Lumbee Indians seek end to a century of questions about identityPosted in Articles, History, Media Archive, Native Americans/First Nation, Tri-Racial Isolates, United States on 2016-04-13 00:02Z by Steven |
Lumbee Indians seek end to a century of questions about identity
The Baltimore Sun
Baltimore, Maryland
1993-10-12
Richard O’Mara, Staff Writer
Proud people from North Carolina find a home in Baltimore
Shirley Jeffrey, an East Baltimore resident, remembers the painful moment five years ago when two Sioux Indians told her that “Lumbees aren’t really Indians.”
Jimmy Hunt recalls a similar experience as an Army recruit when a sergeant asked the American Indians in the group to stand up. “There were two others besides myself,” he says. “Later they said I wasn’t an Indian because I was a Lumbee.”
Not really Indians? How could this be said of the largest American Indian group east of the Mississippi? The ninth-largest in the United States, with nearly 50,000 members, according to the Bureau of the Census. About 4,300 of them are in Maryland.
The question of identity has troubled the Lumbees for more than a century, but it may be resolved this year if Congress approves a bill introduced by Rep. Charles Rose III, D-N.C., to extend full recognition to the tribe.
It’s not that Mrs. Jeffrey is uncertain about who she is. Nor is Mr. Hunt…
Read the entire article here.