PEMBROKE — The Lumbee Tribe’s event commemorating its federal recognition may have physically been within the campus of UNC Pembroke on Saturday. But the celebration, in a way, stretched nationwide.
Members of the tribe and its allies traveled to Pembroke from as far away as Washington state as several thousand enjoyed music, food, a powwow, a drone light show and more during the day-long celebration.
“We came down for this today, because in the history of the tribe, this is historic, this is as big as it gets,” said Ed Sturkey, a member of the Lumbee Tribe who lives in Akron, Ohio. “The fact that the federal government finally did right by the Lumbee is huge. … This finally coming full circle, it’s a great day. My mother’s long gone to heaven, but as an homage to her, my aunts that were all Lumbee — it has a lot more meaning to me than what it started out to be. I enrolled in the tribe and it’s my intention that it’ll be a big part of my life moving forward, my children’s lives, my siblings’ lives.”
While Sturkey spent the day making new friends within the community of his heritage, others said the celebration provided an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, comparing the event to Lumbee Homecoming.
“I’ve really enjoyed being able to socialize and seeing people I haven’t seen in a while, fellowshipping,” said Mary Locklear, of Pembroke. “It’s almost like the Fourth of July.”
“(It’s) community,” said Sharkell Swett, of Pembroke, who wore a t-shirt that said “Lumbee Indian” and had just purchased a leopard-print “575” t-shirt from the Tribe’s merchandise truck. “Seeing people I haven’t seen in a long time, and just looking at everybody’s face knowing that now, celebrating that we’ve been federally recognized, just looking at the smiles on their faces.”
Five months after the tribe’s federal recognition was signed into law on Dec. 18, 2025, the event reinforced the joyous reaction felt by many in tribal territory and beyond.
“It’s been years of sacrifice from our ancestors,” said Mary Locklear, who livestreamed much of the event’s core program at home before coming to campus later in the day. “I feel like we’re standing on their shoulders. It’s a joy, and it’s something that my children and grandchildren can now look to, can look forward. … I think it’s going to provide a lot of opportunities for our people, education, health; I think it’s opened a whole lot of doors.”
“It means maybe we can get some help with education for our young people, and medical help for our elders, things like that is what I’m hoping to get out of this,” said Kevin Locklear, who arrived at UNCP around 8:30 a.m. and stayed past sunset. “The fellowship (is great); everybody coming along, coming around, talking, seeing families and people that we haven’t seen in a long time coming around, getting to meet old friends.”
Sturkey enrolled in the Lumbee Tribe in 2023 after researching his family history and “verifying those stories were true”; his origin in the tribe dates back to his great-grandparents. He and his wife, Daphne, traveled from Ohio to attend Saturday’s celebration.
“All of the people here have been so kind and so welcoming and just embracing us,” Daphne Sturkey said. “Even when he was in the first part of the enrollment, they said ‘welcome home.’ He was super emotional.”
The Christian couple said they enjoyed the gospel music that was part of the celebration, and have discovered how faith-driven the Lumbee culture is.
“The gospel singing, we thoroughly enjoyed, and that intermixed with the powwow, it’s just always, from a heritage standpoint, really moving,” Ed Sturkey said. “I enjoyed those things, and a collard green sandwich.”
The event’s core program featured remarks from five sitting members of U.S. Congress, other federal and state officials, representatives from ally tribes and members of tribal leadership.
“We don’t know all of our ancestors who worked to get us here. But you know what? We’re thankful for them, because they worked to make sure that we got here,” Tribal Chairman John Lowery said. “We had God on our side, we had right on our side and we had justice on our side, and eventually we overcame all of (the opposition).”
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who represents North Carolina and was a major contributor to recognition passing the Senate, presented a frame to the Tribe which includes the document tallying the roll-call vote in the Senate on Dec. 17, 2025, along with a hand-written card with the result of the vote that Tillis read on the Senate floor, and two photos from that day.
The Tribe, in turn, presented Tillis with a blanked handcrafted by a Lumbee artisan as an appreciation for his role in securing federal recognition.
Tillis gave remarks in which he said his only expectation of the Tribe in its new era of recognition is to make him proud.
“Make me proud by making sure you reach behind and you bring forth every tribe that deserves the same respect that you now have,” Tillis said. “Make me proud by creating a story here that’s unlike anyone that’s ever followed recognition, one that provides economic opportunities unlike anything children born in this Lumbee Nation have ever been able to experience before. Make me proud by continuing to serve in the military at disproportionately high numbers because you’re great patriots. And at the end of the day, make me proud by being sure that you care for the least among you.”
As Tillis, who is not running for reelection this year, sees his term come to an end at the end of the year, his documents relating to the Lumbee Fairness Act and federal recognition will be housed in the Jacobson Special Collections Room at UNCP’s Livermore Library.
Others from North Carolina’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Ted Budd and U.S. Reps. Mark Harris, David Rouzer and Tim Moore, also spoke during Saturday’s program, in addition to a video message from Donald Trump Jr.
Harris, whose district includes much of Robeson County including tribal headquarters in Pembroke, said that recognition remained a “focus” each time he visited Robeson County while campaigning or in office.
“You know better than anybody, it’s been through setbacks, through delays, through years of being told to wait — you never gave up. Your elders kept the dream alive. Your families kept the faith. Your leaders kept pushing. And through it all, the Lumbee Tribe never lost sight of what this day would be,” Harris said. “Today we celebrate a victory that was carried across generations. Most importantly, this recognition affirms what the Lumbee people have always known: your story matters. Your culture matters. Your contributions to North Carolina and to the United States of America matter.”
Representatives from the Shinnecock, Caddo and Catawba tribes also spoke, as each showed solidarity with the Lumbee and excitement that its federal recognition became reality.
Bobby Gonzalez, the chairman of Caddo Nation, revealed that as his tribe has been doing research to document histories within some family cemeteries in its territory in Oklahoma, it found an unexpected Lumbee connection in an Exendine Cemetery.
“We never knew where that name came from until we started talking to Ms. Nancy (Strickland Chavis) and the Lumbee,” Gonzalez said. “I found out there was a Lumbee that went to (school) and played football with Jim Thorpe … and the Exendine that played was actually an Oxendine, and that Oxendine was actually a Lumbee who actually went to school with our people. We found out that whole Exendine family comes from the Lumbee.”
State officials, including Lumbee member Pam Brewington Cashwell, state secretary of natural and cultural resources, also gave remarks, and Cashwell read a letter from Gov. Josh Stein. Federal officials from the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, including Jarrod Lowery, a former state representative for Robeson County and the brother of Tribal Chairman John Lowery, also spoke.
The Tribe also recognized several notable individuals, with tribal resolutions honoring Arlinda Locklear, Aaron Thomas and Jarette Sampson, among other recognitions.
“I want to remind us that the Lumbee people did not become a tribe when the federal government recognized us,” Tribal Speaker Alex Baker said. “Federal recognition did not create who we are; it acknowledged what we’ve always known. We have always been an Indian people, and we’ve always had leadership, order, responsibility and self-governance among us.”
The last word belonged to Larry Townsend, a former member of Tribal Council and longtime Lumbee advocate.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” Townsend said. “That’s where we’ve been, folks. We have opportunity now due to the work of Sen. Tillis and others, and our chairman, and the Terry Sanfords, and the Aaron Thomases, and many other people.”
While the program was the centerpiece of the early afternoon, a powwow was held in the late afternoon hours. Colorful regalia filled the arena as numerous individuals danced, played drum songs and chanted as the celebration continued.
Once the sun set over Pembroke, the day concluded with a drone light show, with custom designs that included “Lumbee Tribe,” “The Era of 575,” and an image of Henry Berry Lowrie, among others.
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