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The Battle of Hayes Pond in 1958 wasn’t much of a battle. But it was a major victory in the effort to stop the momentum of the Ku Klux Klan in the South. Today on Native America Calling, on the 65th anniversary of the night members of the Lumbee tribe showed up in force to stop a KKK rally in Robeson County, we’ll revisit the event and how it continues to be a source of strength and pride for a tribe as it struggles for federal recognition with Dr. Lawrence Locklear (Lumbee), director of the Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity and adjunct associate professor in the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke; Dr. Ryan Emanuel (Lumbee), associate professor at Duke University; Chelsea Barnes (Lumbee), attorney and senior associate at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough; and Tammy Maynor (Lumbee), Director of Governmental Affairs for the Lumbee Tribe.
Break 1 Music: Remembering The Warrior (song) Porcupine Singers (artist) Alowanpi – Songs Of Honoring – Lakota Classics: Past & Present, Vol. 1 (album)
Break 2 music: Mistahi Mewasin (Really Delighted) (song) Young Spirit (artist) Akameyimoh Baby Boy (album)
As I listened to Chelsea Barnes’s explanation of why the Eastern Band of the Cherokee nation was against federal recognition for the Lumbee tribe. I was reminded of a time when I read that the then Chief of the Cherokees said in the Atlanta Journal that the Lumbees don’t even look like Indians. I was a teenager then and pretty upset. So I called him up. I live in CT between Mashantucket and Mohegan tribes. I believe he took my call because the receptionist heard me say where I lived and he thought I was from one of those tribes. So, when I got him on the phone I asked if he did, in fact, say I didn’t look like an Indian and if was he also saying I wasn’t an Indian. After a bit of a polite but heated conversation, he finally said I’m not saying you’re not an Indian. I said what’s the bottom line? He said money if you are recognized, we won’t get as much money. I will remember this conversation for as long as I live. Each time I hear someone from the Eastern Band of Cherokees testify why we should not receive recognition, I think it’s the money all about the money