Quote Originally Posted by Carolina Kiltman View Post
So far, the Lumbees have not gotten "official" U.S. Govt. recognition, but they are working on it.
Well, they certainly have their work cut out for them.

One of the major stumbling blocks seems to be that the other tribes in the so-called Lumbee tribal area flat out refuse to recognize the Lumbees as Indians, and accuse them of being mere opportunists. Until comparatively recent times the Lumbees identified themselves as Croatan Indians, but the "tribe" voted to change its name to reflect its supposed tribal homeland near the Lumber River.

According to spokemen for some of the recognized tribes it is their belief (and DNA testing seems to back up their assertion) that the Lumbees are a predominantly Caucasian/African admixture with at best only a small percentage of Indian blood. They also cite a general lack of understanding of Indian culture, which they assert the Lumbees seem to have derived from Hollywood B westerns.

In actual fact the Lumbees were recognized as Indians by the Federal Government, but were denied access to Federal funding. At the time of their recognition the Lumbees went on record as stating they did not want any Federal money. That position was only recently changed when, I believe in 2002, a few of the Lumbees tried to sign on for Federal money. Since that time they have tried annually to get Congress to fund their "tribe", but thus far with no luck.

As far as is known, the Lumbees have no official tartan, nor do they have any system of heraldry. (Just to keep this on topic.)