LUMBEE TRIBE AND UNC PEMBROOKE

    While discussing how each of our college experiences are progressing with my Niece in North Carolina, I explained the courses that I am taking, and she stated, did you know that I am going to a Native College.  Well of course that intrigued me.  Discussing more about my class and her experiences I decided to do a little research and here is what I found.

     The Lumbee are the present-day descendants of the Cheraw Tribe and have continuously existed in and around Robeson County since the early part of the eighteenth century.  In 1885, the tribe was recognized as Indian by the State of North Carolina. The tribe has sought full federal recognition from the United States Government since 1888. In 1956, Congress passed the Lumbee Act, which recognized the tribe as Indian. However, the Act withheld the full benefits of federal recognition from the tribe.  Efforts are currently underway to pass federal legislation that grants full recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.  

     On March 7, 1887, Croatan Normal School was established after legislation sponsored by Representative Hamilton McMillan of Robeson County was enacted by the General Assembly of North Carolina. The law, which was in response to a petition from American Indians of the area, established a Board of Trustees and appropriated $500 to be used only for salaries. The school was established to train American Indian teachers.

    A clapboard, two-story building was constructed by local Indians at a site about one mile west of the present location, and the school opened with 15 students and one teacher in the spring of 1888. For many years, the instruction was at the elementary and secondary level, and the first diploma was awarded in 1905.
    The school was moved to its present location in Pembroke, the center of the Indian community, in 1909. The General Assembly changed the name of the institution in 1911 to the Indian Normal School of Robeson County, and again in 1913 to the Cherokee Indian Normal School of Robeson County. In 1926, the Board of Trustees added a two-year normal (teacher training) program beyond high school and phased out elementary instruction. The first ten diplomas were awarded in 1928, when the state accredited the school as a “standard normal school.”
  The first four-year degrees were conferred in 1940. In recognition of its new status, the General Assembly changed the name of the school in 1941 to Pembroke State College for Indians. Between 1939 and 1953, it was the only state-supported four-year college for Indians in the nation.  The scope of the institution was widened in 1943 when non-teaching baccalaureate degrees were added, and, in 1945, when enrollment, previously limited to the Indians of Robeson County, was opened to people from all federally-recognized Indian groups. In 1949, the General Assembly shortened the name to Pembroke State College.
The Board of Trustees approved the admission of white students up to 40 percent of the total enrollment in 1953, and, following the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision, opened the College to all qualified applicants without regard to race in 1954.  In 1969, the General Assembly changed the name again to Pembroke State University and designated the institution a regional university, Three years later, in 1972, the General Assembly established the 16-campus University of North Carolina with Pembroke State University as one of the constituent institutions

Diversity:  Total minority enrollment is 62 percent

American Indian: 15 percent

African American:35 percent

Hispanic:: 5 percent

Asian/Pacific Islander: 2 percent

International Students: 64 International students representing 20 countries


CITATIONS:
Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, History and Culture, http://www.lumbeetribe.com/history--culture
UNC Pembrooke, History of UNC Pembrooke,  http://www.uncp.edu/about-uncp/history

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