Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina

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Increasing Access to Literacy and Libraries

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Lumbee Children and Families

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Purpose

Reading Nation Waterfall is a three year federally funded project working with five Native American tribes across the country. The Lumbee Tribe is one of those partners and we are working with the Robenson County Public Library, Pembroke Elementary School, Pembroke Head Start, and Pembroke Boys and Girls Club with three primary goals to: 1) Increase access to books and libraries to children and families, 2) Increase the number of books and reading with parents/adults at home, and 3) Increase relevance and use of libraries for Native American communities. Two primary outcomes are to increase kindergarten entrance and 4th grade reading scores for each partnering tribe. One of our main activities is to provide an unlimited number of free books to children from 0-10 at preschool, elementary school, and their public libraries through strategically placed little free libraries that will be restocked with brand new/gently used librarian curated books every week.

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Total Books Disseminated

Organization	BOOKS DISSEMINATED
Pembroke Elementary	3426
Pembroke Head Start	2312
Pembroke Boys & Girls Club	2225
Free Book Fairs	1566
TOTAL TO DATE (as of March 20, 2024)	9529

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Books Read at Home (RNW Reading Log Program): 2420

Take Home Library Boxes: 200

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Little Free Libraries

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Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina Partners

University of North Carolina Pembroke	Robeson County Public Library	Pembroke Elementary School	Pembroke Boys & Girls Club	Pembroke Head Start
Heather Kimberly Dial Sellers (Kim) PhD (Lumbee), Program Director Reading Education	Katie Fountain, Director	Ana Locklear, Media Assistant Joanna S. Hunt, Principal	Dr. Rose Marie Lowry-Townsend, Director of Youth Services	Linda Goins, Director

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Lumbee Tribe History and Facts

The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina calls the area surrounding the Lumber River in Robeson County home. It is situated in the southeastern part of the state along the border with South Carolina. The members mainly reside in Robeson, Hoke, Cumberland, and Scotland counties. Archeological evidence reveals that Native Americans have continuously been in the area that the Lumbee Tribe call home since 12,000 years BC. Some in the Lumbee Tribe can trace their ancestry to the region while others have roots in the tribes that migrated from other parts of the Carolinas and Virginia. At 55,000 members, the Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe east of the Mississippi and the ninth largest in the nation.

In the early 1700’s, the Lumber River was a destination for those fleeing epidemics, war, and the oppression of native peoples by white colonials. Due to the geographic phenomenon known as Carolina Bays, the land of the Lumbee Tribe was isolated and offered a safe haven for a period of time. People from the Eastern Siouan, Algonquian, and Iroquoian tribes that came to the Lumber River were welcomed and became part of the ancestors of the current Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

The native people living by the Lumber River, up until 1835, had some rights as citizens. North Carolina’s government eventually succumbed to racist, anti-native policies and in 1835 the state’s constitution was amended to take away the native people’s right to vote and bear arms. Later when the Civil War began, many Lumbee people were conscripted to manual labor building fortifications for the Confederate Army. After decades of oppression, a group of tribespeople and their allies began to fight back against the Confederate Home Guard after Henry Berry Lowrie’s father and brother were killed by Confederates. This began the Lowrie War and the slow road to the restitution of some rights. 

In 1868, North Carolina restored voting rights and the right to bear arms to the Lumbee, yet the struggles to obtain educational rights for their children and their political autonomy continued. After decades of the state legislature trying to dictate the tribe’s name, in 1953 the tribe chose the Lumbee name for themselves.

The Lumbee Tribe has long valued education. It was an integral part of the Lumbee Tribe’s initial pursuance for state and federal recognition. In 1887, legislation was passed for the tribe to establish a school. The Lumbee had funding for teacher salaries, but they secured the rights to the land and built buildings on their own. In 1941, the same school began offering four-year degrees and was named the Pembroke College of Indians. It is now part of the University of North Carolina system and is known as the University of North Carolina Pembroke. The university is a fundamental part of the Lumbee community. It offers a Department of American Indian Studies, employs Lumbee faculty and staff, and curates the on-campus Museum of the Southeast American Indian.

The Lumbee Tribe is self-governed through the work of the Lumbee Tribal Council which consists of 21 members and represents 14 tribal districts. The Tribal Chairman is the political leader of the Lumbee government and represents them in an official capacity. John Lowery is the seventh, and current, Tribal Chairman of the Lumbee people. 

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Family/Child Literacy Program

At home is where readers are made. Reading Nation Waterfall will provide the books for free but it is essential adults read with their children at home EVERYDAY.

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