Lumbee
Kelvin Sampson, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| More than 60,000 (2025) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Eastern United States (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee) | |
| Languages | |
| Main: English, American Indian English | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Melungeons, Lousiana Redbones, Dominickers, Carmelites, Chestnut Ridge people, Free Black people, Atlantic Creoles, Free people of color, Cheraw, African Americans, English Americans, Scottish Americans, Scotch-Irish Americans |
The Lumbee, also known as People of the Dark Water, are a mixed-race people group of the Americas who comprise the federally recognized Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Primarily located in Robeson County, North Carolina, the Lumbee claim to be descended from numerous Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands who once inhabited the region and have been shown to have connections with other tri-racial isolate groups, such as the Melungeons and Louisiana Redbones.
The Lumbee take their name from the Lumber River, which winds through Robeson County. Pembroke, North Carolina, in Robeson County, is their economic, cultural, and political center. According to the 2000 United States census report, 89% of the population of the town of Pembroke identified as Lumbee; 40% of Robeson County's population identified as Lumbee. The Lumbee Tribe was recognized by North Carolina in 1885. In 1956, the U.S. Congress passed the Lumbee Act, which recognized the Lumbees as being American Indians but denied them the benefits of a federally recognized tribe.
In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to advance the tribe's recognition. On December 18, 2025, he signed the Lumbee Fairness Act into law, making them a federally recognized tribe.