The Lumbee Tribe Regional DNA Project in conjunction
with the extensive genealogical research resources of the Huxford
Genealogical Society and other Lumbee researchers will help determine (and
perhaps establish) whether a participant is likely a descendant of a Lumbee Tribe ancestor.
Surname genetic testing is the newest tool available to
genealogists. The genetic genealogy tests
verify a person's direct paternal or maternal ancestry in a quick and easy way. These tests
save time, prevent mistakes and provide invaluable data for genealogists that
can not be otherwise obtained.
The Lumbee Tribe Regional DNA Project is open to anyone who
believes they are (or could be) descendants of a Lumbee Tribe ancestor. This
project is both a Y-Chromosome (direct paternal line) and a mitochondrial DNA
(direct maternal line) study.
Membership in the Huxford Genealogical Society
or the Lumbee Tribe is not required
to join the Lumbee Tribe Regional DNA Project.
The Lumbee Tribe is NOT involved with
this
Project and DNA proof is not sufficient to secure
Tribe membership. Tribe membership is not an
objective of this Project.
WHO ARE THE LUMBEES?
The Lumbee Tribe was once known as the Cheraws and they
were originally from the Danville,
Virginia area prior to 1703 (see
Chronological History of Lumbee Tribe, 1700 to present day) (also see
"The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians",
by Adolph L. Dial and David K. Eliades). In 1703 they left Danville and settled in what
became known as the Cheraws District of South Carolina (present day Chesterfield
Co., South Carolina). Later in the middle 1700s, the Cheraws located in the Robeson
Co., North Carolina area. In 1885, the North Carolina General
Assembly recognized the Indians of Robeson County by the name of Croatoan.
In 1911, the North Carolina General Assembly changed the name of the tribe to
"Indians of Robeson County" and then in 1913 changed the tribe name again to
"Cherokee Indians of Robeson County." In 1952, the tribe voted to
adopt the name Lumbee, and in 1956 the U.S. Congress officially recognized the
tribe name change to Lumbee, but Congress did NOT provide the tribe with full
federal recognition and all the associated rights provided via such recognition.
In one form or another, the U.S. Congress has
deliberated on the status of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina for more
than 100 years. Congress and the Department of the Interior have
repeatedly examined the tribe's identity and history and have consistently
found the tribe to be an Indian community dating back to the time of first
white contact. However, the Lumbee Tribe remains in a state of limbo,
due to the lack of full federal recognition. The tribe continues its
efforts to obtain full federal recognition from Congress. You can view
information concerning Lumbee Tribe history, the federal recognition issue,
tribe membership, etc. via the Lumbee Tribe Official Web site.
The 60,000+ current members of the Lumbee Tribe
of North Carolina reside primarily in Robeson, Hoke and Scotland counties.
The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe in North Carolina, the largest tribe
east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest in the nation. The
Lumbee take their name from the Lumber River which winds its way through
Robeson County. They are a people in which the Indian strain is very
strong, yet, they so thoroughly adopted the white man's lifestyle several
centuries ago, that they can no longer point to any significant Indian
culture. They are a proud people who have their own central community
of Pembroke, North Carolina, who own land and excel as farmers, established
their own churches, schools and businesses. They have never been
placed on reservations, nor have they been wards of either the state or the
federal government. They are a people who have fought, and are still
willing to fight for their rights.
In "The Only Land I
Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians", the authors, professors
Dial and Eliades make a compelling case based on oral history and logical
supposition for the origins of the present day Native Americans known as the
Lumbee Tribe. These two professors from Pembroke University have
established (although not proven) that the natives who inhabited Eastern
North Carolina in the vicinity of Roanoke Island in the 16th century were
the ancestors of the Lumbees. In addition, professors Dial and Eliades
also make a compelling case that the natives known as the Croatoans were
most likely joined by members of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island in
1587. See
Lost Colony article posted by the Coastal Carolina Indian Center for a
well written summary concerning the possibility that the Lost Colony was not
lost. There is a Genealogy
and DNA Project for the Lost Colony with a mission to locate the
descendants of the Lost Colony members and the others from the same time
period who were 'lost' in eastern North Carolina.
Historical accounts written in the 17th century
by several explorers who traveled through present day Robeson County, North
Carolina referred to Indians who spoke English, farmed and lived a white
man's life style. The Lumbees, like most other Indians were
never great keepers of written records, but they do have strong oral
traditions. When the Scots arrived in southeast North Carolina in
1739, they were surprised to find an established Indian Community with
English traditions and whose inhabitants were speaking Old English.
ACKNOWLEDGING the LUMBEE INDIANS
Dr. Jack Campisi
Anthropologist consultant, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina
Testimony before the Committee on Indian Affairs
United States Senate
Legislative hearing on S.660, “To provide for the acknowledgment of the
Lumbee Tribe
of North Carolina, and for other purposes.”
July 12, 2006
I hold a doctorate in anthropology,
have dedicated my career to research in tribal communities, and have taught
these subjects as an adjunct professor at Wellesley College. Between
1982 and 1988, I conducted a number of studies for the Lumbee Tribe of North
Carolina. Each of these included fieldwork in the community for
periods of time varying from a week to three weeks. In all, I spent more
than twenty weeks in Robeson County carrying out a variety of research
projects. Besides being responsible for synthesizing the thousands of pages
of documentation collected during the ten years it took to carry out the
archival research, and for designing and carrying out the community
research, I had the honor of writing the petition that was submitted on
December 17, 1987, to the Branch of Acknowledgment and Research (now the
Office of Federal Acknowledgment) under the federal regulations that govern
acknowledgment of eligible Indian tribes, 25 C.F.R. Part 183. Specifically,
I drafted the Historical Narrative section, and researched and wrote the
sections dealing with community and political continuity. Subsequent
to the completion of the petition, I continued research with the Lumbee
Tribe, most recently in 2002. The material that follows is based on my
twenty years’ research on the Tribe’s history and community.
Over the course of the past twenty-five years, I have worked on 28 tribal
petitions for federal acknowledgment. None has exceeded the Lumbee petition
in documentation and no group has exhibited more evidence of community
cohesion and political continuity than the Lumbee Tribe. It is my
professional opinion that the Lumbee Tribe exists as an Indian tribe and has
done so over history. Use the following link to view the document
outlining Dr. Campisi's main arguments and evidence in support of this
conclusion.
An
Overview of Lumbee Tribal History (PDF):
THE LUMBEE TRIBE DNA
PROJECT
The primary objective of this Regional DNA Project is to establish the genetic profile(s) for the
progenitors of the Lumbee Tribe (and their descendants). In addition, the results of
this project will assist family historians trace their ancestry and identify
genetic cousins among the Lumbee Tribe members. This is a genealogy
project using DNA testing to supplement traditional genealogical research
methods.
Note: To avoid any misunderstanding
concerning the Lumbee Tribe DNA Project, it is important for you to know
that DNA testing is not accepted by any tribe for membership. Each
tribe has its own membership criteria; the Lumbee Tribe is no exception.
Tribes do not accept DNA test results as either proof or disproof. At
the present time, genetic genealogy testing does NOT identify a specific
tribe, only that a person has Native American ancestry. Read "Proving
Your Native American Heritage", by Roberta J. Estes for a more
complete understanding of using DNA testing to establish your Native
American Heritage.
The 19th century U.S. censuses identify prominent Lumbee family surnames
as Brayboy, Brooks, Carter, Chavis, Cumbo, Dial, Hammond, Kersey, Locklear,
Lowry, Oxendine
and Revels. They are usually listed in the Census as "All Other Free Persons
of Free Persons of Color (plus f.p.c, f.c. or mu for mulatto)."
Other surnames of interest to the Lumbee Project include:
Allen, Berry, Brewington,
Byrd, Cumbaa, Gallagher, Goins, Hersey, Jordan, Kelly, Middleton, Morgan, Stanley,
Strickland, Webb and Woolfork. For a more complete of Lumbee
surnames, read the Lumbee surname document via the link below.
Lumbee Surnames: Who Knew there Were So Many?
Appendix T - List of Lumbee Surnames with dates of appearance
in the greater Lumbee Settlement
[unpublished manuscript (appendix to forthcoming book)]
by Morris F. Britt
Morris Britt points out that surnames from Robeson County,
North Carolina, where Lumbees are in the majority, that many surnames may be for
Caucasian, Lumbee or African-American families or all three. Because people
often list themselves as they choose, there is no official, government, social
or biographical measurement to establish whether an individual providing
information is Lumbee, but is actually Caucasian, or possibly a person of
African heritage calling themselves Lumbee.
The comprehensive listing of surnames provided by Britt, is
not just the most frequent, prominent Lumbee surnames, but all such names,
however infrequent, identified in the Lumbee settlement area from 1740s when the
Scots first stumbled on the Lumbees until present day. The list of
surnames provided were compiled from land and tax records, cemetery records,
death certificates, census records, wills, deeds, petitions for acknowledgement,
military and church records and newspaper notices. The surnames listed are
for people who identified themselves as Indian in the various records surveyed.
It's What You Say & How you Say It
from posting by Farm Bureau Magazine on January 16, 2009
The "It's What You Say & How You Say It" article
on the North Carolina Farm Bureau Magazine's
Web site identifies the unique dialects by regions in North Carolina that
retain and reflect the influence of the state's original settlers. Walt
Wolfram, the distinguished professor of English at North Carolina State
University is quoted through out this article.
The Robeson County, North
Carolina section states:
"Farther inland, the
Lumbee Indians of Robeson County are another group that has retained the
influence of English settlers.
Wolfram said the
Lumbees have embraced the English dialect in absence of their ancestral
language, and formed a hybrid dialect that is distinct to Lumbee Indians
living in that region.
Common words include
“youngins” for children and the frequent use of the word “baby” as a term of
endearment. Also, the “ere” sound is often pronounced “ar.”
Wolfram says he ran a
study that found that Robeson County natives can determine a person’s
ethnicity by hearing only their voice.
“People from inside
Robeson County can identify speakers as black, Indian or white,” he says.
Even in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where metropolitan centers
like Charlotte and Raleigh are located, there are still areas where the
dialects are strong, though they have been watered down by the massive
influx of residents in the past 50 years."
The Lumbee Tribe DNA Testing
Project
Y-DNA and mtDNA test results will establish if
your direct paternal (Y-DNA) or direct maternal line (mtDNA) is headed by an
American Indian. These test do not indicate what percentage Indian you
are nor tell you what tribe your Indian ancestor was from.
Many surnames may have changed during the 18th, 19th
and early 20th centuries due to adoptions, out-of-wedlock births, family
disagreements, etc. American Indians and free Blacks and their descendants
often hid the nature of their ancestry, because of the treatment afforded
such individuals, and in some cases in order to own land. Under these circumstances, the Y-DNA for many
descendants may not match other descendants with the same surname. Therefore,
this project will assist the researchers who are descendants of Lumbee Tribe
members or American Indians in general and their common or related families to work together to find their correct
common ancestors, when that hasn’t been possible via the examination of the
traditional paperwork trail.
You are hereby cordially invited to participate in
this historic project. Those requesting participation in the Lumbee Tribe
Regional DNA Project are requested to supply
Robert B. Noles with their known genealogy (any format will do), so he can
provide you with assistance to understand your test results.
Robert B. Noles, Lumbee
Tribe Regional DNA Project Group Administrator
To HGS Home Page
Voice:
(912) 487- 2310
Fax: (912) 487- 3881
Email:
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