By Sarah Nagem
The Lumbee will protect nearly 1,400 acres of wetlands and forest in Robeson County through a first-of-its-kind large land donation to the tribe.
The area known as Camp Island will serve as a place for the tribe’s 60,000 members to reconnect with land their ancestors used for thousands of years, tribal leaders said at a ceremony on Tuesday.
“We have a lot of opportunities for the next generation to get out here—and the next generation and the next generation,” Tribal Chairman John Lowery said.
The project was a collaborative effort. The conservation group Open Space Institute acquired the land with money from a private family foundation and a grant from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act secured by Ducks Unlimited, another conservation organization. OSI then donated the land to the tribe.
“Because of that goodwill, energy, cooperation you all brought to the project, Camp Island will be protected forever,” said Erik Kulleseid, president and chief executive of the Open Space Institute. “I know it is in good hands with the Lumbee tribe.”
This is the first time a large tract of land has been donated to the Lumbee, the largest Native American tribe on the East Coast whose territory includes Robeson, Scotland, Hoke and Cumberland counties.
If the tribe gets full federal recognition, Lowery said, it will ask the U.S. government to put the property in a trust. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum in January directing the Department of the Interior to come up with a plan within 90 days outlining potential paths for the Lumbee to get full federal recognition.
Congress granted the Lumbee partial federal recognition in 1956 but denied the tribe’s right to access all of the benefits for fully recognized tribes, including money for health care and education.
Lowery said the donated land will be used by the tribe’s Boys & Girls Clubs and during summer camps for kids.
“We will protect this land,” he said. “We will preserve this land.”
