HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF THE LUMBEE

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.

 

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 eligible for tribal schools.

1911

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

 

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 studies tribe, declares Lumbee to be of Cheraw Indian origin.

 

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

Tribe votes to adopt the name Lumbee.

 

1953

North Carolina changes name of tribe from Cherokee to Lumbee.

1956

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

1957-1975

Lumbees serve in Vietnam War.

1958

Lumbee use force to rout the Ku Klux Klan in a confrontation near Maxton, NC. The Lumbee receive national attention.
Indians Rout The Klan (From the Native American Resource Center at UNC Pembroke)

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.