...that the Lumbee are nothing more than disgraced and banished Cherokees, Croatans, Catawbas, Coharie, and Waccamaws who bred with runaway slaves and deserters from the Civil War. They were legally classified as "Mulatto" rather than "Indian" until such terminology fell out of fashion.
The Lumbee receive a one-line mention in the "Atlas of the North American Indian," on page 204, in regard to an anti-Klan rally held in 1958. That's not much history.
So you have to understand that a lot of people are skeptical of their claim to be a "tribe." A lot of their background leads people to conclude they are simply an accumulation of mixed-race people who are trying to cash in and collect a windfall from Uncle Sam.
...and yet the Cherokees claim...
...that the Lumbee are nothing more than disgraced and banished Cherokees, Croatans, Catawbas, Coharie, and Waccamaws who bred with runaway slaves and deserters from the Civil War. They were legally classified as "Mulatto" rather than "Indian" until such terminology fell out of fashion.
The Lumbee receive a one-line mention in the "Atlas of the North American Indian," on page 204, in regard to an anti-Klan rally held in 1958. That's not much history.
So you have to understand that a lot of people are skeptical of their claim to be a "tribe." A lot of their background leads people to conclude they are simply an accumulation of mixed-race people who are trying to cash in and collect a windfall from Uncle Sam.