Did the lumbee cross the Trail of Tears?

Answer 1

No, the Lumbee ancestors did not participate in the Trail of Tears,the Lumbee/croatan were not considered native American at that time or self-identify as Indians.

Lumbee/Croatan have no native American Indian language ,have no Indian words or names and have never spoken any native American language.The Lumbee self-identify as Indian.

The people now calling themselves Lumbee are a mixed race group who are mostly White-Black with a smidge of Native blood(of indeterminate tribal affiliation). They had to downplay their African or mixed heritage and exigerate and overstate their "Native American" identity because of the intense racism in the past. They have been identified as mixed black/white ancestry from the 1700s and were speaking ENGLISH even in the earliest historical references. A considerable amount of genealogical research shows the majority of the founding "Lumbee" families descend from free black males and white females that came down from early Virginia settlements.

They participated in colonial life as "individuals" not as any recognized tribe. Paying taxes, buying property, mustering in colonial and American militias same as all other colonials.

Early colonial records list Lumbee ancestors "as is all "free negors "and mulattos" on kings land and that "no Indians "live in Robeson County area.

They were "never identified as an intact tribe that entered into a treaty with the US.

They initially put forward an origin story that they were the descendants of the "Lost Colony." Then it was Croatan then a Cherokee origin and then Sioux

.

In response to the Southern White backlash to Reconstruction and the tightening of racial laws, the people now calling themselves Lumbee really began to assert their Indian identity. They petitioned for federal recognition as Cherokees. Then a splinter group began to identify as Tuscarora. Now they claim to be descended from Cheraw or "Siouan" people. Their claim of origins has historically been changing for centuries. The Lumbee DNA project indicates that the Native American element makes up only a very small fractional component of their ancestry (both on the mtDNA and Y-DNA lines).No definite Native American markers have been attributed to individuals that self-identify as Lumbee. The bottom line is they are a distinct people who created the name "Lumbee" around 1957 for their group after the Lumber river .There is really no indigenous culture or Language that can be pointed to or attributed to Lumbee and definitely no "full bloods" around.The Cheraw origin is a recentnew theory but has no scientific backing.The cheraw went extinct in the early 1700,s.The Lumbee in 2010 joined with a Casino firm Lewin Int.LLC to work on getting gaming and a Casino and are now seeking full federal recognition to receive funding.