Lumbee Tribe

The first startling images of the New World came to Elizabethan England from the watercolor paintings of John White in 1585 (Tucker). No other Englishman had ever painted America. In addition to being the first governor of an English colony in America, White is also grandfather to the first English child born in America. This child, Virginia Dare, is my ancestor. The history of the Lumbee Tribe is characterized by the faithfulness of our forefathers.

Finding the Lost Colony

Raleigh’s plans to establish a permanent colony in the “new world” were beset by hardships. On his second attempt, he arrived too late in the year to plant crops (Dial, 2). When Governor John White left the colony in 1587, to return to England for supplies, he instructed the leaders to move the colony 50 miles inland if needed.  

White was delayed in returning from England due to war with Spain. However, upon his return in 1590, he found no distress signal only the word Croatoan carved in capital letters on a post. White interpreted this as “. . .a certain token of their [the colonists] being at Croatan which is the place where Manteo was born . . .” (p. 4). Manteo was an Indian friendly to the colonists. However, White made a search, but he never found the Englishmen and never saw his granddaughter again.

Croatan Normal School

Fast forward 300 years to 1885: the year the North Carolina Legislature passed an Act recognizing the Indians of Robeson County as a separate race, giving them the name Croatan Indians. This name is a reference to the Indians who befriended “Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony.” The tribe would be rename Lumbee in 1956.

In 1887, the Legislature passed a separate Act establishing a Croatan Normal School for training teachers of the Croatan race to provide public education to Croatan children (Lowery, 98).  This Act named four trustees. James E. Dial, my great, great, grandfather was one of them (p. 99). The school, which would later become the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, would become the oldest college founded by and for Native Americans in the United States.  

Faithfulness is central to understanding God. Hebrews 11 provides the highlights for God’s story through the lives of the protagonists or God’s heroes.  Faith describes the relationship between God and the heroes of faith. 

Faithfulness On Display

Thanks to the faithfulness of men like James E. Dial, we now know the truth about the Lost Colony of Roanoke and the Lumbee Tribe. In a tribute, Clifton Oxendine said at Dial’s funeral, “It was soon learned by all that knew him that he cared more for his reputation as an honest man than he did for the mere praise of mankind” (Locklear). If only we had a watercolor painting of James E. Dial.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance . . . ”

Hebrews 11:13

Copyright © 2020 Chuck Locklear

Also, see What’s Your Calling.