List of Lumbees

This article is a list of famous members and descendants of the Lumbee tribe.

List

* Brantley Blue, first Indian appointed to the Indian Claims Commission, later became the Commissioner of the Indian Claims Commission.

* Lewis Randolph Barton, author, historian. "The most ironic story in American history-a historic look at the origins of the Lumbee people"; "Rhythm a little Lumbee", a poetic look at life as an Indian in the early 50s and 60s. Mr Barton is the only Native American writer to receive the national "Knights of Mark Twain" award. Mr. Barton was the recipient of the Henry Berry Lowry Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Lumbee community.

* Dean Chavers, Ph.D., earned a doctorate degree from Stanford University and is Director of Catching the Dream, formerly called the Native American Scholarship Fund. He has written 20 books on Indian affairs and Indian education. His latest book is a two-volume work published by Mellen Press in June 2007, "Modern American Indian Leaders". He has also written the "National Indian Grant Directory" and "How to Write Winning Proposals".

* Delano Cummings, the author of "Moon Dash Warrior: The Story of an American Indian in Vietnam, a Marine from the Land of the Lumbee". His memoir is a poignant account of his tours of duty as a Marine in Vietnam.

* Adolph L. Dial, a historian and advocate for American Indian rights who spent 30 years as a professor of American History and American Indian Studies at Pembroke State University, North Carolina, and served as a North Carolina state senator and spokesperson for full Federal recognition of the Lumbee. Dial is the author of "The Only Land I Know: A History of the Lumbee Indians" and "The Lumbee". Toward the end of his life, Dr. Dial was the recipient of the "Henry Berry Lowry Award", the highest honor bestowed by the Lumbee community.

* Johnny Hunt, the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Woodstock, Georgia, a megachurch of more than 16,000 members. Dr. Hunt is a nationally known speaker. In 2008, he was elected the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

* Arlinda Locklear, an expert in Federal Indian law, having practiced in the field for twenty-five years. Locklear has represented tribes across the U.S. in Federal and state courts on treaty claims to water and land, taxation disputes, reservation boundary issues and Federal recognition of tribes. In the course of her career, she became the first Native American woman to argue a case, "Solem v. Bartlett", to the Supreme Court. She successfully challenged the state of South Dakota's authority to prosecute a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe for on-reservation conduct. As a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund, Locklear supervised significant litigation of Native American issues, as well as the legislative work of the office. In 1985, Locklear appeared as lead counsel in the Supreme Court again when she represented the Oneida Indian Nation in "Oneida Indian Nation v. County of Oneida". In that case, she formulated and argued the theory that tribes have a Federal common law right to sue for possession of tribal land taken in violation of Federal law. The Supreme Court adopted the argument, and the case became the seminal case in aboriginal land claims litigation, upon which all subsequent claims have been based.

* Heather Deen Locklear (born September 25, 1961) is a six time-Golden Globe-nominated American actress. She is primarily known for her television work, her most notable roles being Sammy Jo Carrington on the 1980s soap opera "Dynasty", Officer Stacy Sheridan in the 1980s cop drama "T.J. Hooker", Amanda Woodward on the 1990s soap opera "Melrose Place", and as Caitlin Moore on the sitcom "Spin City". Locklear was born in Westwood, California, the daughter of Diane (née Tinsley), a production executive for Disney, and William Robert Locklear, an administrator at UCLA. [1] [2] She is the youngest of four children. She is of Scottish and distant paternal Lumbee ancestry. [3] [4]

* Malinda Maynor Lowery, received her A.B. in History and Literature from Harvard University in 1995, an M.A. in Documentary Film and Video Production at Stanford University in 1997, and a PhD in History from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2005. In 2001, she co-produced the documentary, "In the Light of Reverence", a film featuring three tribal nations, the Hopi, the Winnemem Wintu, and the Lakota Sioux, and their struggles to protect three sacred sites, Devil's Tower National Monument, the Four Corners in Arizona, and Mount Shasta. All three sacred sites are places of extraordinary beauty as well as impassioned controversy as Natives and non-Natives struggle to co-exist with very different ideas about how the land should be used. In 2006, Lowery became the first Native American tenure-track professor at Harvard University. She is finishing a book about Lumbee identity and Federal recognition in the first half of the twentieth century.

* Henry Berry Lowrie, was the Robeson County American Indian hero of the "Lowrie Wars" that took place during the Reconstruction era of the 1860s and 1870s. Lowrie and his guerilla band appropriated white Revolutionary doctrine to gain rights and freedoms that were being denied to American Indians in Robeson County. Indian perceptions of Reconstruction violence solidified the racial boundaries that had begun to take shape and harden during the Civil War era. The Lowrie gang received considerable support from the American Indian community. Lowrie and his guerilla band were popular among poor blacks and whites as well, since they believed that he best represented their interests to the elites of a racialized Southern society. Most importantly, the activities of the Lowrie gang radicalized the American Indian community. The post-Reconstruction rearticulation of a separate territory bounded by a web of wetlands that define Robeson County, along with an elaborate network of kinship ties was instrumental in the revitalized expression of Indian community. In an attempt to capture the elusive Lowrie gang, white incursions into Indian territory further highlighted the existence of a territorial and cultural borderland. Lowrie became a culture hero, representing those cultural and political boundaries that marked the Indians of Robeson County as a community of self-determining American Indian people. Henry Berry Lowrie is the protagonist of the outdoor Lumbee drama [http://www.strikeatthewind.com/index.html "Strike at the Wind"] .

* James Lowery, rapper, also known as "Anybody Killa". Signed on psychopathic records.

* Earl Cranston Lowry, U. Chattanooga BS; Vanderbilt,U. MD; Colonel, U.S. Army Medical Corps, with assignments in many areas of U.S. and abroad; U.S. Chief Surgeon of the European Theatre of War at the end of World War II; President Blue Shield for the State of Iowa from 1950-60; Highly decorated, with numerous awards in the field of medicine, including two honorary degrees. Dr. Lowry served as personal physician to Generals Patton and Eisenhower [http://www.uncp.edu/map/df_lowry_bldg.htm] .

* Julian Pierce, attended Pembroke State University in Pembroke, North Carolina and graduated with a BS in Chemistry. Pierce went to Law school at North Carolina Central University School of Law where he earned his JD in 1976. He then attended Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, DC to earn his Masters of Law in Taxation. At one time, Pierce was the most highly educated Indian. In 1988, despite numerous threats, Pierce ran for newly created Superior Court Judgeship in Robeson County. On March 26, 1988, Pierce was found dead in his home, having been shot three times. Although Pierce's opponent in the election was automatically deemed the winner, later ballot counts gave the victory to Pierce. Pierce would have been the first Native American to hold the position of Superior Court Judge in North Carolina.

* Jana, (born Jana Sampson) is a Lumbee singer. In 2002, Jana won a Nammy (Native American Music Award) for Best Single for her remix of "Stairway to Heaven" and a Nammy for 2001 Best Pop Artist. In 2000, she was nominated for two Nammy awards and starred in the film "Dream Weaver".

* Kelvin Sampson, the former head coach of the University of Oklahoma and of the Indiana University men's basketball team. Sampson was born in the Lumbee community of Deep Branch and attended Pembroke High School in Pembroke, North Carolina and Pembroke State University before guiding the Sooners to an appearance in the Final Four of the men's NCAA basketball tournament in 2002. He is now an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team of the National Basketball Association.

* Helen Maynor Scheirbeck was appointed by Congress to the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Board of Directors, and continues to serve as NMAI's Assistant Director of Public Programs. Scheirbeck received her B.A. in 1957 from Berea College (Kentucky) and her Ed. D in 1980 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Scheirbeck is the Human Resources Administrator for Save the Children Federation of the American Indian Programs and has served as Chairwoman of the Indian Education Task Force, American Indian Policy Review Commission, U. S. Congress, as well as Director of the Office of Indian Affairs, U.S. Office of Education, Dept. of HEW, and as professional staff for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights.

* David E. Wilkins is Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, Political Science, and Law at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Wilkins received his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1990. His publications focus particularly on Federal Indian law, tribal government, and tribal sovereignty. Wilkins is the author of "The Navajo Political Experience (2003)"; "American Indian Politics and the American Political System (2002)"; "Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law, co-authored with Tsianina Lomawaima (2001)"; "Tribes, Treaties, and Constitutional Tribulations, co-authored with Vine Deloria, Jr. (1999)"; "American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Masking of Justice (1997)"; and "Dine' Bibeehaz'aanii: A Handbook of Navajo Government (1987)".

* Robert A. Williams, Jr. is E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies & Director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has written numerous articles on Indian Law and indigenous peoples' rights, as well as several books. He is also a Judge, pro tem, Tohono O'odham Indian Nation. He has been a Visiting Professor of Law and Bennet Boskey Visiting Lecturer of Law, Harvard Law School; Chief Justice, Court of Appeals, Pascua Yaqui Tribe; and Cross Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law.