Lumbee Indians. Who are we to believe?

[Cainkane1]

I was watching a program about the lost colony at Roanoke. Their disapearance has been a mystery for many centuries. A tribe of Indians who call themselves Lumbee claim that the white settlers took refuge with them and that they didn't actually disapear. Well no one believed them. Well along comes DNA and their claims seem to be verified. However others claim that this doesn't prove anything. Many Lumbee Indians have caucasian features which include blond or red hair, Blue, gray or green eyes and white skin. Culturally they are native american. Who do you believe?

 

[Cainkane1]

Anyone unfamiliar with the Lost colony story here is a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_colony

 

[madurobob]

I was watching a program about the lost colony at Roanoke. Their disapearance has been a mystery for many centuries. A tribe of Indians who call themselves Lumbee claim that the white settlers took refuge with them and that they didn't actually disapear. Well no one believed them. Well along comes DNA and their claims seem to be verified. However others claim that this doesn't prove anything. Many Lumbee Indians have caucasian features which include blond or red hair, Blue, gray or green eyes and white skin. Culturally they are native american. Who do you believe?

The Lumbee have long not been recognized as a *real* indian tribe by the US Government. They still do not have full recognition. A large part of that was the fact that many of the "indians" were actually runaway slaves.

I don't know how exact DNA testing is these days, but with all of the intermingling of African slaves and Europeans with whatever were once *real* indians, I would not be surprised to see some correlation with Europeans from the Lost Colony.

ETA: from the wiki for Lumbee^WP

In the first federal census of 1790, the ancestors of the Lumbee were among those enumerated as "free persons of color," a category used to describe free Negroes and Mullatos and meaning freed African slaves or products of mixed race unions.[9] In subsequent censuses, they were counted in "all other free persons" or later "Mulatto." In the 1870 census, the first in which "Indian" was a separate category, almost all Robeson County residents with characteristically Lumbee names were classified as "Mulatto."

ETA2: The most common surname in Robinson County is Locklear. Yes, Heather is a Lumbee.

 

[seayakin]

As Madurobob had indicated, the Lumbee have tried to get federal recognition for a long time. I also agree with Mad that you have to be very careful about DNA evidence. It seems to me that I read somewhere that in some research on DNA testing that some large percentage of Americans most likely have some American Indian ancestry and/or African American ancestry within the last 300 years. I have been trying to find the citation but cannot locate it.

I have been tangentially involved in some tribes appeals for federal recognition and the process is very complicated and in some ways not always rational especially when congress over rides the BIA process. Because of this, some tribes with probably less historic cultural or political identity than the Lumbee have been recognized.

 

[Cainkane1]

http://lumbee.homestead.com/dnarequest.html

 

[tnt666]

I am not aware of the Lumbee... but a few weeks ago, I had a stint of genetic ancestor testing research on the internet (a dozen or so sites) in the context of African American and Native American bloodlines, both in the USA and in Mexico. Interestingly, mostly the genotypes of 'whites' and 'blacks' in the USA, are relatively quite distinct, ie, there has not been a lot of mixing, contrary to popular opinion. This is has been imputed to longstanding segregation laws/behaviors which discouraged mixed marriages. It is assumed, with present trends, that future genetic research on the same topic will reveal quite different results (near future including today's youth) as popular acceptance of mixed marriages has been rising constantly. Which is why geneticists are in such a rush to get in as much data as possible, as mixed marriages at all levels/geographies and immigration are having a very confusing impact in these genetic studies.

However, in Mexico, bloodlines indicate a more thorough mixing of 'whites' and 'blacks' because mostly because 'being black' although not a 'positive trait' were not consistently prevented discouraged from intermarriage.

On 'black' and 'native' blood lines, a different genetic pattern was obvious. There was an initial mixing, upon initial contacts, but since then, 'mixed marriage' rarity has resulted in 'mixed black/native' marrying other 'black'. Resulting in these 'claims' for 'native status' by certain groups of 'apparently black' Americans. A couple of these claimant groups have 'native' blood ancestry in the vicinity of up to 12%, which is sufficient for the USA government to be declared 'native status', but has no impact on Tribal Council decision making. Tribal councils refuse to incorporate genetic ancestry assessment into their tribal membership laws, they accept only documented descendants of persons specifically listed on certain 1800s lists.

Hope this aids you somewhat in your search, if you haven't done so already, try Googling: genetic native african american ancestry and genetic ancestry testing kits.