SIOUAN GENEALOGY

A. History of the Siouan Indians of Lumber River (1600s-1800s)

1. 1600s
Ethno historical research shows that the present-day Siouan Indians of Lumber River are composed of the modern-day descendants of the Tuscarora Indians, who were the largest group of Indians occupying the Virginia-North Carolina coastal plain cut by the major rivers of the Roanoke, Tar and Neuse
during the early 1600’s. Several thousand Tuscaroras were said to be living in the
colonies of Virginia and North Carolina when the first Europeans arrived in the late

1650’s. During this time, colonial settlements were established in North Carolina along the Albemarle Sound. By
the late 1660’s, colonists and the Tuscarora were engaged in raids against one another. Relations
between the Tuscarora and the colonists became ever more tense as the Tuscarora saw both their land taken without proper compensation and their people captured for slaves and cheated by traders.

2. 1700s

In 1713, the Tuscarora suffered extreme losses through death, the capture of more than 950 men, women and children and been capable of mustering not more than 1,200 fighting men. Starved into submission,
their power broken, the Tuscarora experienced the end of hostilities. Some were forced onto a small reservation in North Carolina while the rest fled north, with some settling in Virginia where a Tuscarora chief named Tom Blunt, or Blount, was now the English-recognized Tuscarora leader.

 

3. 1800s

In 1801, a delegation of Tuscarora traveled from New York to North Carolina to try to obtain payment for the Tuscarora lands there and in the following year the North Carolina legislature passed an act
authorizing the lease of these lands. For these leases, the Tuscarora received $13,722, which they used to purchase 4,249 acres in New York from the Holland Land Company in 1804. Thus, the Tuscarora’s total reservation in New York came to comprise 6,249 acres or just under 10 square miles. At the same time that the Tuscarora
delegation was in North Carolina arranging for this payment, some Tuscaroras living there decided to move north and join their brethren in New York. About 10 years later, after the War of 1812, the British burned the

Tuscarora village in North Carolina. In 1828, the North Carolina legislature authorized the sale of these lands. The
transaction was completed in 1831with the Tuscaroras receiving $3,250 for conveying
these lands by deed to the State of North Carolina. The lands issue came up again after the leases expired in 1916, but in 1956 all claims were determined to have been settled.

B. Passage of the IRA

  In 1934, Congress enacted the seminal Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 25 U.S.C. § 461 et seq.. As preeminent legal scholar Felix Cohen noted in his treatise Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1982
Ed.) (“Cohen”), the period of the “late 1920s and early 1930s marked a change in Indian
policy and departure from [earlier] assimilationist policies [of the federal government].” Cohen at 144. To that end, the IRA was enacted in order “to encourage economic development, self-determination, cultural plurality, and

the revival of tribalism.” Id. at 147.

C. Federal Certification of the “Original 22” as Indians Under the IRA

Following Congress’ enactment of the IRA in 1934, an individual named Lawrence Maynor and 208 other individuals, all of whom self-identified as Indians and resided in Robeson County, North
Carolina, petitioned the Secretary for recognition by the federal government as persons of one-half or more Indian blood. See Maynor vs Morton, 510 F.2d 1254, 1256 (D.C. Cir.1975). The Department of the Interior (DOI) subsequently hired anthropologist Carl Seltzer and several other specialists to examine the
209 individuals and determine whether each individual was of one-half or more Indian blood and qualified as an “Indian” under the IRA, 25 U.S.C. § 479. Seltzer and the specialists ultimately concluded that twenty-two (22) people out of the 209 individuals were one-half degree or more Indian blood. See Venita Jenkins, Siouan kin contest Lumbee recognition, Fayetteville Observer, April 25, 2004; see also Maynor supra, 510 F.2d at 1256. These
twenty-two individuals, which included Lawrence Maynor, subsequently became known as the “Original 22.” The DOI notified the Original 22 that they were “entitled to benefits established by the
Indian Reorganization Act.” See also Maynor, 510 F.2d at 1256; Letter dated December 12, 1938 from William Zimmerman, Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Joseph Brooks (Letter informing Brooks that the Original 22 were certified as Indians but not entitled to any rights and status as members

of an Indian tribe, since the government was not holding land in trust “for the Siouans.”) 6

D. Overturning of the DOI’s Erroneous Interpretation of the Lumbee Act in Maynor v. Morton,             510 F.2d 1254 (D.C. Cir. 1975)

See Cynthia L. Hunt, Looking back while walking forward: Maynor v. Morton, Part III, Carolina Indian Voice, April 20, 2000:10;  website <http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/17.5/HUNT013.htm>

In 1956, Congress passed the Lumbee Act of June 7, 1956, Pub. L. 84-570, 70 Stat. 254 (1956). The Lumbee Act provided that the Indians in Robeson and surrounding counties would be known as “Lumbee Indians.” The Lumbee Act further provided that “[n]othing in this Act shall make such Indians eligible for any services performed by the United States for Indians because of their status as Indians, and none of the statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of their status as Indians shall be applicable to the Lumbee Indians.” Thus, through enactment of the Lumbee Act, Congress attempted to deal with the “problem” of various self-identified North Carolina Indian groups seeking federal recognition by “recognizing” them as “Lumbees” while simultaneously

cutting them off from the federal financial support and program services generally provided to federally recognized Indian tribes. On November 28, 1972, the BIA Deputy Solicitor issued a letter setting forth the BIA’s position that the Lumbee Act “clause concerning eligibility for federal Indian services . . . terminated the rights of [the Original 22] obtained in 1938 by virtue of their certification as Indians of more than fifty percent blood.” Maynor, 510 F.2d at 1257.

The position taken by the BIA in the 1972 Solicitor opinion, which attempted to nullify the rights of the Original 22
under the IRA, was soon subsequently challenged, held to be legally erroneous, and dispositively discarded by a federal appellate court in Maynor v. Morton, 510 F.2d 1254 (D.C. Cir. 1975). In the early 1970s, Lawrence Maynor – the same Lawrence Maynor who initially petitioned the DOI for recognition as an Indian under the IRA – filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Secretary seeking a declaratory judgment of Maynor’s rights under the IRA. The District Court dismissed Maynor’s complaint on summary judgment. However, on appeal, the federal appellate District of Columbia Circuit Court ruled that Maynor was entitled to declaratory judgment against the Secretary on the issueof Maynor’s rights under the IRA as one of the Original 22. The Court held that there was nothing in the Lumbee Act that was inconsistent with the rights previously granted to the Original 22 under the IRA and that the Lumbee Act did not indicate any

congressional intent to take away any previously recognized IRA rights. Maynor, 510 F.2d at 1258. The Maynor Court found that “[i]n 1934-38 plaintiff Maynor was not a ‘Lumbee Indian,’ because the Lumbee Indians were not a federally recognized group . . . .[rather Maynor] was simply certified as an ‘Indian,’ and it is as such that he seek a declaratory judgment of his rights.” Maynor, 510 F.2d at 1258. It was under the IRA – and not the Lumbee Act – “that [Maynor] lays claim to whatever rights he might have.” Id. at 1259. These IRA rights, included the
right to organize with other one-half or more blood Indians and form a tribal government.

The IRA provides that an "Indian . . .shall . . . include allother persons of one-half or more Indian blood.” 25 U.S.C. § 479. As under the IRA, under 25 CFR § 151.2(c)(3), an “Individual Indian” includes “[a]ny other person possessing a total of one-half or more degree Indian blood of a tribe.”

In a letter dated November 29, 1971, the Acting Chief for the DOI Division of Tribal Operations, R.M. Pennington, confirmed that both the children and full siblings of the Original 22 would also be identified as
“Indian” under the IRA. Specifically, Pennington stated that: It should be noted that all of the full brothers and sisters of those twenty-two persons would be considered one-half or more Indian. Further, all of the children
of persons considered one-half or more Indian are automatically considered at least one-quarter-Indian.

Paul Brooks, satisfied the statutory and regulatory definition of “Indian”. This individual had the right to have the
Secretary take his lands into trust for him pursuant to the above authority, including the 1936 and 1937 BIA

Memoranda and the 1971 BIA letter.

Since 1935, it has been formally established that members of the Nation are entitled to and deserve to have land

taken in trust to use as their reservation. Despite years of effort and initiative by the Nation and numerous attempts to wade through the bureaucratic red tape, the Nation still has no reservation and no land in trust.
The Nation has been unable to provide for its people in ways similar to the surrounding community and surrounding Indian tribes because the Tribe has no sustainable economic base. The Nation continues to suffer economic and social inequities. Without trust land, the Tribe has had little opportunity at economic development and little chance at true self-governance. Revenues are needed from diverse sources to provide the Nation with an ongoing independent economic base to support Tribal governmental functions. The Nation wishes to provide essential governmental services, sufficient infrastructure such as water supply and wastewater treatment, administrative facilities, and sufficient housing for Tribal members. Increased revenues would help the
Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River establish governmental responsibilities and would provide resources to improve social, cultural, recreational, housing, and community development programs.

Our research indicates that the United States intended to purchase lands with the intent of providing a reservation for the Siouan Indians of Lumber River. Historical documents indicate that the federal government contemplated the purchase of land in 1935 for the Original 22 certified as half-bloods. The BIA’s intent to purchase lands for Indians in Robeson County is borne out by a memorandum dated April 8, 1935 prepared by Felix Cohen, then Assistant Solicitor, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, which was written in response to a request by the

Commissioner in a prior February memorandum to Cohen in which he was instructed to determine whether the “Siouan Indians of North Carolina . . . can organize under the [IRA] to receive a constitution and charter.” Cohen states that the group is not a “recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction,” within the language of the IRA and the members are not residents of an Indian reservation. Cohen explicitly states that in addition to being eligible for benefits under the IRA as half-bloods, the members “may also organize under sections 16 and 17 of
the Wheeler-Howard Act if the Secretary of the Interior sees fit to establish for these eligible Indians a reservation . . . [which] might be established either through the outright purchase of land by the Secretary of the Interior,

under section 5 of the [IRA], or by the relinquishment to the United States of land purchased by the Indians themselves, under the same section of the [IRA], or by a combination of these two methods of acquisition.” (original emphasis). Cohen goes on to state that “[a] reservation having been established, those residing thereon will be entitled to adopt a constitution and bylaws and to receive a charter of incorporation . . . [and] [u]nder section 19 of the [IRA] the ‘Indians residing on one reservation’ may be recognized as a ‘tribe’ for the purposes of the [IRA] regardless of their previous status.” Cohen goes on to state that the “group be designated as the ‘Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River.’”

 

In 1939, after designation of the Original 22, Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier wrote to Joseph Brooks, and the other 22 members, indicating that they were entitled to recognition as an Indian of one-half or more degree. In a letter to one of the members, Lawrence Maynor, Collier states though “[t]his enrollment does not entitle you to membership in any Indian tribe, nor does it establish any tribal rights in your name. It entitles you to solely to those benefits set forth in the [IRA]. . . .  In 1939, the United States – Department of Agriculture condemned 440.92 acres of land in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Roy Maynor, the son of an Original 22 individual Lawrence Maynor, claimed in his lawsiut against the United States and North Carolina that that land was part of the “approximately 17,000 acres of land [which] was acquired for the benefit of the ‘22 individuals’ and their descendants..”

 

In a July 22, 1986 letter, B.D. Ott of the BIA Eastern Area Office wrote a letter to Senator Carl Levin, who had inquired on behalf of his constituent Roy Maynor, a son of Lawrence Maynor, one of the Original 22. In the letter, Ott stated: In response to your inquiry of July 17, 1986 relative to the Hatteras Tuscarora Indians in North
Carolina, we are able to provide some limited information as follows. The Federal Government does not

recognize any tribe nor provide any services to Tuscarora Indians living in North Carolina. However, in the mid-1970s, the Bureau determined that there were twenty-two (22) descendants Tuscarora Indians [sic] of one-half or more blood quantum living in North Carolina. This determination was apparently based upon an

anthropological study performed in the mid-thirties. As a result of this determination and at the request of the remaining individuals of one-half or more Tuscarora blood, the Bureau of Indian Affairs undertook the construction
and/or renovation of eighteen (18) houses located upon fee lands owned by those individuals [which included Lawrence Maynor]. . . [.] The terms of the agreement for constructing new and/or renovating existing houses reportedly include an acceptance clause which provide for a termination of anyfurther Bureau responsibility for the
constructed improvement of house. [sic]. In 1989, Scott Keep, Assistant Solicitor, Division of Indian Affairs, wrote Roy Maynor a letter stating that the BIA believed the Maynor decision, finding that the Original 22’s benefits under the IRA had not been terminated by the Lumbee Act, had been “fully implemented” by the Original 22’s receipt of “benefits, primarily housing.”

Paul Brooks, as one of the Original 22, qualifies as one-half or more Indian blood and therefore as an “Indian” under the IRA for purposes of having land taken into trust for him, having his land declared a reservation, and organizing as a tribal government. This sole remaining member of the Original 22 also has the right under the IRA to adopt a tribal constitution.

Given the background and history of the Siouan Indians of Lumber River it is clear that Paul Brooks has been
identified as an “Indian” under the Indian Reorganization Act (“IRA”), and is therefore entitled to full benefits reserved for such individuals under the IRA, including the right to have lands acquired in trust by the Secretary of the Interior on his behalf. Despite the efforts of the Lumbee Indians to proclaim that the Original 22 individuals identified as Indians by the Department of Interior in 1939, the Siouan Indians of Lumber River were specifically
excluded from the restriction placed on the Lumbee Indians under the Lumbee Act. Maynor v. Morton, 510 F.2d 1254 (D.C. Cir. 1975) establishes that the Siouan Indians of Lumber River continue to retain –unextinguished -- their rights under the IRA.