Bloggers note: Lumbee is a modern day term. This blog is about Cumbo ancestors whose descendants currently make up the modern Lumbee tribe.
Who are the Lumbees?
The Lumbee Tribe, with over 50,000 members, is the largest Native American tribe in North Carolina and the 9th largest Native American tribe in the United States. Most Lumbees live in Robeson County North Carolina which is located on the state’s border to South Carolina. Tribal headquarters is in Pembroke.
Lumbees are fully Native American by identity and multi-ethnic by genetics. My Lumbee Indian descended DNA matches are anywhere between 5-20% African, 80-95% European and a few percent Native American and/or Asian. These ranges may or may not align with a broader sampling of Lumbee Indian DNA results if it were ever conducted.
There are several theories on the Native American origins of the Lumbee. One is that they descend from Croatan Indians who intermarried with Sir Walter Raleigh’s Lost Colony. Another is that they are Siouan. A third is that they descend from Cherokees who fought in the Tuscarora War of 1711-13 and marched home through Robeson County.
Cumbo is a core Lumbee Indian surname along with Lowery, Berry, Locklear, Sampson, Oxendine, Hunt and others. The origins of Cumbos as Lumbee date back to a man named Gideon Cumbo born in 1702 in VA. The Cumbo ancestors I share with my Lumbee DNA matches likely date back to Virginia in the 1700s. My Cumbo ancestors migrated from Virginia to Northampton County, North Carolina. Theirs migrated from Virginia to Robeson.
Gideon Cumbo’s path from Virginia to North Carolina can be traced primarily through court records. Between 1750-1756 dozens of lawsuits were filed against him in Brunswick VA for unpaid debts. Next we observe in 1758 that he is sued for debt in Cumberland County, North Carolina which borders Robeson.
Gideon’s son Cannon Cumbo, born in 1735, is the first Cumbo to appear in Robeson County records. According to census records he was head of a Robeson County household in 1800 and according to court records he purchased two tracts of land in Robeson in 1802. He had many children. One was Stephen Cumbo who was born around 1758 and who married Sarah Broom. Most of my Cumbo descended Lumbee DNA matches trace their ancestry back to Stephen Cumbo.
A grandson of Stephen Cumbo became a very prominent figure in American and Native American History. Henry Berry Lowery was born to Lumbee Indian Allan Lowery and Mary Polly Cumbo, daughter of Stephen, in 1848 in Robeson. Henry Berry Lowery is considered by many as a pioneer in the fight for civil rights and Native American tribal self-determination. Author Kelvin Ray Oxendine, a direct descendant of Henry Berry Lowery, has written two books on his ancestry – Direct Descendants of Henry Berry Lowery and Seven Generation: Ancestors of the Present Day Lumbee.
Photo of Henry Berry Lowery
What are your family stories of Cumbo ancestors as Lumbee Indians? Please share them with us in the comments section of this blog.
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Seems the Lumbee are by far European and African the native DNA is incidental and too small considering the claimed large size population..the Indian ancestry claims may not be real but a cover up of African or mulatto ancestry…during Jim crow many chose to hide black,mulatto or any African connection in the south.having claimed to be Indians so long many are KO tto ashamed to admit the Indian claimed were false bit this would explain the lack of any Indian language,customs or original place names.sorry Lumbee yall just not real Indians.
Actually, there have been a few Lumbee’s who have DNA tested and all show Native DNA in their sampling along with Native Haplogroup’s too. Yes, there is some white and black ancestry included due to the fact that this Tribe literally started out in the Swamps hiding from Slavers and getting away from white encroachment on their lands. This Tribe also has had several different names over the years but finally settled on Lumbee since they are located along the Lumbar River. Also, in Federal Censuses many of these have been given the identity of Indian( sometimes Croatan, others Cherokee).
Hi! What I’ve uncovered through my research of the Cumbos is that many core Lumbee families — the Lowerys, Locklears, Sampsons, Oxendines, Hunts, etc. — descend from free people of color ancestors who have been multi-ethnic (African, European and Native American) for many generations dating all the way back to 1600s Colonial Virginia. So I’d say ancestors to modern day Lumbee came to the Swamps you reference already quite ethnically diverse.
But as far as you are concerned this guy is Cherokee? http://www.cherokeephoenix.org/Article/Index/4922
Well I match Kelvin Of engine distantly on Gedmatch. And Pulled up his DNA ethnicity. He defiantly have Anerindian DNA also Asian DNA related to Native American such as Altaic Paleo Siberian and Arctic. He says he is Lumber on both sides of his family going back as far as he know. So there is no reason to believe To me Lumbees are not Native American or descended from Native American. Also I have a couple of matches from the PeeDee river area of South and North Carolina who have Native American Haplogroups. There overall admixture was mostly subsaharan African but their direct line paternal side was Qm3 Native American. The Cumbos may have been the ancestor of modern day Lumber but they were not the first living in the area. The town’s along the Lumber River was already established before. And there were Tuscarora and Per Dee and other villages already there.
I will make a correction my smart phone changed my spelling before I realized it. I match Kelvin Oxendine on Gedmatch.
Jim Crow is no more and it’s time to do away with his harmful idealogies for people of color of all shades, ethnicities and backgrounds. I was told I was Native too on both sides of my family. But I didn’t fully make this claim until I did a DNA test. I find out that I am multi-ethnic that including African, but also Irish, Moorish Spain, Turkey, Southeast Asian, Jordanian Arab and more. My dad has a mixed Puerto Rican background. I also see that I am part of the Mexicali tribe and a little Aztec. I see all of this in my DNA, but hey to my surprise, I am also Lumbee and have cousins named Chavis. Genetically I am really Afro-Eurasian. I have adopted names like Afro Latina, Hispanic (which includes African, European, and Native). To many I look like a little of everything that I am but, but to myself and I think and others, I’ve encountered that my Afro-Asian features are the strongest; therefore if I showed up at a Lumbee Pow Wow I would fit right in. I agree it’s pretty odd when someone with blone hair and blue eyes say they are Native American, but I’ve seen many like that say they are. What I am I to do tell them that they aren’t? Maybe they just picked up more European like some of us pick up more African, but that doesn’t mean that mixed people of African background should bury and relive genocide all over again, when many white Americans are fully claiming their Native ancestry. I am Native along with several other ethnicities, I celebrate them all, but mostly being a human created in the “image of God.” Jim Crow promoted how one drop makes a person black, but today here in 2021, I will say that a drop or a few means that the native people are still here and we haven’t all been wiped out. I feel this is something to celebrate. Much blessings to you and all.
For what it’s worth: I had visited Cumbo’s Chapel a couple times on the way down to the Meherrin community near Winton. I asked then chief Earl Pierce if the people down at Cumbo’s Chapel were Indians. His response: “They used to be”. He did not give any further explanation,
Forest, Thanks for the response. I’m guessing that most Cumbo descendants who consider themselves Native American are in Robeson and less so Northampton.
The Cumbos,Lowry’s and all the others were mixed race of black and white; with very little if any Indian. Yes it is a cover up. Many mixed race blacks did this. If they were Indian they would have been listed as so.How come the tribes in the area got recognized,that were not listed as free negroes. I am a descendant of the self named so-called Lumbee and My dad had a DNA test done it had him more black than anything,European and no Native Ancestry; he is a Lowry.
W.P.Lowry, thank you for sharing. What is you Lowry line do you descend from so I can add you to the tree?
Is the ancestry tree we’re anyone can view it? My mom was a Lowry before she was married.
Hi, without an Ancestry membership you can only view your own trees and ones that have been shared with you.
Dove Perry Mothers side
Appa it’s told that she was part of the tribe married Strickland mid 1760 to70 with 10 children one named Allie
My dads side my wife sent my dna to the
Pocahontas study and I had some matches
Just trying to figure or next step
My gedmatch number is a718950
Hello penny my grandmother was a Oxendine her name was Hattie Oxendine but she didn’t use that last name probably for reasons do to the Lowery gang, she was born 1871. Can you share any information you have feel free to call or email phone 352 234 0281 or hermangoodman28@yahoo.com
My mom also was a blood Lowery. But she had my grandmothers married name Monroe. She did not know her father.
Dove Perry Mothers side
Appa it’s told that she was part of the tribe married Strickland mid 1760 to70 with 10 children one named Allie
My dads side my wife sent my dna to the
Pocahontas study and I had some matches
Just trying to figure or next step
My gedmatch number is a718950
I totally agree with you M.P. Lowry. I am a descendant of the Lacewell and Bowens and Blanks. My DNA came back largely African American, and European with 1% Native American. My mother had the test done and she came back a mixture of European, and African American with 8% Native American. It has totally confused me over the years.
I am Hispanic by one grandparent and Lumbee by the other. It’s all good, yes I am mixed because I have Aztec from Mexico too. But I also have African and European ancestry, again it’s all good, that’s who I am. I also have ancient Ethiopian Jewish ancestry which I’m so happy about. I am multi-diverse and I live a multi-diverse lifestyle. Here are the holidays I belong to:
Black History Month
Hispanic Heritage Month
Indigenous Day
West Indian Day Parade
Puerto Rican Day Parade
Cinco de Mayo
St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Jewish Holidays
Lumbee People
My husband and his family are “Lumbee”. However, his DNA testing shows ZERO Native American. His family has all tested African (around 40%) and European. Imagine his shock when he discovered this. His family is in denial. After all the years of quests to be “federally recognized” and all the Indian “Pow Wows”, they just can’t grasp the fact that it was all a cover-up. They just keep saying that the DNA testing is flawed (despite the obviously African physical traits). Perhaps the Lumbees should start learning traditional African dances for their family reunions instead.
Monica, Pleasure to meet you. Yes I address this topic in a follow on post which can be found here – https://cumbofamily.com/?p=344
Check it out and let me know what you think.
Best,
Andre
I understand what you’re saying loud and clear. I wasn’t looking for Lumbee though and never heard of it. I spent my life being Hispanic, but acknowledging my African so more appropriately, Afro Latina. But I’ve been told several times I looked a little Native, told Native is on my mom and dad’s side. I think the Lumbee got in there from my dad’s mom who is linked to the Caribbean but there must have been a migration to Southern United States because she’s born in Georgia, but I have 2nd and 3rd cousins named Chavis. If you asked me a year ago about Lumbees I would have said, “what’s a Lumbee?” So can’t say it’s an abundance of DNA but it’s there. I wasn’t looking for Lumbee, really, Lumbee found me.
I believe I read somewhere there was a chief of a native American tribe in South Carolina during the early 1600s when the Spanish claimed the area. The chief was baptised Catholic and was given the Chavez name later generational descendents spelled the name Chavis.
Fred Williard of the Lost Colony Museum and papers of Francis Drake , state that perhaps 300 Portugeese / Spanish settlers settled with the Lost Colony , perhaps these Sephardic settlers were hiding religious tensions in Europe at the time , that were following the settlers in parts of early America , one could say lost and one could say hiding colony , there are many things hidden in His Story our, Our Story . its possible that the Croatans were Croatians from Dalmatia in Croatia , as Europe was fled from for Hundreds of years due to tensions , New York was settled my many fleeing a Europe in Chaos even until the 1940’s
All my family lines are from Robeson County (Locklear, Oxendines, Lowery, and Dial) and my DNA Testing showed that I was primarily European, 25% Black, and a small degree middle eastern. Now this does not mean that no one or many people in my family were not Native American, but it does prove that I am not prominently Native American today! Now may family strongly protested the results, but they linked me directly to 6 family members who were also tested out of million plus samples, so I think that its pretty solid. From my research, I truly believe that perhaps certain family lines may carry Native American haplogroups, but its silly to believe 50,000 people are genetically prominently native american today. I read an article that described us as a New Race and I like that because it acknowledges all our ancestry and we are probably some of the first mixed raced people of the US.
William, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Though our research paths have been independent from one another, it appears we’ve reached many of the same conclusions. Please let me know if you’ve DNA tested and are on Gedmatch. I’d love to see if we connect. Best, Andre
I am very intrigued with the results of all fore-mentioned ‘family tree’, DNA searches….I grew up in Pembroke, NC, some 75 years ago, believing in the romantic history of the “Lost Colony” as my Smith/Lowry/Locklear lineage – actually, even today I tell that story to strangers as my “Lumbee” explanation!?! I consider it a harmless, if not truly accurate, account of the mixed-blood people that we Lumbee obviously are…My own family is a basket of autumn leaves with skin hues ranging from bleached to freckled to burnt and heads of hair from red corkscrew to midnight plank – basically we are the world! Yea! I fully embrace it and heartily agree with those who say we are an original “New World” race….in essence, isn’t that what the trek to the shores of the unknown world was destined to become!?! Has’t man always been an evolving entity!?! Through man’s inquisitive nature and scientific processing all matter of knowledge/insight will keep life morphing into new ways of being experienced – retreating and turning back isn’t in our nature or future. Having to start over maybe, but surely man isn’t that self-destructive – who knows!?! For today, at this moment, I am happy to have been part of the New World people, taking history forward through my own internal push to new frontiers of exposure for both myself and those who come to know me…
Thank you for sharing this.
Pat,
I have been reading about Lumbee history on the internet. I find it fascinating.
Don’t know if remember me. We were friends in Cary.
I’m thinking Lumbees are a ” New World” race, too. I think part of your lineage comes from the Lost Colony.
You and your mom looked like full blooded Indians. I remember that both of you were very pretty.
Pattie Hanft Hankey
Typical of what a colonizer would say!🙄
There is a notion by some that the south east indians had African ancestry even before european colonization. Could this be why the Lumbee DNA reveals African ancestry?
Hi, thanks for the follow up. To your point, Ivan Van Sertima, in his book They Came Before Columbus, asserts a claim of an African presence in the Americas centuries before Columbus, let’s say between 1,200 and 1,400 AD. Autosomal DNA tests reveal more recent ancestry, say within the last 200-300 years. So Van Sertima’s theory wouldn’t explain the observed levels of African ancestry across Lumbee autosomal DNA testers. Y DNA and mtDNA testing reveals more ancient ancestry. So Van Sertima’s theory could technically explain why, based on Lumbee DNA project results to date, that tested Lumbee populations rarely carry Native American paternal and maternal haplogroups. Hope this helps. I welcome your follow up thoughts on this.
That The Americas NEVER were a NEW WORLD. It was the very ancient homeland of millions of different people, thousands of languages and cultures, and thousands of different native nations!! Its Not New!
Thanks for point out that term as inappropriate. I agree with you. I’ve updated my comment.
There were no Africans in the Americas or the Southwest! The “Theory” is considered pseudoscience, just like the theory that Europeans were in the Americas before Columbus. This is just an excuse to feel like a Non-Immigrant, and for Blacks and Whites to appropriate the Cultural heritage of real Native Native Americans, and steal the acheivements and civilizations of their ancient ancestors. African DNA or European DNA in NAs is a recent phenomonon, and geneticists can tell when both admixtures entered the Native American genomes! Geneticists have tested hundreds of ancient Native American remains from Alaska to Tierra Del Fuego, and none of them have any trace of African or European DNA. These ancestral NA remains are more closely related to the modern NA descendants, and not to Asians, Europeans, or Africans. Those people have an ancient homelands with deep histories, languages and cultures that are the ancestral homelands of you people, there is no reason to try to write yourselves in to the ancient history of Native Americans in the Americas because you people have no deep history in Americas. Native Americans were isolated from other races, so they are the most genetically distant to Africans, and Euros! NAs are a genetically distinct race of people who are descendants of the founding NA population, and descend from 250-500 individual Ancestral Native Americans!
This is a historical and archaeological concern, so I don’t think it’s accurate to characterize Dr. Van Sertima’s theory as pseudoscience. You are correct in pointing out that establishment academics do not accept his writings. Theories of ancient travel between Africa and the Americas, or Europe and the Americas, while not accepted by the mainstream academy, are not implausible — to me at least, so I remain open to exploring them. Additionally I think it’s unreasonable to assume that the motivations of anyone open to the plausibility of the theory is driven by a motivation to simply appropriate Native American culture or accomplishments. This is simply not true. Happy to keep the dialogue going here as long as we assume positive intent with one another.
My grandfather was Harry Lee Cumbo. Last name was changed to Allen. He passed in July of 1965. From what I can tell from some ancestry sites and my tree, he was a direct descendant of Cannon Cumbo Sr. This is all news to me. I grew up thinking my moms maiden name was Allen. I wonder if the change was because of Allen Lowry and or the Jim Crow “one drop” rule? Many were light skinned with light or blue eyes, light brown hair. I’m still learning.
P.s. Lumbee tribe was founded in 1956 by Cannon right? So Cumbo’s were Tuscarora, correct?
Thank you for your blog! I hope to learn more.
Mitch
Hi, yes I believe the Lumbee were established around that time, not by Cannon but likely by some of his descendants. Cannon was born around 1735.
Hi. I have been told that the picture that you have up as Henry Berry Lowry is not really him.
Hi, a direct descendant of HBL who wrote a book on him has confirmed the photo is him.
It’s him
Jim Crow is no more and it’s time to do away with his harmful idealogies for people of color of all shades, ethnicities and backgrounds. I was told I was Native too on both sides of my family. But I didn’t fully make this claim until I did a DNA test. I find out that I am multi-ethnic that including African, but also Irish, Moorish Spain, Turkey, Southeast Asian, Jordanian Arab and more. My dad has a mixed Puerto Rican background. I also see that I am part of the Mexicali tribe and a little Aztec. I see all of this in my DNA, but hey to my surprise, I am also Lumbee and have cousins named Chavis. Genetically I am really Afro-Eurasian. I have adopted names like Afro Latina, Hispanic (which includes African, European, and Native). To many I look like a little of everything that I am but, but to myself and I think and others, I’ve encountered that my Afro-Asian features are the strongest; therefore if I showed up at a Lumbee Pow Wow I would fit right in. I agree it’s pretty odd when someone with blone hair and blue eyes say they are Native American, but I’ve seen many like that say they are. What I am I to do tell them that they aren’t? Maybe they just picked up more European like some of us pick up more African, but that doesn’t mean that mixed people of African background should bury and relive genocide all over again, when many white Americans are fully claiming their Native ancestry. I am Native along with several other ethnicities, I celebrate them all, but mostly being a human created in the “image of God.” Jim Crow promoted how one drop makes a person black, but today here in 2021, I will say that a drop or a few means that the native people are still here and we haven’t all been wiped out. I feel this is something to celebrate. Much blessings to you and all.
I am working on FamilySearch.org and have found that my ancestor was David J. Jacobs who was classified as black and a member of the Lumbee tribe. His daughter was Margaret Susanna Jacobs who was also black and classified as a member of the tribe. Is there any way to confirm this? Do you have any information of the Jacobs? Can you point me to anyone who might?
Quite an interesting website, however many of the posters are confused about DNA testing. DNA is inherited from your parents and grandparents, who also inherited their DNA from their parents and grandparents. And, the DNA you inherit is random. It is entirely plausible to be descended from a Native American and it not show up in your DNA. Siblings have totally different results also. That is why you need multiple family members to test their DNA. What does a Native American look like? There is no single answer and there are almost no pure blooded Native Americans out there. I had a chance to observe this at the New Mexico State Fair about 20 years ago in the Indian Village and the dancing. There were Native Americans who had red and blonde hair, fair skin and freckles, and blue and green eyes. Different tribes have different rules about who can be a member.