What ceromonies did the lumbee Indians have?

Answer 1

First, there are serious problems with the tribal and individual

identity of the Lumbee. These Congressmen and women are not credible experts experts in the area of genealogy some researchers who

have reached a difficult but clear

conclusions concerning Lumbee identity that should not

ignore. Paul Heinegg, whose work has been recognized by The American

Society of Genealogists, concludes that the Lumbee are ``an invented

North Carolina Indian tribe,'' and that many of the

persons who first self-identified as Indian after switching from mulatto or white in Robeson County, North

Carolina, are not of Indian ancestry.

Another indisputable expert in this area is Dr. Virginia DeMarce,

who formerly served as Chair of the National Genealogical Association

and as an expert in this area at the Department of the Interior. Dr.

DeMarce concludes from her genealogical studies that many Lumbee

families do not originate from the Robeson, North Carolina, area, but

migrated there from other places.

in past testimony before the Congress, Department of

Interior officials also have raised serious concerns about Lumbee

individual and tribal identity as well.

This uncertain background may somewhat explain why the Lumbee have

sought federal recognition as descending from four different tribes

over the years: Cherokee, Siouan, Croatan, and now Cheraw at their own request..

This leads to my second point. The cultural and political integrity

of other tribes with living tribal languages and

long standing government-to-government relations with the United States

is undermined when Congress acts arbitrarily in federal acknowledgement

matters, allowing politics and emotion to drive decision making, rather

than facts about tribal identity. taxpayers have raised

these identity concerns about the Lumbee since at least 1910, when the

Lumbees first claimed a Cherokee identity before Congress.