therefore they can’t be as Indigenous.”
The idea of ethnic percentages dictating identity is a significant topic in Indigenous communities. Locklear gives an example, saying, “You’ve probably heard of the one-drop rule with the Dred Scott case, where if you have one drop of African American [blood], then you’re African American. For indigenous people, it’s the opposite. Have one drop of anything other than indigenous blood, [and] you’re not Indigenous.”
Arbitrary tests were run in the 1950s and 60s to attempt to quantify how ‘Indigenous’ someone was considered. Locklear explains, “They would do tests measuring the size of the nose, measuring the size of the head, they would take the hair, and they would do a test called the pencil test.”
The pencil test consisted of dropping a pencil through an Indigenous person’s hair, with the idea of measuring how straight it was. If the pencil didn’t fall straight through, the participant would fail. This came from the misguided idea that someone with curly hair would be considered less genetically Indigenous.
This led to a lot of arbitrary statistics being considered official as to how Indigenous a person or group was. Locklear gave the example that, “If you have four siblings, one may be over 75 percent Indigenous, one may be less than 25 percent Indigenous, and then the others may be, like half and half, completely random percentages.”
The presence of these inaccurate historical records led to the Lumbee purging the ones of those who were “deemed less Indigenous.” Locklear elaborates, “There’s been a lot of hold-ups to people getting their membership because we base it off historical records.” This discrepancy also complicates the path to federal recognition.
She also mentions that within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, “The current representatives who get to vote on those matters are [from] tribes that are already federally recognized.” This is a large opportunity for bias to enter the equation on denial of recognition.
Locklear says bias can also be seen in outdated quantifiers of Indigenous identity, such as blood quantum. Following the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) conference she attended this past October, she explains, “I went to this seminar about blood quantum and how it shouldn’t be a test, and [how] we should remove it from how we think of ourselves as Indigenous.”
She expresses frustration with this practice, adding, “During the seminar, people were standing up and introducing themselves as, full-blooded Navajo, or full-blooded Lakota. It’s just very stark to see the divide between tribes that are out in the West and how they hang on to blood quantum.” She contrasts the general approach of Eastern and Western tribes on these topics, saying that Eastern tribes had discarded many outdated considerations of identity previously.
Federal recognition would provide resources to the Lumbee tribe in a multitude of ways. Monetary support like federal grants would increase and be able to better support the wellness of a community of 60,000 plus members. The aspect of acceptance is also an area of large opportunity for improvement with federal recognition.
Locklear explains, “Being recognized by the federal government, [you’re] truly [recognized] by a majority of other federally recognized indigenous tribes that you are indigenous. It’s just something I think people need. There needs to be an end to the invalidating of the Lumbee culture and identity.”
Denying the Lumbee tribe of federal recognition is a large issue rooted in racial biases and outdated notions of what makes someone Indigenous. Advocating for education about the Lumbee tribe is an important way to counteract this. Through these challenges, the Lumbee community continues to persevere and support the Indigenous community as a whole.
