The Lumbee Language A Struggle for Recognition

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The Lumbee LanguageA Struggle for Recognition

• Patrick Watkins
• Linguistics 075
• Spring 2006

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Linguistic Features

• Lexical
• ellick coffee w/ sugar
• yerker mischievous child
• headness worst, most outrageous
• sorry in the world badly

• Grammatical
• Bes ? both sing. pl.
• werent regularization
• be for have

Phonological -long i as oi -long i
ungliding before voiceless sounds -ng as nk
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The Modern-Day Lumbee

• The Lumbee are the largest tribe east of the
  Mississippi, 9th largest in the US.
• Live primarily in Robeson county and Lumber River
  area.
• Currently have NO federal recognition as an
  Indian tribe.
• Speak Lumbee Vernacular English
• Struggle economically, partly based on their
  dialect.

Source 2000 US Census. For dataset click here.
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Why Recognition?

• Federal Resources
• -Bureau of Indian Affairs
• -Indian Health Services
• Sovereignty
• Past offences
• -1885 -1911 -1913 -1934 -1965
• Because its right

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The Lumbee Language

• Lumbee is a variant of English
• It has fairly significant Scots-Irish influence
• Why would this be?

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Could this get more complicated?
Native American Language Influence
European American Language Influence
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Lumbee Origins
?
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Paradox of Language Recognition
For the first part of their history, no records
(both of language and of the people) were kept
and they were encouraged to speak English.
WTFGT?
Then once they start having contact with the
federal government, the bureaucrats get on their
case about not being authentic and speaking a
native tongue.
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A Long Legal Battle
Recognized by the State of NC (not officially)
by Congress
1885-88
The identity of the Lumbee is certified by
multiple sources. Are not given recognition.
1913-14
The federal government decides that the Lumbee
are definitively Cheraw. Try to pass bills
declaring such, but they went nowhere. Indian
Reorganization Act passed in 1934 meant there was
an administrative process now for recognition.
1933-34
1956
Though the Lumbee were proven to fit criteria,
their constitution was rejected and they were
denied recognition. Lumbee Act of 1965 was
passed, placing them in recognition purgatory.
STILL IN CONGRESS!!! Courts have been unable to
interpret Lumbee Act. Legislation in 108th and
109th Congresses have gone nowhere.
Present
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Bibliography
Dannenberg, Clare, and Walt Wolfram. The Roots
of Lumbee English. Raleigh North Carolina
Language and Life Project, 1999.
Sider, Gerald. Living Inidan Histories
Lumbee and Tuscarora People in North Carolina.
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Wolfram, Walt, Clare Dannenberg, Stanley Knick,
and Linda Oxendine. Fine in the world Lumbee
language in time and place. Pembroke, NC Museum
of the Native American Resource Center,
UNC-Pembroke, 2002.
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbee
http//www.doi.gov/bia/BIA_PAR_2005_FINAL_02242006
_web.pdf
http//www.geocities.com/bigorrin/lumbee_kids.htm
http//www.lumbeetribe.com/
http//www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/code/Research20Si
tes/robeson/lumbee-articles.htm