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H:\SKAROREH NATION\NOTICE OF PETITION 2.0.doc
NOTICE OF PETITION
FOR THE SECRETARY
OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
IN THE MATTER OF THE
SIOUAN INDIANS OF LUMBER RIVER
___________________________________
Application: Request to take land in Columbus County, North
Carolina into trust for the Siouan Indian Community of
Lumber River; declare such land a reservation; organize
the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River under the
Indian Reorganization Act; and formally approve the
Tribe’s Constitution and Bylaws.
Submitted to: Mr. Carl J. Artman, Assistant Secretary, Indian Affairs
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
Mr. Franklin Keel, Regional Director
U.S. Department of Interior
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Eastern Agency
MS: 260-VASQ
Arlington, VA 22203
Phone: 703-235-2571
Fax: 703-235-8610
Submitted by: Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River
By, Thomas W. Fredericks, Esq.
Fredericks and Peebles, LLP
1900 Plaza Drive
Louisville, CO 80027
Telephone: (303) 673-9600
Fax: (303) 673-9155 or (303) 673-9839
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SUMMARY OF PETITION
This Petition sets forth the Claims of the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River
Specifically, this Petition requests the Secretary of the Interior (“Secretary”) to:
(1) Take land into trust for the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River, as
permitted by Title 25, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 151 and by 25
U.S.C. § 4651
(2) Request that the Secretary declare said land a reservation pursuant to 25
U.S.C. § 467 – New Indian Reservations.2
(3) Organize the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River residing on the
reservation under the IRA pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 479.3
(4) Formally approve the Tribe’s Constitution and Bylaws4.
I. INTRODUCTION
The key facts and factors that support the Claims in this Petition are as follows:
A. The Siouan Indian Community of the Lumber River (herein Nation) request
that the United States take the Nation’s land in trust for the twenty-two (22) individuals
(commonly referred to as the “Original 22”) that were recognized by the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1938 pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 465 and Part 151 of 25 CFR.
Today there is only one remaining member of the “Original 22”, Mr. Paul Brooks, who,
as a half-blooded Indian, meets the definitional standard for “Indians” under 25 U.S.C. §
4795
B. The Nation formally requests to have such lands declared an Indian
Reservation pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 467.
C. Third, the Nation requests assistance from the Department of Interior to
organize as an Indian tribe under the Indian Reorganization Act. Members of the Nation
have a right to formally organize as an Indian tribe pursuant to the Indian Reorganization
Act of 1934, as amended, 25 U.S.C. § 461 et seq.
1 “The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to acquire . . . any interest in lands . .
.within or without existing reservations . . . for the purpose of providing land for Indians.”
2 “The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to proclaim new Indian reservations on lands acquired
pursuant to any authority conferred by [the IRA].”
3 “The term "tribe" wherever used in this Act shall be construed to refer to any Indian tribe, organized band,
pueblo, or the Indians residing on one reservation.”) and 25 U.S.C. § 476(a)(“Any Indian tribe shall have
the right to organize for its common welfare, and may adopt an appropriate constitution and bylaws. . . [.]”
4 25 U.S.C. § 476
5 (“The term "Indian" as used in [the IRA] . . . shall further include all other persons of one-half or more
Indian blood.”) (all emphases added).
3
D. Finally, the Nation wishes to obtain Bureau of Indian Affair’s approval of
their Tribal Constitution and Bylaws.
The Nation has retained our law firm, Fredericks, & Peebles, LLP, to provide
necessary legal assistance to the Nation’s goals.
II. BACKGROUND
A. History of the Siouan Indians of Lumber River (1600s-1800s)
1. 1600s
Ethnohistorical 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. See Douglas W.
Boyce, Iroquoian Tribes of the Virginia-North Carolina Coastal Plain, in Handbook of
North American Indians, Vol. 15 (William C. Surtevant & Bruce G. Trigger, eds.,
Smithsonian Institution 1978) 282. 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. Id., citing Anonymous, The Indians of Southern Virginia,
1650-1711: Depositions in the Virginia and North Carolina Boundary Case, 7(4) Virginia
Magazine of History and Biography 346, 348 (1900). 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 1711, Christoph von Graffenried, leader of large numbers of Swiss and Palatine
settlers, and John Lawson, a provincial surveyor-general, made an unannounced
expedition through Tuscarora territory. See David Landy, Tuscarora Among the
Iroquois, in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15 (William C. Surtevant &
Bruce G. Trigger, eds., Smithsonian Institution 1978) 518 citing John Lawson, History of
North Carolina [1714] (Frances L. Harriss, ed., Garrett and Massie 2d ed. 1952).
Graffenried and Lawson were subsequently captured by men loyal to the Tuscarora
leader, Hancock (also known as Hencock), taken to the principal town of Catechna, and
tried before a council of chiefs. Graffenried persuaded his captors to free him by forming
a mutual non-aggression pact with them, but Lawson was condemned to death and
executed. Soon after, the Tuscarora, along with several allied Indian tribes— the Coree,
Pamlico, Mattamuskeet, Bear River, and Machapunga—struck successfully at settlers
located along the Trent and Pamlico rivers. Landy supra citing J.N.B. Hewitt, Tuscarora
in Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Vol. 2 842, 843 (Frederick W.
Hodge, ed., 1910). Later, these Indian groups became angered upon realizing that
Lawson had sold to them land for which he did not have title and subsequently attacked
Graffenreid’s settlers.
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Believing that he lacked the manpower and the resources to mobilize sufficiently,
Governor Edward Hyde of North Carolina sought aid from Virginia. However, Virginia,
which was then itself involved in border disputes with neighboring North Carolina, sent
little assistance. Hyde also appealed to South Carolina, which sent Colonel John
Barnwell with a small number of Whites and about 500 Indians. Barnwell defeated the
Tuscarora and exacted a peace agreement in 1711. Soon afterward, angered at receiving
neither pay, supplies or adulation from the North Carolinians, as had been promised,
Barnwell violated the peace agreement by killing hundreds of Tuscaroras and selling
many into slavery. In 1712, the outraged Tuscarora struck back at several settlements
along the Neuse, Pamlico and Trent rivers but, after nearly two years of fighting, were
put down in 1713 by Colonel James Moore of South Carolina with about 1,000 Indians
and 33 Whites.
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. Landy supra citing Hugh T. Lefler and William S. Powell, Colonial North
Carolina: A History 78 (1973) John R. Swanton, The Indians of the Southeastern United
States, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 137199 (1946), John R. Swanton, The
Indian Tribes of North America, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin No. 145
87(1952). 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. Over the next ninety years,
North Carolina Tuscarora migrated in clusters of families and small bands into Virginia,
Pennsylvania, and ultimately to the homeland of their linguistic and cultural relatives, the
Iroquois in New York. In 1722, the League of the Iroquois formally admitted the
Tuscarora as its sixth member nation. The Tuscarora settled in a village located between
the Oneida and Onondaga villages and also on the Susquehanna River.
In 1797, under the Treaty of Big Tree, the Seneca Indians in New York sold much
of their land to Robert Morris, who subsequently sold his interest in it to the Holland
Land Company. Although Robert Morris had reserved for the Tuscarora one square mile
to be located near the present Lewiston where they had built a village, this provision was
not included in the Treaty. Shortly thereafter, the Tuscarora took up the matter with
Thomas Morris, who, on behalf of Robert Morris, granted the square mile, which was
later confirmed by the Holland Land Company. In 1798, the Indians requested and
received another square mile, and in 1799 this two-square mile reservation was laid out
so that it included the Tuscarora village. In 1808, the Seneca executed a deed giving a
square mile to the Tuscarora, stating that this tract had been reserved from the sale of
Seneca lands in 1797. Thus, the original Tuscarora Reservation in New York consisted
of three square miles.
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
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from the Holland Land Company in 1804. Landy supra at 521 citing E. Elias Johnson,
Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and the History of the
Tuscarora Indians 77 (1881); Hewitt (1910) supra at 848; Frank R. Johnson, The
Tuscaroras: Mythology, Medicine, Culture, Vol. 2 at 218(1967-1968), ; William
Chazanof, Joseph Elliott and the Holland Land Company, 74-75 (1970). 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. The matter of the land in North Carolina continued
to be one of concern to the New York Tuscarora. 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. Landy supra at 521 citing Johnson supra at
227; Frank H. Severance, Our Neighbors the Tuscaroras, 22 Buffalo Historical Society
Publication 330-331 (1918). All land transactions involving the sale of Indian lands by a
state would be voidable to the extent that they violated the nonintercouse act of 1790, 25
U.S.C. § 177. See Federal Power Commission v.Tuscarora Indian Nation, U.S. Dist. Ct.
1960, 80 S.Ct. 543, 362 U.S. 99.
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.
Four significant IRA provisions are codified at 25 U.S.C. §§ 465, 467, 476(a) and
479 respectively and they provide in relevant part as follows (all emphases added unless
otherwise noted) :
25 U.S.C. § 465 - Acquisition of lands, water rights or surface
rights; appropriation; title to lands; tax exemption:
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, in his
discretion, to acquire through purchase, relinquishment,
gift, exchange, or assignment, any interest in lands, water
rights, or surface rights to lands, within or without existing
reservations, including trust or otherwise restricted
allotments whether the allottee be living or deceased, for
the purpose of providing land for Indians.
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* * *
Title to any lands or rights acquired pursuant to this Act . . .
shall be taken in the name of the United States in trust for
the Indian tribe or individual Indian for which the land is
acquired, and such lands or rights shall be exempt from
State and local taxation.
25 U.S.C. § 467 – New Indian Reservations:
The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to
proclaim new Indian reservations on lands acquired
pursuant to any authority conferred by this Act, or to add
such lands to existing reservations: Provided, That lands
added to existing reservations shall be designated for the
exclusive use of Indians entitled by enrollment or by tribal
membership to residence at such reservations.
25 U.S.C. § 476(a):
Any Indian tribe shall have the right to organize for its
common welfare, and may adopt an appropriate
constitution and bylaws. . . [.]
25 U.S.C. § 479 – Definitions:
The term "Indian" as used in [the IRA] shall include all
persons of Indian descent who are members of any
recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction, and
all persons who are descendants of such members who
were, on June 1, 1934, residing within the present
boundaries of any Indian reservation, and shall further
include all other persons of one-half or more Indian blood. .
. . . The term "tribe" wherever used in this Act shall be
construed to refer to any Indian tribe, organized band,
pueblo, or the Indians residing on one reservation. The
words "adult Indians" wherever used in this Act shall be
construed to refer to Indians who have attained the age of
twenty-one years.
As Cohen notes, the above IRA definitions make three classes of Indians eligible
to organize under the [IRA]:
(1) Members of any recognized Indian tribe now under
federal jurisdiction;
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(2) Descendants of members of any such recognized
Indian tribe, who resided on any reservation on June
1, 1934; and
(3) Persons of one-half or more Indian blood.
Cohen at 15.
Among such IRA rights for Indians, i.e., for those individuals certified as being of
one-half or more Indian blood, is the right to have the Secretary of the Interior
(“Secretary”) take land into trust for them under 25 U.S.C. § 465. Id. As Cohen notes,
“[o]nce these individuals become the beneficiaries of land held in trust they can organize
themselves as a government and, as a ‘reservation’ tribe or band, become eligible for
organization under the IRA.” Id.
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 v.
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 Letter dated
January 28, 1939 from Commissioner John Collier to Lawrence Maynor. In his 1939
letter, Collier also stated that Maynor’s enrollment as an “Indian” under the IRA “would
not apply to any children [Maynor] may have, unless they were born of a mother who had
likewise been determined to be one-half or more Indian.” 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)
6 See Cynthia L. Hunt, Looking back while walking forward: Maynor v. Morton, Part III,
Carolina Indian Voice, April 20, 2000:10. This firm has the abstract of article, which was
taken from the website < http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/17.5/HUNT013.htm> .
8
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 issue
of 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 legally 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, as further explained in this Petition, include the right to
file this petition with the Secretary to acquire land in trust and, if such land is declared to
be a reservation by the Secretary, to organize with other one-half or more blood Indians
residing on the same land as a tribal government.
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III. PURPOSE OF THIS PETITION
A. The Siouan Indians of Lumber River Request that the Secretary
Acquire Land in Trust for the Tribe under the Indian Reorganization
Act.
The Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River submits this application to the
Secretary of Interior for placement of land currently held in fee by the Nation in trust
status pursuant to Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 25 U.S.C. § 465 and
25 C.F.R. part 151. This application is made as an “off-reservation” acquisition pursuant
to 25 CFR §151.11 because despite years of persistent effort, the Nation still has no
reservation and no land in trust.
1. Applicant and Project Information (25 C.F.R. §151.9)
The applicant is the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River, which consists
of one living member, Paul Brooks. Currently the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber
River has no reservation land and no land held in trust for its benefit. As outlined in
further detail above, the Secretary has the authority to take land into trust for the benefit
of the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River and to proclaim that land the
reservation of the Tribe. The land to be acquired consists of 20.228 Acres in Columbus
County, North Carolina. The Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River has
continuously used and occupied lands located in Columbus County and the surrounding
areas as part of their traditional territory since time immemorial.
a. Authority of the Secretary to Acquire Land in Trust.
(25 C.F.R. §151.10 (a))
The authority for the Secretary to acquire land into trust for the Siouan Indian
Community of Lumber River is Section 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), 25
U.S.C. § 465. Pursuant to 25 CFR § 151.4, unrestricted land owned by an individual
Indian or a tribe may be conveyed into trust status, including a conveyance into trust for
the owner, subject to the provisions of 25 CFR Part 151. The IRA gives the authority to
approve non-gaming related acquisitions to the Secretary of the Interior.
25 U.S.C. § 465, supra, indicates that the Secretary has discretionary authority to
acquire lands “in the name of the United States in trust for the Indian tribe or individual
Indian for which the land is acquired, and such lands or rights are exempt from State and
local taxation.” However, with respect to tribes or individual Indians recognized under
the IRA, the BIA has indicated on multiple occasions that such Indians are entitled to
have land purchased for their benefit:
1. Memorandum from Nathan R. Margold to the Office of Indian
Affairs, Purchases Under Wheeler-Howard Act (Aug. 31, 1936), in
Opinions of the Solicitor of the Dept. of Interior Relating to Indian
Affairs: 1917-1974, Vol. 1, 668 (U.S. Govt. Printing Office
1975)(“Opinions, Vol. 1”)(“The Wheeler-Howard Act [IRA] . . .
authorizes the purchase of land for Indians and defines the term
10
‘Indian’ to include those persons of one-half or more Indian blood
regardless of membership in a recognized Indian tribe under
Federal jurisdiction and regardless of residence on an Indian
reservation . . . . . In so far as the Indians in Mississippi fall within
this definition as to degree of blood, purchases may be made for
their benefit. Moreover, these Indians may be organized under the
provisions of the Wheeler-Howard Act after land has been
acquired for them”);
2. Memorandum from Nathan R. Margold to the Office of Indian
Affairs, IRA-Acquisition of Land (Jan. 4, 1937), in Opinions, Vol.
1 at 706 (“An examination of the file reveals that the Indians in
question are scattered over a wide area in the northeastern quarter
of Nevada and apparently are not affiliated with any recognized
tribe or band. But they fall within the class defined as to the
degree of Indian blood, and insofar as they do, purchases may be
made for their benefit.”);
3. Memorandum from Nathan R. Margold to the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, Status of St. Croix Chippewas (Feb. 8, 1937), in
Opinions, Vol. 1 at 724 (“[T]he title to the land purchases being
made in certain of the larger Indian groupings should be taken for
the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of the half blood or more who may
be designated by the Secretary until such time as they organize
under section 16 of the Reorganization Act and then for the benefit
of such organization. After the land purchase is completed, the
Indians who come to reside upon this land would then be entitled
to organize as Indians residing on a reservation.”)
As indicated above, the IRA provides that an "Indian . . . shall . . . include all
other persons of one-half or more Indian blood.” 25 U.S.C. § 479. The accompanying
regulations governing the acquisition of land in trust under the IRA are found in 25 CFR,
Part 151. 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.
See Letter from R.M. Pennington to Carnell Locklear, Tribal Operations at 2 (November
29, 1971).
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There is one living member of the Original 22, Paul Brooks. It is our legal
opinion that this one living Tuscarora Indian satisfies the statutory and regulatory
definition of “Indian”. This individual has 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.
b. Purpose and Need for the Land (25 C.F.R. §151.10 (b))
The purpose of the contemplated acquisition of land is to develop economic
infrastructure and housing for purposes of facilitating Tribal self-determination,
economic development and self-sufficiency. The Siouan Indian Community of Lumber
River wishes to establish a governmental revenue base in order to provide for
governmental infrastructure to assist its Tribal members. 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.
c. Location and Description of the Land to be Acquired
(25 C.F.R. § 151.9 and §151.11 (b))
1. Site Description
There are two (2) parcels involved in the acquisition. The parcels are in the
aboriginal territory of the Siouan Indian Community of Lumber River and are located in
an area of historical and cultural significance to the Nation. Both parcels are located in
Columbus County, North Carolina. The two (2) parcels total approximately 20 acres and
are located in Waccamaw Township, Columbus County, North Carolina, and being more
particularly described as follows:
TRACT ONE:
Being all of Tract #3 containing 10.693 acres, as shown on a plat of survey entitled
“Division of Property Surveyed for: Iron Horse Auction Co.” made by
12
Dixie Land Surveying, PLLC, dated March 31, 2005 and recorded in Plat Book 78, Page
32, of the Columbus County Registry, reference to which is hereby made for a more
complete description by metes and bounds.
See Deed Book 751, Page 76