LUMBEE TIMELINE

1700s | 1800s | 1900s | Present Day

1700s

1703

Cheraws leave Danville, Virginia area for Cheraw, South Carolina.

 

1703-1737

Cheraws are documented as living on the Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

 

1711-1712

Cheraws participate in intertribal warfare against Tuscarora in war in northeastern NC.

 

1715

Cheraws participate in Cofitachiqui Indian alliance in Yamassee War.

1725

John Herbert, Commissioner of Indian Trade for the Wineau Factory publishes a map in 1725 and identifies enclaves of Cheraw, Pee Dee, Waccamaw, and Scavano Indians who continue to live on their traditional lands along the Pee Dee River at what is now the border of North Carolina and South Carolina, and near its tributary Drowning Creek in Robeson County, North Carolina.

 

 

 

1737

Cheraws sell their land on the Great Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

 

1753

Drowning Creek (now Lumbee River) is proclaimed a "frontier to the Indians" by Carolina Governor Rowan.

 

1754

Fifty Indian families are living on Drowning Creek without official deeds to the land. Surveyor shot in Bladen Creek, NC.

 

1771

Cheraw settlement on Drowning Creek documented in the South Carolina Gazette.

 

1775-1783

Lumbees, including John Brooks, serve in Revolutionary War.

 

1790

United States Census lists prominent Lumbee family names, including Locklear, Oxendine, Chavis, Lowry, Hammonds, Brooks, Brayboy, Cumbo, Revels, Carter and Kersey, as "All other free persons."

1812

Several Lumbees, including Thomas "Big Tom" Locklear and Silas Strickland, muster during War of 1812.

 

1835

North Carolina passes laws preventing Indians from voting, or owning or using firearms.

 

1861-1865

Lumbees serve in Civil War.

 

1865-1872

Henry Berry Lowrie war in Robeson County to fight oppression of the Lumbee people.

 

1885

The North Carolina General Assembly recognizes the Indians of Robeson County as Croatan and establishes a separate school system for the Indian.

 

1887

Lumbee people build Croatan Indian Normal School (now The University of North Carolina at Pembroke).

 

1888

North Carolina State Constitution changes, returning citizenship rights to Lumbee.

 

1890

North Carolina Supreme Court rules that Indian school committees have ultimate authority as to whether children are Indians and therefore eligible for tribal schools. The Croatan school board sets up "blood committees" to determine a child's right to attend the school based on his or her blood purity.

1911

The North Carolina General Assembly changes the name of the tribe to "Indians of Robeson County."

1912

The Department of Interior sent Charles F. Pierce, the Supervisor of Indian Schools, to Robeson County to conduct a study of the tribe. Pierce reported that the state and county were providing funds to educate the 1,976 school-age Indian children. He also stated in his report that "…one would readily class a large majority [of the Lumbee] as being at least three-fourths Indian".

 

1913

North Carolina legislature changes the tribe's name from Croatan to Cherokee Indians of Robeson County.

 

1914

Indian Agent O. M. McPherson concludes the Lumbee to be of Cheraw descent.

 

1917-1918

Lumbees serve in World War I.

 

1924

Tribe unsuccessfully petitions Federal Government for recognition as Siouan Indians.

 

1933

Smithsonian Institution anthropologist, John R. Swanton, studies the tribe, declares Lumbee to be of Cheraw Indian origin, and other closely related Siouan speaking tribes.

 

1934

Lumbee leaders join the National Congress of American Indians.

 

1941-1945

Lumbee serve in World War II.

 

1950-1953

Lumbee serve in Korean War.

 

1952

Following the leadership of D.F. Lowrie and other community leaders the tribe votes to adopt the name Lumbee.

 

1953

North Carolina changes name of tribe from Cherokee to Lumbee.

1956

The U.S. Congress recognizes name change and recognizes the Lumbee as American Indians. Specific language in the Lumbee Act, however, denies the tribe the customary Indian benefits.

1957-1975

Lumbees serve in Vietnam War.

1958

Over five hundred armed Lumbees rout a group of protesting Ku Klux Klan members led by Wizard James W. "Catfish" Cole in a confrontation near Maxton, North Carolina. The Lumbee receive national attention. Indians Rout The Klan (From the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke) The event is remembered as the "Battle of Hayes Pond" and ends Klan intimidation of the Lumbee.

1971

First Indian-owned bank in US - Lumbee Bank - opens in Pembroke, NC.

1973

Henry Ward Oxendine, Lumbee, is first North Carolina-born Indian to serve in NC House of Representatives.

1976

Outdoor drama Strike At The Wind, story of Henry Berry Lowrie, opens in Pembroke, NC.

1977

May 7, 1977 Mr. Purnell Swett was appointed the first Indian Superintendent of a County School System in the State of North Carilina.

 

 

 

 

 

1987

Lumbee petition U.S. Department of the Interior for federal acknowledgment and entry to tribal rolls. Petition is denied due to language in the Lumbee Act of 1956.
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke celebrates 100th anniversary.

1991

Lumbees serve in Gulf War.

1994

Glen Maynor was elected sheriff of Robeson County and Joanne Locklear was elected Clerk of Court for Robeson County, the first Lumbees to hold these positions

PRESENT DAY

2001

 

Lumbee Tribal Government sworn in.

 

2003

Bills introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 898) and the Senate (S.420) to extend full federal recognition to the tribe.
Lumbee Tribal Council elected.
Lumbees serve in Afghanistan and Iraq.

2003

Mr. Purnell Swett became the 1st elected Superintendent of the Public Schools of Robeson County after the merger of the county and city school systems.

 

2004

Lumbee Tribal Government sworn in.

2005

Bills Introduced into the Senate by Sen. Elizabeth Dole(S.660)

2007

Bill introduced into the Senate by Elizabeth Dole(S.333)introduced into the House by Rep Mike McIntyre (H.R.65) Bill H.R. 65 passed the house but the legislation died in the Senate and didnt continue

2009

January 6, 2009, US Representative Mike McIntyre introduced legislation (H.R. 31) intended to grant the Lumbee Indians federal recognition.
June 3, 2009, the US House voted 240 to 179 for federal recognition for the Lumbee tribe, acknowledging that they are the descendants of the Cheraw tribe.
October 22, 2009, the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved a bill for federal recognition of the Lumbee.